User Reviews

Director Grieco is perhaps best-known for his very last film, the poliziottesco BEAST WITH A GUN (1977), which I own but have yet to watch; however, his earlier career saw him cut his teeth on peplums (I have just recorded his JULIUS CAESAR AGAINST THE PIRATES [1964]!) and espionage stuff (such as the film under review) – but he also helmed an enjoyable superhero flick, FANTASTIC ARGOMAN (1967; which I own, have watched and even reviewed here sometime back), not to mention a Nunsploitationer i.e. THE SINFUL NUNS OF ST. VALENTINE (1974), which I am definitely interested in. Anyway, to get to the matter at hand, this typically convoluted spy thriller is not too bad as these things go; for the record, I had watched Grieco's two Agent 077 efforts and also have PASSWORD: KILL AGENT GORDON (1966; starring ARGOMAN's Roger Browne) in my "To Watch" pile. Incidentally, the male lead of TIFFANY MEMORANDUM (the title being clearly inspired by the star-studded THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM [1966]) is the somewhat beefy and incredibly hirsute(!) Ken Clark – with whom I was mainly familiar through two Mario Bava Westerns – as an American reporter involved in international intrigue in Paris and Berlin; as such, he makes for an adequate protagonist of the lock-jawed variety and who, needless to say, proves irresistible to women throughout (namely heroine Irina Demick and villainess Loredana Nusciak). After four days, the plot of this one has already virtually faded from my memory: I know there's an assassination of a politician, a train wreck, a scene in a casino (the most obvious nod here to the James Bond extravaganzas) and a climax at some factory; an interesting element sees several characters being revealed to be the opposite of what they are: the politician's chauffeur – played by "Euro-Cult" regular Angelo Infanti – betrays him to his rivals (though, not being aware of his identity, the latter take Clark to be him!), the man who passes himself off as would-be criminal mastermind "The Shadow" (actually Hollywood veteran Gregoire Aslan) is really a C.I.A. operative, the cop who ostensibly aids the hero in his investigation is really the politician's murderer, etc. In the end, the film's main asset comes down to Riz Ortolani's lively score which, along with the location shooting and occasional action sequence, is very much par for the course with this type of fare.

Between None But the Lonely Spy, FX 18 Secret Agent, three appearances as Agent 077 Dick Malloy (Agent 077: Mission Bloody Mary, Agent 077: From the Orient with Fury and Special Mission Lady Chaplin) and this movie, Ken Clark is really the John Carradine of Eurospy films.

Here, he stars in a co-production between Italy, France and West Germany about Dick Hallan, a journalist who gets mixed up in the spy game.

Clark's co-star is Irina Demick, who was one of Darryl F. Zanuck's European mistresses who he tried to transform into leading ladies. She's also in the giallo Naked Girl Killed in the Park.

Loredana Nusciak, who was the girlfriend of Diabolikus in Superargo contro Diabolikus, as well as the Django's lover Maria, is Madame Tiffany, who is so important to the plot that she's in the title.

The Tiffany Memorandum was directed by Sergio Grieco, who also was behind the Agent 077 films. Despite how ridiculous and meandering it gets - as most Eurospy films sometimes do - it does have a wonderful Riz Ortolani soundtrack.