Requiem for a Secret Agent

The film opens in Tangiers, and Agent A139, John O’Brien is whizzing through the streets in a sporty blue convertible. His car is being tailed by a group of thugs in a red and white saloon. O’Brien stops, gets out of his car and walks to the crowded city square. Along the way, he purchases a rug form a street vendor, which he folds over his arm, and discreetly, hides his pistol underneath it. Then he joins a crowd of people who are watching a musical troupe performing. One of the thugs has followed O’Brien and sneaks up behind him. As the music reaches a crescendo, O’Brien fires his discreetly hidden firearm, and the thug slumps to the ground dead. In the commotion, O’Brien disappears into the crowd.

Next we cut to Betty Lou (Maria Granada), who is a strip tease artist. She is performing in front of a projected image of a bullfight. As she removes each layer of clothing, more of the projected image is revealed (as well as her body). At this point, only a few minutes into the film, I can’t help but thinking I have seen these scenes before. Maybe slightly different, but similar none-the-less. The death of the thug as the musical troupe performed, reminded me of the death of Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) in Thunderball. And the projected images (for a spy movie, at least), look no further than Robert Brownjohn’s title sequences for From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. But I’ll talk more about this later.

But back to the synopsis. As the stripper retires backstage, a middle aged man, Felix Bressart (Luis Induni) is waiting for her in her dressing room. Felix showers Betty Lou, who is obviously a lover, with jewellery, before telling her that he has to go away. It appears that Felix has gotten himself into a spot of bother. But before Felix leaves, he has arranged to meet agent O’Brien back at his house. O’Brien turns up at the designated time, but finds the door to the house open, and Felix dead. Before O’Brien can act, the lights go out. An unknown assailant stalks O’Brien as he tries to make it out alive, and as he tries to escape through a window, the assailant guns him down.

Moran, the Section Chief for Intelligence in this part of the world needs a replacement for O’Brien. For his trouble he is assigned a free-lance S.O.B., John Merrill, also known as ‘Bingo’. When we first meet ‘Bingo’ he is in Berlin helping a Professor and his family over ‘the wall’ and into the West. It’s here that Moran meets ‘Bingo’, pays him off, and sends him to Tangiers. After his flight, as he passes through customs, he meets Evelyn (Daniela Bianchi). Foolishly, she is trying to smuggle a pistol into the country. Ever the professional, ‘Bingo’ smuggles it through for her – albeit without her even releasing that he has removed the gun from her. Little does he know that Evelyn is Felix Bressart’s ex-wife, and she has arrived in town to track down his murderer. Naturally enough, their paths cross again later in the film; – the cold-hearted professional, and the naive amateur – it can’t end well! —Teleport-city.com