Dick Smart is a womanizing secret agent who is so effective at his job, he gets 1 million dollars per mission as a reward. This time he is after a criminal organization, led by Lady Lister, that has found a way to turn carbon into diamonds - but only during the process of a controlled atomic bomb explosion. His investigation takes him to Rio, along with his nerdy (but still delicious) female assistant. This film pales in comparison to the James Bond outings of its era, but compared to some other 60's Euro-Spy flicks, it fares better. For one thing, it seems to have been made with a considerable budget behind it, allowing for some stunts and explosions completely missing from, say, "New York Calling Superdragon". Richard Wyler is OK in the title role: obviously he doesn't have the screen charisma of Sean Connery, but he is convincing enough in action (though some fight scenes are unnecessarily sped-up, possibly for comic effect). Margaret Lee is at her sexiest in this movie, and plays a pleasingly strong character. The script is kind of sloppy and sometimes the film jumps from scene to scene without much logic, but in this sub-genre, you could do much worse. (**)
4 Reviews
Why let a little thing like the plot get in the way of this much fun?
bensonmum225 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
If you're a fan of far-out Euro-Spy films from the 60s with cool sets and set-pieces, exotic locations, Margaret Lee, groovy music, and over-the-top gadgets, and if the lack of a coherent plot doesn't bother you, then Dick Smart 2.007 is a must see. Actually, I'm not sure if the plot is really all that incoherent or if the audio on my transfer was so bad that I often couldn't tell what was going on. But why let a little thing like the plot get in the way of this much fun? What I did get out of it – Lady Lister (Margaret Lee) has gathered five of the most renowned nuclear scientists in the world and stashed them in her secret, underground Brazilian lair. She has developed a means of converting coal into diamonds using a controlled nuclear explosion. She has a partner in crime, McDiamond, who sees other possibilities for Lady Lister's discovery. The CIA (at least I think it was the CIA) hires part-time super-spy Dick Smart (Richard Wyler) to put a stop to their plans.
I'm still relatively new to the whole Euro-Spy scene, but what I'm quickly discovering is that Margaret Lee is to these movies what Edwige Fenech is to the Giallo (a genre I'm much more familiar with). Any Euro-Spy movie is better simply because Margaret Lee is in it. Unfortunately, in too many of these movies she's little more than eye-candy with nothing much to do. That's not the case here. In Dick Smart 2.007, she's on equal footing with her male co-star. Speaking of her male co-star, Richard Wyler is adequate – not spectacular – just adequate. The rest of the cast was okay with me. Good pace, good action, and a lot of those quirky moments that I just love. I mean how can you not just love a spy movie with a motorcycle that transforms into a little helicopter or a submarine at the push of a button? Unlike some of the other Euro-Spy movies I've seen recently, Dick Smart 2.007 seems to have had a larger budget than normal as evidenced by the bad guy's cool underground secret base and the wonderful travelogue type shots of Brazil. Mario Nascimbene's music is another real highlight. I dare anyone to watch Dick Smart 2.007 and not be humming the music afterward. Finally, I realize these movies might not be for anyone, but I find them incredibly entertaining – bad dubbing and all. A solid 7/10 from me.
I'm still relatively new to the whole Euro-Spy scene, but what I'm quickly discovering is that Margaret Lee is to these movies what Edwige Fenech is to the Giallo (a genre I'm much more familiar with). Any Euro-Spy movie is better simply because Margaret Lee is in it. Unfortunately, in too many of these movies she's little more than eye-candy with nothing much to do. That's not the case here. In Dick Smart 2.007, she's on equal footing with her male co-star. Speaking of her male co-star, Richard Wyler is adequate – not spectacular – just adequate. The rest of the cast was okay with me. Good pace, good action, and a lot of those quirky moments that I just love. I mean how can you not just love a spy movie with a motorcycle that transforms into a little helicopter or a submarine at the push of a button? Unlike some of the other Euro-Spy movies I've seen recently, Dick Smart 2.007 seems to have had a larger budget than normal as evidenced by the bad guy's cool underground secret base and the wonderful travelogue type shots of Brazil. Mario Nascimbene's music is another real highlight. I dare anyone to watch Dick Smart 2.007 and not be humming the music afterward. Finally, I realize these movies might not be for anyone, but I find them incredibly entertaining – bad dubbing and all. A solid 7/10 from me.
Dick Smart
BandSAboutMovies11 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Lady Lister (Margaret Lee, Our Agent Tiger, Agent 077: From the Orient with Fury, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, Secret Agent Super Dragon, Psycho Circus, Slaughter Hotel, Venus In Furs...I could and will go on) has brought together five of the world's best nuclear scientists and locked them up in her underground base. She's followed the lyrics of a Gossip song and begun to turn coal into diamonds. But instead of her fists, like Beth Ditto, she's using a controlled nuclear explosion.
If only there were a secret agent to save us all. Oh, there is. Special Agent 2.007 Dick Smart (Richard Wyler, who was TV's The Man from Interpol). He has plenty of gadgets and lives in a time when getting rid of a veneral disease just meant a prescription.
He's assisted by secretary Jeanine Stafford (Rosana Tapajós, who is also in Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die), who hides her beauty behind thick glasses and pinned up hair, but you know how that goes. She looks just like Stella Stevens in the Matt Helm movie The Silencers and also like how Sharon Tate would look in The Wrecking Crew two days later, so the strange notion of collective intelligence has made me dwell on this movie perhaps longer than I should.
Lister also works with another villain in a wheelchair named McDiamond. I can see why the dude wants more jewels with a nom de plume like that. He also has a voice box, because nothing is scarier than someone with two handicaps coming after you. He and Lister aren't a team for long and he's soon torturing her, which means our playboy protagonist must save her.
Have you ever seen a movie where the hero has an LBW? That's a Locator of Beautiful Women, which beeps whenever a good looking woman walks by. I have no idea why a vagabond fake Bond would need such a thing or the maniac who would make it.
This movie was directed by Franco Prosperi, who started as an assistant to Mario Bava, and eventually made The Throne of Fire, one of my favorite Italian Conan ripoffs ever.
If only there were a secret agent to save us all. Oh, there is. Special Agent 2.007 Dick Smart (Richard Wyler, who was TV's The Man from Interpol). He has plenty of gadgets and lives in a time when getting rid of a veneral disease just meant a prescription.
He's assisted by secretary Jeanine Stafford (Rosana Tapajós, who is also in Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die), who hides her beauty behind thick glasses and pinned up hair, but you know how that goes. She looks just like Stella Stevens in the Matt Helm movie The Silencers and also like how Sharon Tate would look in The Wrecking Crew two days later, so the strange notion of collective intelligence has made me dwell on this movie perhaps longer than I should.
Lister also works with another villain in a wheelchair named McDiamond. I can see why the dude wants more jewels with a nom de plume like that. He also has a voice box, because nothing is scarier than someone with two handicaps coming after you. He and Lister aren't a team for long and he's soon torturing her, which means our playboy protagonist must save her.
Have you ever seen a movie where the hero has an LBW? That's a Locator of Beautiful Women, which beeps whenever a good looking woman walks by. I have no idea why a vagabond fake Bond would need such a thing or the maniac who would make it.
This movie was directed by Franco Prosperi, who started as an assistant to Mario Bava, and eventually made The Throne of Fire, one of my favorite Italian Conan ripoffs ever.
Hard-to-believe gadgets abound in this low-budget Italian spy film.
VideoImports12 March 2001
Well, Frano Prosperi has always been one of those directors whose films fall somewhere between the laudable and the laughable; and, unfortunately, this one must be classified into the latter category. Lady Lorraine Lister, a financer of expensive experiments, has discovered a way to obtain pure diamonds by the means of a radiation device. She hires five renowned scientists to participate in additional experiments regarding this new contrivance. However, it soon happens that the device is stolen, and the scientists mysteriously disappear! Agent Dick Smart is called in by the CIA to track down the scientists and recover the device. With the help of incredible gadgets and lots of bravado, he manages to locate the source of an underground operation in Rio De Janeiro: an operation headed by a mysterious man with a speaking device fastened to his throat. This film does not contain any elements which would make it anything but a routine film. Although it contains a few sparkles, this film is no diamond.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
