Part of the fun of watching Last Plane To Baalbeck is discovering for yourself just who is who. Is Jacques Sernas the agent sent to stop the illicit arms sales to the Middle East? Is Rossana Podesta the drug addicted stewardess out to make a big score? Is George Sanders running the show behind his archaeologist day job? Or is it Yoko Tani, his assistant, who is the real brains behind the operation?
I'll tell you one thing, it ain't Fulco Lulli. He went on to play the rotund beer magnate villain in the lesser Lightning Bolt. Here Lulli's a jolly fellow in the company of Sernas but just who's side is he on exactly? Lulli does things in this movie like shoot seagulls from Sernas's yacht. Not only that, his gunfire turns out to be Morse code! Good thing ammunition is cheap when you have to send long messages.
The true identity of the secret agent isn't revealed until well over an hour into the picture so in the mean time you can enjoy the groovy jazz score by Marcello De Martino, the nice black and white photography of some exotic and ancient Beirut-area locations, and the fun gangster-era lingo of the bad guys like `go fly a kite,' `you heels,' and the ever-popular `you dirty low-down rats.' And don't laugh when a cop tells his men to go over the classifieds in the newspaper for the last two years and see if there's a secret code. They find one!
I'll tell you one thing, it ain't Fulco Lulli. He went on to play the rotund beer magnate villain in the lesser Lightning Bolt. Here Lulli's a jolly fellow in the company of Sernas but just who's side is he on exactly? Lulli does things in this movie like shoot seagulls from Sernas's yacht. Not only that, his gunfire turns out to be Morse code! Good thing ammunition is cheap when you have to send long messages.
The true identity of the secret agent isn't revealed until well over an hour into the picture so in the mean time you can enjoy the groovy jazz score by Marcello De Martino, the nice black and white photography of some exotic and ancient Beirut-area locations, and the fun gangster-era lingo of the bad guys like `go fly a kite,' `you heels,' and the ever-popular `you dirty low-down rats.' And don't laugh when a cop tells his men to go over the classifieds in the newspaper for the last two years and see if there's a secret code. They find one!
