Some Girls Do

Just how many Bond spoofs were there in the 60s anyway? Flynt, Helm, Drummond. Were there more? Here's the problem. The bona fide Bond films were campy garbage in the first place - with the exception of From Russia With Love (1963). Since there is no way to successfully spoof a spoof, every movie that attempted it comes across as painfully un-funny. When combined with lesser budgets, lesser stars, and lesser stunts, they are a real chore. The only area where the spoofs can hold a candle to the Albert Broccoli Bonds would be the stories. Whatever the original Ian Fleming novels had going for them, the Bond plots as filmed were ridiculous. So at least Some Girls Do keeps it real: subterfuge surrounding the world's first supersonic jetliner. Richard Johnson does fine as the lead, Bulldog Drummond. The women are at least a beautiful as any Bond girls. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. Just don't expect it to make a lasting impression.

I really like the first Johnston Bulldog Drummond film Deadlier Than The Male but this is a much less interesting watch. I think by the time this was made the spy craze must have been ending. This film reminds me of the dafter episodes of The Avengers tv series and Man From Uncle. It is interesting in that it influenced the Mike Myers spy films but not interesting enough I think. The cast is not as good as the first film but frankly the female cast are very pretty but their parts are not as well written.

It's not James Bond. It's not Bulldog Drummond. It's not even Johnny English. It's a poor sequel to 'Deadlier Than The Male' made in 1967, which wasn't that great anyway. It suffers from a lack of Nigel Green, Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina from the previous film and a lackadaisical performance from Richard Johnson as Drummond, who was too good an actor for this sort of thing. The acting is mostly flaccid but I did enjoy Ronnie Stevens as Peregrine Carruthers and Florence Desmond as Lady Manderley but she was in it only briefly alas. Sydne Rome as Flicky was particularly annoying. The forgettable plot had something to do with sabotage, ultrasound and female robots. There probably was a music score but I don't recall any of it. And what some girls did in 'Some Girls Do' I never really understood. Whatever, it's a silly title.

Having revived the Bulldog Drummond character in Deadlier Than the Male, Rank made a further film Some Girls Do. It basically follows the plot of the first film, however where that, though at best mediocre was not unwatchable, this is unspeakably, mind-numbingly bad. Absolutely excruciating.

Silly spy caper and the last in what was an erratic franchise. Richard Johnson plays Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond, an upmarket Bond looking well past his sell-by date. A Dr Evil is killing the scientists working on 'infra- sound' - low frequency waves that can 'kill life very quickly", so if you were wondering where dub reggae came from…The assassins turn out to be killer robots, extremely well disguised as bathing suit babes. This is entirely realistic and on no account should be interpreted as a distraction from the totally lame story. Daliah Lavi is there amongst the cyborgs and lower down the order there's a certain Joanna Lumley credited as 'Robot on a suicide mission', just like the director.