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Excellent but underrated film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The IMDb-rating (3.0 at the time I write this review) is plain ridiculous, that's why I give this movie a write-up. Of course, it's cheesy and silly but no different from other spy comedies from the 60s, say the Matt Helm flicks. And the production values are much higher; there's good location shooting and beautiful sets, plus good camera work (I watched the wide-screen version). Capable acting there is little, but the pretty female cast makes a bit up for that. The music is nothing special and the movie definitely has some lengths despite the snappy running-time.SPOILERS: The main problem is probably that the "hero" never gets much to do (James Bond would have freed himself in the final act - well, I guess our hero waiting passively for his rescue is part of the spoof but it was a lousy decision, tension-wise). Secondly, the villain organisation, basically a small army of nubile young women aimed at creating a men-free reign, is doomed to fail from the start (in fact, one wonders how it ever got that big) because none of the pretty members, from leader to lowest rung, is able to keep her wits about her when left alone with a healthy male. That's a nice running gag at first but gets simply ridden to death. So overall, it's just a minor B-movie despite the high production values.But if you like other 60s spy comedies (say, Liquidator or the Matt Helm outings), you'll like this one well enough. It's even a valid spoof of early James Bond in many scenes.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) * 1/2 (out of 4) The evil and sadistic Sumuru (Shirley Eaton) builds a group of women who plan on killing all of the men that they can. Agent Nick West (George Nader) and his sidekick (Frankie Avalon) are thrown into the game to try and track her down.THE MILLION EYES OF SUMURU is based on the Sax Rohmer character and story but I must admit that I really didn't care for it. To be honest, I really don't care for any of the movies like this. It seems like after the success of James Bond we got all sorts of lower tier characters and spy stories that were usually pretty to look at but they contained very little else. Movies like this one of even the Dr. Goldfoot movies just never cut it for me.The biggest problem here, and with many of the films, is the fact that there's a lot of boring story that you have to sit through. Another major problem is that this film seems to have been aimed at children because there's certainly no drama or tension in any of the action. There's certainly not too much going on and I have to wonder if even the kids would be entertained by this thing. I'm sure teenagers might have been interested in the beautiful ladies but that's about it.Eaton is good in her role but sadly she just isn't given too much to do. Nader certainly doesn't add anything with his lifeless performance and it seems Avalon was only here to try and bring in whatever remaining fans he had at the time. Klaus Kinski appears towards the middle of the movie and gives it a boost but he's not enough to save the picture.

An anti-male syndicate of beautiful female assassins, headquartered near Hong Kong and led by the no-nonsense, whip-wielding Sumuru, plots international domination by ridding the world of its male leaders; two wisecracking American agents use their masculine charms to save mankind. British production, distributed stateside by AIP, is a fairly tepid adventure with 'humorous' asides. There are some interesting ideas (any woman who betrays Sumuru by falling in love with a man is automatically targeted for extermination), but not enough imagination or excitement. Shirley Eaton is impressive in the title role, and her army is certainly attractive, but puerile George Nader and Frankie Avalon are dead weights on the action. Eaton played Sumuru again in 1969's "The Girl From Rio". *1/2 from ****

No I did not rate this higher than the IMDb norm of 2/10.The only thing going for it was an expensive location in Hong Kong and the chance to see a fleeting glimpse of one of my 1960s pinup film actresses, Krista Nell, who unfortunately gets bumped off on the vengeful orders of Su-Maru (Shirley Eaton of "Goldfinger" fame) in the first reel.The full length film is now available (as at 22/3/14) on youtube.com.Comically there are parts dubbed in German in what was then a British Crown Colony!In the 1960s there were many James Bond spoofs which were in fashion in film circles with Connery lookalikes playing secret agents who had hoards of beautiful female actresses lusting after him.Despite many shots and high body count in the big shootout at the end not one actor showed any sort of wound.Filmed very much tongue-in-cheek with throw away Bond like lines.