Like b-westerns, many 60's European spy films have a number of interchangeable elements--from this film's opening scene of the hero in bed with a lovely lady and getting a phone call from the head of the spy service for whom he works, to the inevitable electronic gadget or invention of some eccentric scientist the intelligence services must protect, to the double-and-triple crosses where we aren't sure who is working for whom until the explanatory denouement. Director Tulio Demicheli was responsible two of my favorite Italian Westerns: THE BIG GUNDOWN with Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian, and GUNMEN OF THE RIO GRANDE with Guy Madison (in GREAT FORM!!!) as Wyatt Earp, and he's effective here although this film does not reach the heights of those two. Brett Halsey is an actor with a lot of charm, and he is perfect for the smirking yet tough role of agent "George Farrell." I won't go into further details except to say that I, unlike the other reviewer, enjoyed the music (the lounge-flavored organ improvisations are Walter Wanderly-like, and there are a few fine bossa-nova pieces worked into the club scenes), and there are some lovely location shots of Lisbon included. If you like this kind of fare, ESPIONAGE IN LISBON is an above-average entry, with a colorful and attractive star. If you don't like dubbed 60's European spy films, you probably wouldn't have read this far already. Check it out if you are a fan of the genre.
4 Reviews
Offbeat, entertaining but sometimes confusing spy thriller
gridoon202417 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
There are some offbeat elements in "Espionage In Lisbon" (like a teenage girl on a bicycle following the leads' car around - turns out she just wanted to deliver a message to the woman; there is also a "bug" who is just that - a flying bug!). There are some confusing elements as well (when Brett Halsey is informed about the case at the beginning, only one female agent - on the same side - is mentioned to him. So when Marilù Tolo appears, as a second female agent, you wonder where she turned up from and how Halsey got that picture of her). Overall it's entertaining spy thriller, a bit more serious than most, despite Halsey's occasional comic asides. Marilù Tolo has a scorching musical number, but I was hoping she would get to off more than one bad guy in total. Fernando Rey is always good value as the villain, and the Lisbon locations are effectively used (the climax is set at an abandoned monastery). If you like the genre, this is worth seeing. **1/2 out of 4.
Jess Franco written...
BandSAboutMovies14 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Jess Franco wrote the script and music for this movie, so between that and me watching over a hundred Eurospy movies in a month, I just had to tackle this. Brett Halsey in the main role? Added bonus.
An international gang pretends to have the means to destroy a small country in thirty seconds. A spy group believes that this could be true, so they set out to take it from them.
This is an unofficial Agent 077 movie, with Halsey (Demonia, The Devil's Honey) as George Farrell and Marilu Tolo (Scorpion with Two Tails, My Dear Killer) as his partner Terry Brown. It also has Erika Blanc, who is familiar to horror fans from roles in A Dragonfly for Each Corpse, Eye of the Cat, The Devil's Nightmare, So Sweet...So Perverse, Kill Baby...Kill! and The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.
Director Tulio Demicheli (who also worked with Federico Aicardi on this) directed Ricco, a movie that takes the crime vengeance genre into very gory territory.
It's not the most exciting spy movie you've ever seen, but if you're trying to see as many of these movies as you can, it has its charms.
An international gang pretends to have the means to destroy a small country in thirty seconds. A spy group believes that this could be true, so they set out to take it from them.
This is an unofficial Agent 077 movie, with Halsey (Demonia, The Devil's Honey) as George Farrell and Marilu Tolo (Scorpion with Two Tails, My Dear Killer) as his partner Terry Brown. It also has Erika Blanc, who is familiar to horror fans from roles in A Dragonfly for Each Corpse, Eye of the Cat, The Devil's Nightmare, So Sweet...So Perverse, Kill Baby...Kill! and The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.
Director Tulio Demicheli (who also worked with Federico Aicardi on this) directed Ricco, a movie that takes the crime vengeance genre into very gory territory.
It's not the most exciting spy movie you've ever seen, but if you're trying to see as many of these movies as you can, it has its charms.
A fun outing with Halsey and Tolo
vjetorix25 November 2002
Brett Halsey is George Farrell, agent 077. (There were at least ten spy films made in the sixties having to do with agent 077, some explicitly titled as such, some not so, that starred several different actors in the role. In this one, someone writes `0-7-7' on a piece of paper during a casino scene. Clue!) Halsey is literally dragged out of bed, where he was entertaining a lady, and sent to Lisbon to find a missing scientist. He never does find him but it's a lot of fun anyway as he and fellow agent Terry Brown (Marilu Tolo) put the pieces of the puzzle together.
The score by Daniel White is pretty bland big band jazz stuff and is sometimes grossly inappropriate to the action, like having organ music as men with guns are chasing our hero. A good score is one thing this film lacks. There are a few gadgets used by both sides, some more successfully pulled off than others.
There's a fun sequence when Tolo finds a dead double agent in her hotel room and Halsey helps her get rid of him by taking him through the raucous party next door. There are some genuine laughs here. We never see the party, only hear it, but an extra treat is the unbilled cameo by George Nader as a drunk who stumbles into the bathroom and mistakes the corpse as a fellow inebriate.
The film runs a bit long, like this review, and culminates in a gun battle with really bad foley effects for the guns used by Halsey and Tolo. Anyway, I recommend this film by director Tulio Demicheli (The Killer Lacks a Name) as a good teaming of Halsey and Tolo despite its shortcomings.
The score by Daniel White is pretty bland big band jazz stuff and is sometimes grossly inappropriate to the action, like having organ music as men with guns are chasing our hero. A good score is one thing this film lacks. There are a few gadgets used by both sides, some more successfully pulled off than others.
There's a fun sequence when Tolo finds a dead double agent in her hotel room and Halsey helps her get rid of him by taking him through the raucous party next door. There are some genuine laughs here. We never see the party, only hear it, but an extra treat is the unbilled cameo by George Nader as a drunk who stumbles into the bathroom and mistakes the corpse as a fellow inebriate.
The film runs a bit long, like this review, and culminates in a gun battle with really bad foley effects for the guns used by Halsey and Tolo. Anyway, I recommend this film by director Tulio Demicheli (The Killer Lacks a Name) as a good teaming of Halsey and Tolo despite its shortcomings.
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