‘Undergo the grasp or be quick-frozen eternally in his cold-storage harem!’
Lightning Bolt is a 1967 motion journey with sci-fi components involving area launches being sabotaged by a madman. It’s extremely by-product of the phenomenally widespread James Bond motion pictures.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti [as Anthony Dawson] (Alien from the Deep; Yor: The Hunter from the Future; Killer Fish; Battle of the Worlds; Citadel of Blood; Horror Citadel) from a screenplay by Alfonso Balcazar and [uncredited] Ernesto Gastaldi and Jose Antonio de la Lorna.
The Seven Movie-Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas-BGA co-production stars Anthony Eisley (Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Bare Kiss), Wandisa Guida, Diana Lorys (Home of Psychotic Girls; Fangs of the Residing Useless) and Folco Lulli.
Plot:
Harry Sennet (Anthony Eisley), the cleverest agent of top-secret Part S, goes to the oceanside to research the common malfunctions of area rockets leaving “the Cape” (presumably Cape Kennedy). The missiles blow up shortly after leaving the launch pads. The offender, whose hideout is a sprawling underwater base close by, is megalomaniac grasp felony Rehte (Folco Lulli). He intends to weaponize the moon along with his laser beams, which he then counts on to blackmail and dominate the Earth. Thus he can not abide anybody else getting a profitable area launch to the moon first.
Assessment:
It’s arduous to imagine that James Bond materials was, if something, much more fever-pitched and over-marketed within the mid-Sixties than it’s right this moment (or any given decade). Italian – and Spanish filmmakers – have been notably responsible on this regard.
Amongst their many, many 007 carbon copies is Lightning Bolt – with plot components reflective of each Thunderball (1965) and You Solely Dwell Twice (1967). For sure, it was filmed at a a lot decrease value. Dare we propose a title change to “The Price range Was Not Sufficient?”
However know this, if you will get previous the grainy inventory footage of precise aerospace launches going flawed and a recurring conceit of utilizing acetylene blow-torches to cross for “laser beams” and different money-savers, there are… just a few… satisfying tidbits right here. If one has nothing higher to observe.
An excellent portion of the primary act occurs in a tropical resort that, we’re given to know, is solely patronised by spies spying on different spies – in different phrases, a number of bikini-clad-beauties-watching poolside alternatives, although Harry Sennet is surprisingly devoted (beneath the circumstances) to his M-type superior/lover, Patricia Flanigan (Diana Lorys). In a element that might have come out of the smarmy, alcohol-tippling “Matt Helm” super-spy spoofs (starring Dean Martin) belched out concurrently by Columbia, Rehte makes use of as his cowl enterprise… a brewery – and it’s by way of his fleet of vehicles with large rotating beer-stein replicas that the villain beams out the digital waves that foul NASA’s steering programs, proper there in plain sight.
Rehte additionally has a morbid freezer of kidnapped scientists and different underlings in suspended animation to be used down the road… possibly. As a result of he has not fairly mastered reviving them, bringing the hostages again to life triggers fast, hideous decay-death, within the method of Poe’s M. Valdemar.
The spare manufacturing design of Rehte’s submarine empire is form of good, not not like what William Cameron Menzies pulled off economically for the sci-fi basic Invaders from Mars (although colored water impersonates volcanic magma, alas). And one would swear that’s the John Philip Legislation costume from Mario Bava’s well-remembered Hazard: Diabolik (additionally 1967) being worn by Rehte’s internal circle of henchmen. B-movie veteran Eisley is suitable within the lead function, benefiting from the truth that each on occasion he will get to say an amusing line.
Better of all, maybe, Harry Sennet by no means returned to darken our screens once more. Although in that very same 12 months of 1967, Margheriti additionally directed (and acted in) the infamous Operation Child Brother, a Bond pastiche that hijacked a number of established 007 supporting-cast members in small roles and enticed Sean Connery’s non-actor brother Neil to take the lead.
Should you dislike the entire Bond hype factor intensely and have been caught within the 12 months 1967, you in all probability gained’t be capable of discover a quantum of solace right here.
Charles Cassady Jr, MOVIES and MANIA
Nations of origin:
Italy
Spain
Authentic titles:
Operazione Goldman – Italy
Operación Goldman – Spain
Technical specs:
1 hour 34 minutes
Mono
Side ratio: 2.35: 1
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