Dean Martin briefly took time off from carousing with the Rat Pack to make this, the first and least worst of the Matt Helm pictures.
Carrying a film on his shoulders alone being plainly beyond him (stuntmen are necessary for anything resembling action), Paramount has bolstered Martin with a first-rate supporting cast and lavish production values (including a score by Elmer Bernstein and photography by Oscar-winning cameraman Burnet Guffey), including outlandish gimmicks like a gun that fires backwards.
Lines like "She's dead! Somebody killed her!!" demonstrate both the calibre of the dialogue and of the fate of most of the succession of big-haired females that Dino leers at during the course of the movie; with memorable but very marginal appearances by Cyd Charisse (who also sings the title song) and Nancy Kovack. Fortunately a red-haired Stella Stevens provides a likeably klutzy female lead ("If you were an Indian, Custer would still be alive") to give you someone to root for when things start getting blown up.
Carrying a film on his shoulders alone being plainly beyond him (stuntmen are necessary for anything resembling action), Paramount has bolstered Martin with a first-rate supporting cast and lavish production values (including a score by Elmer Bernstein and photography by Oscar-winning cameraman Burnet Guffey), including outlandish gimmicks like a gun that fires backwards.
Lines like "She's dead! Somebody killed her!!" demonstrate both the calibre of the dialogue and of the fate of most of the succession of big-haired females that Dino leers at during the course of the movie; with memorable but very marginal appearances by Cyd Charisse (who also sings the title song) and Nancy Kovack. Fortunately a red-haired Stella Stevens provides a likeably klutzy female lead ("If you were an Indian, Custer would still be alive") to give you someone to root for when things start getting blown up.