Showing posts with label Elke Sommer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elke Sommer. Show all posts
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| Elke Sommer and Richard Johnson |
"You are -- unnatural!"
Trying to tap into the spy craze of the sixties, Deadlier Than the Male took the old character of "Bulldog" Drummond and resuscitated him as insurance agent Hugh Drummond (Richard Johnson), who investigates a number of murders connected to a large and controversial policy. We see in the very first scene that the murderers are two beautiful and sociopathic hit women named Irma (Elke Sommer) and Penelope (Sylva Koscina), who go about their deadly business with earnest professionalism and not the slightest trace of pity. Drummond has a girl-happy nephew named Robert (Steve Carlson), who in one of the more interesting scenes is put in naked bondage by the sexy ladies and then left alone with a ticking time bomb! Despite all the grimness, the movie is light-hearted and quite entertaining. Johnson is fine as the hero, Carlson is handsome and efficient, and the two ladies are delightfully sinister. Nigel Green [Let's Kill Uncle] plays Carl Petersen, who is also involved in the case. A giant mechanical chess set figures in the finale, and the ending is very satisfying. Drummond returned in Some Girls Do.
Verdict: Not exactly a Bond movie but fun. ***.
Roger Sands (Frank Ashmore) is a psychotic who murdered his unloving, self-absorbed mother and while in prison has developed the ability to enter the astral plane, become invisible, and escape. Once out, he runs about strangling women who remind him of his mother and/or who testified against him. Lt. Charles Barrett (Robert Foxworth of Prophecy) is the chief detective on the case, assisted by Holt (Mark Slade); both do a fairly miserable job of protecting the victims, but the killer is highly unusual. The Astral Factor isn't a very good movie, its chief interest being its bizarre C-list cast: Stefanie Powers is Barrett's nutty girlfriend; Elke Sommer is one of the potential victims; Sue Lyon is Sands' mother; Leslie Parrish [Missile to the Moon] and Marianna Hill are two other victims; and Cesare Danova and Percy Rodrigues also have small roles. Elke Sommer [Deadlier Than the Male] actually gives a pretty good account of herself as a nervous lady all alone in a big mansion waiting for Roger to show while the cops stand by. The film meanders terribly but there is some suspense at the end. The scientific/paranormal aspects of the script are pretty much muddled.
Verdict: The poster is much better than the movie. **.