Watch Spy Today, Die Tomorrow For Free

hyped garbage

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

"Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod" is a co-production between several European countries that resulted in this 105-minute movie from 1967, which means that it is over 50 years old already now and was released a few years after the Bond franchise started and it is very obvious that Austrian (frequently trash) writer and director Franz Josef Gottlieb was trying to ride the wave there too. I think this film here would have been even worse in black-and-white, but that's really the only thing positive I can say, color should not be taken for granted for the mid-60s. Completely aside from that, you can see the ambition at times. There are scenes and moments where it is definitely visible that tehy were trying to make an impact and get in memorably different stuff the way you see it in Bond films often too. The problem is these moments end up very awkwardly most of the time and yes the best example is this strange carpet rolling stuff. The talent just wasn't there. It's not a problem for me that the title character takes a long time to appear, the problem is that the presentation of the situation early on is just very shoddy. There are several supporting characters that add pretty much nothing to the film I must say just like the eternal Ralf Wolter. The names of the cast are actually pretty solid, especially Preiss of course and could have made for a far better film. As for Wolter, he is united with Lex Barker (Tarzan) here again like in the Winnetou movies of course and there we have the name of the lead actor again. Barker sure has the looks and maybe also the charisma to compete with some of the Bond actors, but does he have the range and physical acting talent? I am not sure, especially about the latter. But it also cannot be said from this film because honestly, there is no way that Connery or Moore perhaps could have made this script work. The thrown-in catastrophe stuff about the villain has as little attention to detail as Mr. Dynamite's affairs with women. Bond films show us how it is done, but here it all feels only like a cheap copy. Nazzari, who plays the villain, in theory may bring the looks and talent also to be on a level with Robert Davi maybe, but again the story is in the way which eventually makes Bardo Baretti very forgettable. There are moments in this movie that indicate that perhaps they even planned to follow up on this one with a remake, but it may have been a good decision that they did not. By the way, I am writing this review without having read any of Karl-Heinz Günther's stuff this is based on, but I find it shocking that the BND (German intelligence agency) was apparently so strongly involved with the making of this movie and how they really did not manage at all to get in any quality whatsoever and that they even greenlit the film eventually. The best thing you can call it is probably guilty pleasure at times. By the way, this film received a bit of a boost in popularity not too long ago as it was featured on the German successful trash movie series Schlefaz, but that's just a side information. Now back to the film itself, I give it a thumbs-down of course. At that point back then, Germany clearly couldn't do Bond and it is as bad as I thought it was after reading the name Gottlieb as the man in charge. Watch something else instead.

An Italian gangster steals an atomic bomb from the USA (nobody knows how) and wants to return it only for the modest sum of a billion dollars. A German agent (Lex Barker) picks up his trace on a Mediterranean island together with his American colleague (Brad Harris), but they are outnumbered by the villain's army of killers. It takes the help of a mysterious lady to get close to the villain and find out more about his plans.This is advertised by the DVD producers as one of the best German spy thrillers of the 60s, but it is nothing more than a poor man's James Bond based on a dime novel. They were trying hard to be original, for example the eccentric villain plays with his model trains all the time or rolls around on the floor in a carpet (!). But on the other hand, Lex Barker disposes so easily of a dozen gunmen that it becomes a silly spoof, involuntarily. Nice locations in Spain from a time when the coast was not yet invaded by mass tourism.

The title under which I saw this movie ("Spy Today, Die Tomorrow") is much better than the movie itself. Lex Barker plays a CIA agent whose only distinguishing characteristic seems to be the fact that he's a ventriloquist! He is assigned to stop a villain whose only distinguishing characteristic seems to be the fact that he enjoys playing around with model trains. Oh, he also has stolen an atomic bomb and he threatens to drop it somewhere in the USA if they don't pay him one billion dollars. Sounds kind of similar to "Thunderball", and the film does boast OK production values and a good music score, but it's overlong and not too strong on coherence, either. The women have limited roles (as does, surprisingly, third-billed Brad Harris), which is probably another reason why I found this one often boring, which is the last thing a Eurospy entry should be. ** out of 4.

The UK title of this movie is `Die Slowly, You'll Enjoy It More,' a phrase uttered several times during the course of this run-of-the-mill adventure. It's not a very comforting notion and the weak sentiment reflects the bland happenings on display. What saves this film from being a complete waste of time is a cast of recognizable faces and a nice easy listening score by Gianni Marchetti.Lex `Tarzan' Barker is Bob Urban AKA Mr. Dynamite, a German BND agent. Self-assured to the point of parody, Urban has the capacity to escape from even the most unlikely scenarios. No matter how many armed men may surround him, Urban can fight his way to freedom. Either he's some sort of superman or henchman help has reached absurdly low levels. Barker is a likable leading man however and his other spy flicks like Victim Five (64) and Spy Against the World (66) are worth checking out.