O.K. Connery (film)

Cast & Crew
Director:	Alberto De Martino
Producer(s):	Dario Sabatello
Writer(s):	Paolo Levi
Screenplay:	Paolo Levi Frank Walker Stanley Wright Stefano Canzio
Cinematographer:	Gianni Bergamini
Editor:	Otello Colangeli
Music:	Ennio Morricone Bruno Nicolai
Facts & Figures
Distributed By:	Titanus
Released:	November 22, 1967 (Italy)
Running Time:	104 minutes

O.K. Connery (also known variously as Operation Kid Brother and Operation Double 007 etc) is a 1967 Italian spy film directed by Alberto De Martino. The plot involves the brother of the British spy James Bond, played by Neil Connery (the real life brother of the Eon franchise's star Sean) who is obliged to take the lead in foiling a world-domination plot. The film's cast included several actors from the official James Bond film series, Thunderball's Adolfo Celi, From Russia with Love's Daniela Bianchi, Dr. No's Anthony Dawson, and the official M Bernard Lee and Moneypenny Lois Maxwell.

In the sixties through seventies and eighties, the Italian film industry produced a lot of what would be called "mockbusters" nowadays, i.e. imitations which aimed to cash in on the success of Hollywood etc product. The best known example of this phenomenon would be the so called "spaghetti westerns", although many of these are now highly respected in their own right. Other Italian productions such as Starcrash would later do the same with Star Wars. This film essentially tries to do this with the Jame Bond formula, although much of its budget appears to have been spent on getting notable actors rather than production.

Unlike certain non-Eon productions such as Never Say Never Again or the 1967 Casino Royale, the film was not officially licensed from a Fleming novel, and has to work around this fact. What places O.K. Connery above the usual parodies and fan productions is firstly its budget, and secondly the number of notable actors from the official Bond series who appear in it.

The film received generally negative reviews from the New York Times, Variety and the Monthly Film Bulletin with the latter two reviews noting that the film could leave audiences with unintentional laughter at its ineptitude. The film was featured on the film-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993.

Plot

When a legendary British Intelligence (SIS) agent is murdered, fellow agent Miss Maxwell (Lois Maxwell) is sent to find the late spy's girlfriend, Miss Yashuko (Yashuko Yama), who is unwittingly in possession of valuable information. Maxwell discovers that Yashuko is in the care of Dr. Neil Connery, a cosmetic surgeon who uses hypnotism in his practice. Yashuko is kidnapped from a medical conference in Monte Carlo by Maya Rafis (Daniela Bianchi), as part of a plot by Mr. Thayer (Adolfo Celi), code name Beta, of the terrorist organization THANATOS. The Secret Service's Commander Cunningham (Bernard Lee) assigns Connery to find Miss Yashuko.

Connery hypnotises a beautiful girl named Mildred (Agata Flori) to acquire information and discovers that Miss Yashuko is located in a Spanish castle belonging to Lotte Krayendorf (Anne-Marie Noé). Connery rescues Miss Yashuko and obtains critical intelligence. This information leads to the discovery of THANATOS's plan to build a super magnet, powerful enough to turn off all mechanical products from New York to Moscow. The weapon is being assembled in a Moroccan rug factory, where all the employees are blind. Miss Yashuko is murdered by Mildred before revealing any further information. Mildred is then killed by Juan (Franco Giacobini), Connery's aide.

After arriving in Morocco, Connery is invited by Maya Rafis to a party held by Mr. Thayer. During the reception, Connery discovers that Mr. Thayer is planning to assassinate the head of THANATOS, known as Alpha (Anthony Dawson). Connery warns Maya about his discovery as she leads him to the rug factory. Upon entering the factory, Connery realizes that it is actually producing strands of uranium; the employees' blindness prevents them from discovering their dangerous role. Together, Connery and Maya track the uranium shipment to Switzerland, where Mr. Thayer, having failed to assassinate Alpha, has been driving the development of the powerful magnet. Together, with the help of a team of Scottish archers (as firearms are rendered inoperative by the magnet), Connery and Maya almost completely destroy THANATOS. After the completion of the mission, Commander Cunningham comments to Connery, "O.K. Connery! You were almost better than your brother."

Production

O.K. Connery was filmed in Tetuán, Morocco and Spain.

Like many Italian films of the time, it was dubbed in post-production. Unfortunately, Neil Connery was unwell at the time, and so couldn't attend. Thus, instead of Neil's own Scottish accent, which one would expect to be appropriate for the character, we hear him speaking with an American accent instead.

Despite frequent claims of its amateurishness, the film's production involved some notable figures from Italian cinema. For example, Ennio Morricone was involved with the score – he was best known for his work on Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, and later films such as The Mission.

The director Alberto de Martino had also worked with Sergio Leone, and was a personal friend of his. De Martino had also worked alongside the highly respected director Fellini on La Dolce Vita. Most of his "independent" career consisted of mockbusters such as O.K. Connery, notably L'Antichristo (the Antichrist), a knockoff of the Exorcist which managed to outperform Jaws for a week or so in the American box office.

Cast & characters

This list also notes which Eon films the actors appeared in.

• Neil Connery (real life brother of Sean Connery)
• Daniela Bianchi (From Russia with Love)
• Adolfo Celi (Thunderball)
• Agata Flori
• Bernard Lee (various as M)
• Anthony Dawson (Dr. No)
• Lois Maxwell (various as Moneypenny)
• Yachuco Yama (appeared in You Only Live Twice as one of the Bath Girls, credited as Yee-Wah Yang)

Release

The film was released in Italy in 1967. The film was released under alternate titles which included Operation Double 007, Secret Agent 00 and Operation Kid Brother. The film was distributed in the United States by United Artists, the year Sean Connery left the James Bond series.

O.K. Connery was featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 on September 11, 1993 as "Operation Double 007".

Reception

In contemporary reviews, Bosley Crowther writing for The New York Times referred to the film as "a wobbly carbon copy of the James Bond thrillers" Variety described the film as so "unbelievably inept", that "many viewers may find it hilarious fun." The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that O.K. Connery was a "grotesque parody of a parody" noting endless allusions to Neil Connery's brother Sean Connery. The review concluded that "the film as a whole is bad enough to be hysterically funny." The Cleveland Press referred to the film as a "dreary and dismal espionage movie" stating that the film lacked the "flair and skill with which the Bond films are made. The script is laboured, the direction slow and the acting is barely adequate."

In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review noted that "though it's stylishly mounted, the result is a routine Italian spy romp." In an interview in 1996, Lois Maxwell said that Sean Connery, when he learned that she would join the cast, got very angry and started screaming: "You have betrayed me!" and he forgave her when she saved Neil from a fool at the press conference. Neil and Sean did fall out for a while over this film, but happily they were reconciled years later.

Trivia

• We never hear Neil Connery's voice in the film.
• "Kid brother" is an Americanism, and would not normally be used by Scots.
• Lois Maxwell was better paid for this film than some of the Eon productions. She continued to play her role as Miss Moneypenny long after appearing in this. She actually gets more screen time here than in the official series.

References

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at O.K. Connery (film). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with James Bond Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.