Operation Kid Brother / OK Connery (1967)

The degree to which producer Dario Sabatello went to exploit the ‘60s Bond craze cannot be overstated in this Alberto De Martino directed Bondsploitation starring the brother of Sean Connery in the lead role as well as several key actors from the Bond films. Numerous ‘wink wink’ moments abound as a surgeon hypnotist, going by Neil Connery, has his arm twisted into saving the world since his brother, one of the secret service’s best agents, is currently preoccupied, a groan inducing synopsis.

Seeing Lois Maxwell, best known as Moneypenny, do more than flirt with James Bond from behind a desk is very notable, as she gets more to do as an actual field agent, and along with Bernard Lee, also gets more screen time, and supposedly higher pay.

What saves Operation Kid Brother from being just merely a shameful cash-in, however, is that everyone seems a willing participant, and it’s actually pretty damn good. The title song, OK Connery, credited to both film composer greats Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, has to be one of the best Eurospy themes.

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Police Serve the Citizens?, The / La polizia è al servizio del cittadino? (1973)

While The Police Serve the Citizens? is not the best known title in the history of poliziotteschi film, the fact that it is so easily overlooked is not so easily explained. Okay, maybe it is not the most original work in the genre but it is still one of the most gritty, dry and hardboiled of the lot.

As expected there are the obligatory chases involving the familiar green Alfa Romeo Giuliettas and a range of moustache wearing, square-jawed villains. Also the fascistic tough cop with the prepared-to-bend-the-rules meme is represented here by the ever wonderful Enrico Maria Salerno.

Even though The Police Serve the Citizens? would always be overshadowed by crowd-pleasers such as Street Law or Almost Human it is still pure porn to Eurocrime fanatics. The film makes great use of Genova locations, has a minor role for talented Malizia child star Alessandro Momo as the communist son of the commissioner and features a genre-perfect score from Luis Enríquez Bacalov. Romolo Guerrieri, the man behind the Fernando Di Leo penned Young, Violent, Dangerous is in the director chair while serial villain John Steiner plays, as expected, to type.

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Luna / La luna (1979)

As a fine, artistic, work of cinema, Bernardo Bertolucci's Luna is certainly a work worthy of the time of exploitation film fans. It features, after all, a fantastic mainstream supporting role for Eurocrime favourite Tomas Milian. Though, while this work from the director of The Last Emperor may be a little outside of the comfort zone of genre film fans it does feature a child heroin addiction and mom-on-teenage-son incest theme for all those sick puppies out there. It also features Veronica "Martha" Lazar out of The Beyond, the prolific Franco Citti and Fred Gwynne from The Munsters. However, real stars of the film are the American mother and son pairing portrayed by Jill Clayburgh and Matthew Barry who are top notch as the dysfunctional family.

For culture-vultures the score features opera performed by Maria Callas and Plácido Domingo. Mere mortals who are not into that sort of thing may prefer the brief Bee Gees interlude of a disco dancing homage to Saturday Night Fever. That's, after all, in there too.

Despite the themes of the Sins Within the Family variety this cannot be lumped in with the likes of Blue Jeans or Lover Boy any more than Devil in the Flesh can be placed within the sexploitation milieu. It's too good for that. Too stylish, too clever and far too polished.

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Tough to Kill / Duri a morire (1979)

This lame Joe D’Amato men-on-a-mission jungle adventure doesn't have the budget for any rousing action scenes like in the similarly themed Codename Wildgeese. But, at least the redoubtable Donald O’Brien impresses in a sadistic turn as the group’s leader,Major Haggerty, subjecting the men to a tirade of physical and mental abuse along the way. Luc Merenda is too suave to convince as a mercenary and the film’s tone is completely hindered by Stelvio Cipriani’s woefully misplaced disco score. A nice little twist ending briefly brings the film back to life, but, by then, it’s too little too late. For D’Amato completists only.

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