Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is at an ICE (Intelligence & Counter Espionage) facility when he chances to encounter Sheila Sommers (Janice Rule), an agent he had previously worked with. However, she is now a pale reflection of her old self, having suffered an extreme breakdown. MacDonald (James Gregory) explains that she had test piloted an American flying saucer but vanished over Mexico. When she returned, it was in this state and without the saucer. Mac proposes that Matt and Sheila go to Mexico and find out what happened to her and where the saucer is now. Once they arrive in Acapulco, a host of questionable characters are met: there is Quintana (Kurt Kasznar), a brewer of Mexican beer who has a surprising number of thugs and goons in his employ, Francesca (Senta Berger), a spy with a desire to find and kill Ortega, Jose Ortega, a spymaster and central villain who tortured Sheila during her long absence, Nassim, a mysterious Middle Easterner who is always on the periphery and clearly has machinations of his own.
The campiness of this Matt Helm outing is through the roof. Right out the gate, the United States launches a UFO. The UFO is brought down by an anti-gravity ray. The smaller version of the anti-gravity gun is used to pour drinks, unzip ladies' zippers, lift folks into the air, and so forth. We've gone full sci-fi, having repurposed Star Trek props. The brawls are poorly choreographed, the gun battles are embarrassing, the jokes are rarely funny, the slapstick is cringy, and the plot is ludicrous. Sure, it's a comedy but Helm should win not merely because he is supposed to but also because he is the more skilled spy. Nah, he just sort of stumbles about and let's the villains fail around him.
The action is terrible. At one point, Matt rides a motorcycle underwater. Yeah. Oh, when he comes out of the water, there is an alligator in the sidecar. Ha ha. Dean Martin on a green screen was alarmingly unconvincing. One of his stunt doubles had a noticeably receding hairline. Are you even going to make an effort? Maybe that was played for laughs too.
Again, this is trying to be a comedy, but our heroine has suffered torture that turned her hair white and left her skin ghostly pale. Yikes. Then, she is nearly raped and murdered by one of Ortega's goons. Then Ortega himself strips her and likewise tries to rape her. What the hell? Dark!
Skip this one.
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