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FOREIGN INTRIGUE
Foreign is a relative term depending on where you are, but Europe was certainly the place to be in the 60's if you were a secret agent. The number of spy films from that period is staggering, but the soundtracks are tough to find (here in the U.S. anyway). Luckily, a bunch have surfaced on CD in the last few years and hopefully, readers will get in touch with info about what's missing.
"Operation Kid Brother" (1967) aka "O. K. Connery", composed by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, and released on CD by Digitmovies starred Sean's little brother Neil, Daniela Bianchi, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Adolfo Celi. It's a great over the top Bond-esque score to an Italian spy spoof that's more fun than most of the Bond flicks after 1969. This release includes both the Italian and English versions of the theme. Click on the image to compare the lyrics.
Daniella Bianchi was a busy little spy after From Russia With Love. Besides "Operation Kid Brother", she co-starred with Stuart Granger in "Requiem For A Secret Agent" (1967), with a groovy score by Piero Umiliani and appeared in...
"Slalom" (1965), with a score by Ennio Morricone on the Dagored label (both on CD). Slalom has also been released on a pricey Japanese CD. It seems to have more tracks, but this may only be because the Dagored release ran several pieces of music together on each of it's 6 tracks. (If anyone has compared the two, please let me know.)
Daniella was also in "Troppo Per Vivre" (1967) with a Francesco De Masi score on the Cam label.
Ken (Attack Of The Giant Leeches) Clark starred in several euro-spy flicks, often as Dick Maloy, agent 077. A partial score to "Agente 077 Dall'Oriente Con Furore" (1965) by Piero Piccioni is paired with his score to "Missione Morte Molo 83" (1965) (not 077), on this Tsunami CD release.
A full score CD for "Missione Morte Molo 83" (1965) was later released on the Verita Note label and is probably the one you'll want to find.
"Mission Bloody Mary" (1965) with a score by Angelo F. Lavagnino and a main theme by Ennio Morricone can be found on this GDM CD release and...
"Operation Lady Chaplin" (1966) by Bruno Nicolai is on the Digitmovies label. Unfortunately, the title theme (performed by Bobby Solo) is lost or destroyed, but was at least released on a 45 in Brazil.
A few more Ken Clark films - An EP from "FX-18 Secret Agent" (1964), by Frank Alamo. This was one in a series of five or six FX-18 films. Others were scored by Georges Van Parys and Michel Magne. (Anyone heard these?).
"The Tiffany Memorandum" (1967), has nine tracks included on this CD of Riz Ortolani scores which also has music from Una Sull'altra and Teresa La Ladra and...
"The Fuller Report" (1969) on CD from BEAT Records with a great score by Armando Trovaioli.
"That Man from Rio" (1964) with a Georges Delerue score on a Kritzerland CD is not Ken Clark, but Jean Paul Belmondo in a fun spy farce.
(These three images provided courtesy of our friends at www.italiansoundtracks.com)
Apparently the Cam label released soundtrack LPs in fairly limited quantities in the 60s making them extremely hard to find. There are also 7-inch versions out there with one or two cuts from the albums that might be easier to find. Three examples of full length LPs would be:
"Balearic Caper" (1966) starring Daniella Bianchi again as well as Harold "Oddjob" Sakata and scored by Benedetto Ghiglia.
"Secret Agent Super Dragon" (1966) also by Ghiglia, starring Ray Danton and...
"Serenade for Two Spies" (1965) by Francesco De Masi,
"Upperseven" (1965) has a nice Bruno Nicolai score with an interesting footnote. The recording of the vocal theme had been lost (of course) so it wasn't included on the soundtrack. However, a great cover version was created using the original instrumental tracks with singer Sabina Montes recreating the vocals. This version is available on the "Our Man In R.O.M.E." Collection, which includes music from several of the Italian spy flicks on this page as well as some Italian crime films.
"Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" (1967) also by Nicolai is on a Soundtrack Listeners Club CD.
"Agente Speciale LK" (1967) is a sort of cult classic directed by Jess Franco, starring Ray Danton, and also scored by Nicolai. Oddly enough, not long after a first CD was released, this second one appeared on the Dagored label with an additional suite of shorter music cues making it the one to get.
"Spy Today, Die Tomorrow" (1967) and "Ragan" (1967) (AKA Devil's Angel) have been released on CD by the GDM label.
"Spy In Your Eye" by Riz Ortolani is on a Saimel label CD.
Colpo Maestro Al Servizio Di Sua Maesta Britannica (aka Masterstroke) (1967), which is really a caper film with spies thrown in has a great Francesco De Masi score.
Mario Nascimbene's score to "Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die" (1966) on the Avanz label is a tough one to find. The film has Mike Connors playing spy in Rio de Janiero accompanied by lots of bossa nova versions of the film's theme.
"Dick Smart 2.007" (1967) on the Hexacord label has more bongos and bossa novas by Nascimbene. Just what being an Italian spy is all about.
"Operation White Shark" (1966) and "Assassination" (1967) are both good scores by Robby Poitevkin on CD on the GDM label.
George Nader starred as FBI agent, Jerry Cotton in a series of German flicks and the wild Peter Thomas music can be found on this 2-CD set, "100% Cotton". Great stuff!
A more recent release, "Jerry Cotton: FBI's Top Man" on the Allscore Media label has 6 unreleased tracks and a couple more from a rare EP. The others are all on the "100% Cotton" soundtrack, but what the hell.
And in case you didn't know, there was a 2010 Jerry Cotton movie in Germany. There was a pop soundtrack CD released with pop tunes, an updated "re-mixed" version of the original theme, and 5 tracks from the score. The actual score by Helmut Zerlett & Christoph Zirngibl arrived later and is a nice action worth tracking down.
Here are some hard to find French EPs from the OSS 117 films. "OSS 117" (1963), "OSS 117 Mission For A Killer" (1965), and "OSS 117 Terror In Tokyo" (1966) (American Titles) There were about seven films in this series and most of them were composed by Michel Magne. Each EP has 4 or 5 tracks from the film.
All the music from these EPs (and a little more) plus Panic in Bangkok (1964) can be found on this great collection of Magne's music for the OSS 117 series put out by Universal in France.
This 2 CD set of Magne's music has the theme to each of the films mentioned above plus music from "The Deadly Decoy" (1962), "The Great Spy Chase" (1964), and the Fantomas (kind of a blue faced Blofeld) films along with many other films he scored.
"OSS 117 - Cairo: Nest Of Spies" (2006), is a send up of the old OSS 117 flicks. The music is just what you'd hope for. (English site)
The sequel, "OSS 117: Lost In Rio" (2009) is out, HOWEVER... it's only available as a digital download! No CD. You can find it on iTunes and Amazon (for two bucks less).
"Alphaville" (1965), aka "Dick Tracy On Mars" and "Tarzan Vs. IBM" was an odd film. It had Eddie Constantine as sometimes detective; sometimes spy Lemmy Caution visiting another planet. There are five tracks on this Paul Misraki collection, which I believe are the same as the original French EP. There is also a collectors CD out there for fans with the full title sequence on CD rom, which you can play in your computer plus a reproduction of the movie poster.
Carlo Savina's "Secret Agent Fireball" (1965) and Teo Usuelli's "Operation Atlantis" (1965) were released on the Cam label, but are only available as digital downloads. I miss having a booklet and CD I can actually hold in my hand, but if it gets more music out there and cuts down on the price, so be it.
"That Man In Istanbul" (1965) had Horst Bucholst playing spy with a nice score by George Garvarentz. On CD on the Harkit label. An alternate version of the love song and one other track are available on this CD collection of Garvarentz film music.
One of the Cinecitta series of CDs, "Jazz In The Movies" has the theme to "Mark Donen Agente Zeta 7" (1966), "Baleari Operazione Oro" (1966), "Intrigo A Los Angeles" (1964), and"F.B.I. Operazione Vipera Gialla" (1966) and possibly some other spy flicks, but my Italian isn't very good. A great collection in any event.
A loungy little jazz theme from Berlino - "Appuntamento Per Le Spie" (1965) (aka Spy In Your Eye) is tucked away on the Salon: Retro Chic CD from Rambling Records.
The George Delerue collection, "Le Polar Selon Georges Delerue" on the Universal label has three tracks from "Pleins Feux Sur Stanislas" (1965) (known as "Killer Spy" in the U.S.)
Several tracks from "Si J'etais Un Espion" (1967) by Serge Gainsbourg can be found on this collection on Universal France.
Ennio Morricone scored "Matchless" (1966) with Patrick O'Neal as a spy who could turn invisible. (Why not?) On LP and a limited edition CD on the Avanz label.
Scacco Internazionale (1968) stars Tab Hunter (and Daniella Bianchi again) as a journalist with good spies and bad spies on his tail. The score by Carlo Rustichelli can only be found on a very rare and pricey LP.
Haven't actually heard this one, but this 7 inch from La Spia Che Viene Dal Mare (1966) has music by Berto Pisano and Nora Orlandi with a vocal by Ella Gaby in Italian.
Franco and Ciccio were in a number of Italian spy parodies including one of the Dr. Goldfoot films and this one, "Due Mafiosi Contro Goldginger"(1965) (Not a misprint. Someone was probably trying to avoid a lawsuit) by Piero Umiliani.