Silencers is Golden

The Silencers is the first of the Matt Helm movies, and the only one I've seen. I'll be seeing them all soon enough.

Matt Helm is a private eye and girlie photographer, played by Dean Martin, in this 007 parody. The humor is mostly pretty flat - Take Matt's secretary, Miss Kravezit. When he finds out her first name is Lovey, he asks, "Lovey Kravezit?" She replies, "Yes." That's it. Setup, punchline, but where's the joke?

Well, who cares, when Ms. Kravezit is the lovely Beverly Adams, up to her neck in a bubble bath with Dino? Who got there from his rotating, motorized circular bed, by the way. I think that pretty much defines the genre - movies with circular, rotating beds. Let's see: Kiss Me Deadly, Diabolik, the Austin Powers movies (will someone please check, does the Man of Mystery have a rotating bed? Thanks).

There are at least 4 beautiful women here, some good, some evil, none trustworthy. Cyd Charisse is the best looking, although she has a small role, and she's dressed in a body stocking covered with tassles that look like little swinging penises - a lot for the little lady to overcome.

You also get Victor Buono (from Four for Texas) as a Chinese villain.

My take - if you love Our Man Flint, you'll at least like this. You don't need to see it to fully appreciate Austin Powers, but it helps.

Dino sings a little too much, however.