Someone is smuggling some secret documents out of the country, and
super agent OSS 117 (Ivan Desny) learns from it from a stripper, who
somehow managed to snatch a fake hearing aid from one of her customers and
had to pay with her life for it. It doesn't take OSS 117 long to figure
out the document came from the safe of fellow secret agent and rich
socialite Anthony Lead (Georges Lannes) - which makes him a suspect but
not the culprit yet. OSS 117 and his accomplice Muriel (Magali Noel) are
quick to make the acquaintance of Lead, his new wife Marion (Marie Léa)
and his grown up daughter Anita (Danik Pattison) by posing as a couple of
rich cousins enjoying nothing more than another pointless party. Soon
enough, OSS 117 and Muriel have figured out the baddies (as in: enemy
agents) of the piece as well, a couple with such telling names as Boris
Obarian (Yves Vincent) and Nahedad Sin (Béatrice Arnac) - and while
wastes no time and becomes romantically involved with Boris, all for the
sake of her country of course, OSS 117 turns the heads of not only
Nahedad, but also everyone in Lead's household. And then somebody
sabotages his car brakes. OSS 117 makes it out of the car unscathed but
chooses to play a man on the deathbed for a while, just to lure the
baddies out into the open - which eventually gets his closest accomplice
(André Valmy) killed and Muriel kidnapped. But OSS 117 has the element of
surprise on his side (everybody thinks he's seriously injured, remember?),
and thus he does manage to get somewhere with his investigations. But
then, Lead confesses to him that he has sold the documents to Boris and
then kills himself ... and something doesn't quite click. Ultimately, OSS
117 manages to follow the actual trail back to daughter Anita, who
confesses she's been in it for the money and out of inexperience, and now
it's up to OSS 117 to arrest her - but when he's attacked by Boris and she
saves him by shooting Boris dead, he decides to let her off the hook ...
after all, with her secret agent dad dead she's not likely to handle state
secrets ever again, right? Anyways, in the end, OSS 117 gets the girl -
Muriel that is, who has since manage to free herself from her captors ...
hey, after all she's a secret agent as well, right? The very
first of the movie adaptations of the pulp espionage OSS 117
novels by Jean Bruce, this movie, a rather early example of the Eurospy
subgenre, just doesn't totally cut it: Somehow, the plot has problems
explaining what it's actually about, its characters lack any actual depth,
and the thing is not really well-paced and too obviously underbudgeted.
And despite attempts to the contrary, the film as such lacks irony due to
not so much the screenplay but a lazy execution. Truth to be told, the
film still holds some interest as what it is, an early example of the
Eurospy subgenre. but taken on its own merits, it's rather instantly
forgettable.
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