My Favorite Guilty Pleasures on DVD:DEADLIER THAN THE MALE(1967) *** out of **** & SOME GIRLS DO(1969)**1/2 out of ****

DEADLIER THAN THE MALE(1966)*** out of ****Directed by Ralph Thomas Starring Richard Johnson, Sylva Koscina, Elke Sommer, Nigel Green, Suzanna Leigh, Steve Carlson,Virginia North,Justine Lord,Milton Reid,George Pastell Unrated 90 minutes Released by Network Home Video

As a longtime fan of 1960's stylish spy films,especially the early Bond movies of the early sixties,Man From UNCLE films as well as the Flint,Matt Helm and Harry Palmer,I also have the taste for the lower budgeted spy films of that particular era,most particulary the Bulldog Drummond spy films, DEADLIER THAN THE MALE(1966) & SOME GIRLS DO(1969) starring Richard Johnson as the famous private eye/adventurer created by Sapper and produced by Betty E. Box of the DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE comedies of the fifties. The best of the two Drummond films is the first one DEADLIER THAN THE MALE that has Drummond as an insurance investigator trying to find out who is killing rival businessmen using beautiful and lethal women to make their deaths look like accidents.Richard Johnson is very well cast as Bulldog Drummond,especially since he was one of the first choices to be James Bond in DR.NO(1962) but he had to turn down the offer of that role due to an exclusive contract with MGM studios that Johnson had at the time. Johnson is very suave,debonair, witty as well as very athletic in portraying Drummond.Nigel Green is equally well cast as the major villain,Carl Peterson, having portrayed such villainous roles in other classic spy films such as THE IPCRESS FILE(1965) with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer and THE WRECKING CREW (1969) with Dean Martin as Matt Helm.But the icing of this cinematic cake is the two main femme fatales played by Elke Sommer(who appeared in other spy films such as THE PRIZE(1964), THE WRECKING CREW(1969) with Nigel Green again) and one of my favorites, the delectable and sensuous Sylva Koscina (who appeared in such 60's spy films as HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE (1964)with Dirk Bogarde & THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL(1965) with Horst Bucholtz) With a rather appealing cast such as Suzzanna Leigh, Steve Carlson and Virginia North(ABOMINABLE DR.PHIBES & ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE), a crackerjack script by Jimmy Sangster of Hammer Studios fame,great title theme song by the Walker Brothers and excellent direction by Ralph Thomas(HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE),this makes DEADLIER THAN THE MALE one of the most entertaining and fun spy movies of the sixties,especially seeing it in High Definition anamorphic widescreen print as it appears in this DVD collection.

SOME GIRLS DO(1969)**1/2 out of **** Directed by Ralph Thomas Starring Richard Johnson, Daliah Lavi,Sydne Rome,Beba Loncar,Robert Morley,James Villiers,Yutte Stensgarde, Vanessa Howard,Maurice Denham, Adrienne Posta, Ronnie Howard,Joanna Lumley Unrated 90 minutes Released by Network Home Video
After the box office success of the first Drummond spy film DEADLIER THAN THE MALE,both producer Betty E.Box and director Ralph Thomas decided to do an immediate sequel called SOME GIRLS DO (1969) again with Richard Johnson playing the suave and debonair Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond but this time with James Villiers as arch nemesis Carl Peterson( instead of the much better Nigel Green) and with 60's spy sex symbols Daliah Lavi(who appeared in the Matt Helm spy film THE SILENCERS(1966) and the 007 spoof CASINO ROYALE(1967) with David Niven as 007) and Beba Loncar as Peterson's deadliest female assassins. Also Robert Morley as "Miss Mary",Drummond's spy contact, Ronnie Howard as Drummond's bumbling sidekick and Sydne Rome in her first film role as "Flicky" a girl who could work for either side. Also starring as the various femme fatales of Perterson are Bond Girls Joanna Lumley,Yutte Stensgarde and Virginia North who all three were also appearing in the 1969 Bond film ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. The problem with SOME GIRLS DO is that it's plot is virtually a carbon copy pf the script of the first Drummond spy film with Petertson using his lethal girls to kill off the executives of a new supersonic Concorde type aircraft and Drummond' s efforts to stop him.Unfortunately Villiers is a very weak Peterson compared with Nigel Green's performance in the previous film and Lavi & Loncar are not as impressive a duo as Peterson's lethal girls compared with Elke Sommer & Sylva Koscina in the first film.The main culprit is the script which unfortunately wasn't written by Jimmy Sangster who wrote the first one and as a result ,the sequel puts too much emphasis on campy humor and less on convincing action that workes so well in the first film. But by the time SOME GIRLS DO came out in 1969, the spy movie craze was dying out and in it's last legs and that's why this film doesn't have the same luscious production values that DEADLIER THAN THE MALE did. But Johnson is still very effective as Drummond in the film(I really think that Richard Johnson would have made a better James Bond replacement for Connery than George Lazenby) and the film has it's moments without being dull with a great spy score by Charles Blackwell, especially the main title song sung by Les Blackwell who suspiciously sounds like Johnny Mathis! Unfortunately SOME GIRLS DO does not appear in anamorphic widescreen on this DVD and is in a "pan and scan" version

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Both DEADLIER THAN THE MALE & SOME GIRLS DO appear in the Network Home Video Region 2 PAL DVD release in a 2 DVD Disc set.There are numerous DVD extras for DEADLIER THAN THE MALE such as on the set interviews with Richard Johnson, Nigel Green, Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina and Steve Carlson done in 1966when the film was made , as well as two featurettes on the making of DEADLIER THAN THE MALE, two deleted scenes , the theatrical trailer and photo & poster galleries.Unfortunately the SOME GIRLS DO DVD has only the film's theatrical trailer and photos & poster galleries.But for spy movie fans such as myself, I heartfully recommend this double feature DVD of the Bulldog Drummond Spy films of the 1960's