| Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117 | |
|---|---|
_American_poster.jpg) French theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | André Hunebelle |
| Screenplay by | Pierre Foucaud Jean Halain André Hunebelle |
| Story by | Jean Bruce |
| Produced by | Paul Cadéac |
| Starring | Frederick Stafford Mylène Demongeot Raymond Pellegrin |
| Cinematography | Marcel Grignon |
| Music by | Michel Magne |
Production companies | Da.Ma. Cinematografica Production Artistique Cinématographique Produzioni Cinematografiche Mediterrannee |
| Distributed by | Valoria Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Countries | France Italy |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $20.1 million[1] |
Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117 (released in the United States asOSS 117–Mission for a Killer) is a 1965 French/Italianinternational co-productionEurospyspy-fi film. It was the thirdOSS 117 film directed byAndré Hunebelle and produced byPaul Cadéac.Frederick Stafford made his film debut taking over the role of OSS 117 fromKerwin Mathews.
The film was shot on Brazilian locations and featured action scenes arranged by Hunebelle'sstunt coordinatorClaude Carliez withproduction design byPaul-Louis Boutié. It was based onJean Bruce's 1955 novelDernier quart d'heure his 44th OSS 117 book that was published in English in 1965 under the titleLive Wire (UK) andThe Last Quarter Hour (USA). The American edition featured commentary byPierre Salinger, who was acquainted with Josette Bruce, Jean Bruce's widow.[2] Josette would take up writing OSS 117 novels in 1966.
Secret Agent OSS 117,Colonel Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (Frederick Stafford) has his Alpine ski holiday interrupted to receive a briefing on a series ofsuicide attacks performed by trusted assistants of their targets that they blow up with themselves. Using the cover of a journalist named Hubert Delacroix, de La Bath flies to Brazil to meet his contact Thomas Ellis (Claude Carliez) who believes the killers have been drugged and hypnotised to perform their assassinations.
AtRio de Janeiro, de La Bath is paged over the airport loudspeaker system by a woman who identifies herself as Consuela Moroni (Perrette Pradier), Ellis's assistant. Noticing his being watched by two men who photograph him and Consuela's paging of him over the loudspeaker as a serious breach of secret agent protocol, de La Bath is suspicious. As Consuela takes him to adockyard to meet Ellis, de La Bath takes the keys out of the car and leaves Consuela inside. His instincts are proved correct when he's attacked by three thugs, one who usesbolas as a weapon against him. De La Bath defeats the assassins with martial arts and their own bolas. Seeing the same two men from the airport watching him from a car, he uses aforklift truck to lift their car into the air. Consuela has vanished, but de La Bath has her car and drives to his hotel.
On a car radio he hears that Ellis has been in a serious car accident and hospitalised. As he visits the hospital to see Ellis, he meets Anna-Maria (Mylène Demongeot). She flew Ellis to the hospital after his automobile accident outside her ranch inBahia. An assassin disguised as a Doctor shoots Ellis on the operating table as well as some of the medical staff before OSS 117 throws him out of a window.
Anna-Maria gives OSS 117 Ellis's wallet that contains his address as well as a key ring. He takes Anna-Maria to her house in Rio where she is being watched. Visiting Ellis's address he meets the real Consuela (Annie Anderson) who knows little except that she fears for her life and doesn't have the key to Ellis's safe, however she arranges a meeting the next day with Ellis's associate in Rio near theChrist the Redeemer of the Andes statue.
Returning to his hotel room the false Consuela/phony Moroni is in de La Bath's room and spends the night with him. Still suspicious, de La Bath leaves Consuela in bed as he goes to the toilet, playing a tape recording of him whistling and using the bathroom as he dresses and leaves out the window to reenter the room after the false Conseula has let two thugs in who attempt to kill de La Bath in his bath. De La Bath captures them and leaves all three bound and gagged on his bed. They remain like that until the water from de La Bath's bathtub that is still running floods the bathroom causing a guest below to complain to the management of his being soaked. The three are arrested by the Rio police.
Prior to meeting Ellis's associate Carlos (François Maistre), de la Bath visits Anna-Maria who has been drugged with the suicide attack formula. She attempts to blow them both up with ahand grenade that de la Bath uses to dispatch the two thugs who drugged her.
Carlos has the key to the safe and reveals that what caused Ellis's car "accident" was a friend in the front seat attempting to assassinate him with a hand grenade. Carlos accompanies OSS 117 back to Ellis's apartment where he waits outside to give warning. In the apartment the real Consuela has been murdered by the same two thugs at the airport and dockyard who are attempting to open the safe with anacetylene torch. They use it as aflamethrower to kill de la Bath but he kills them with it. Warned by Carlos of another group of assassins entering the building, de la Bath leaves the torch running filling the room with gas. He ignites it from a window as the group of assassins enter the room.
Finding flowers in Ellis's safe that Ellis discovered to have been used to create the drug, de la Bath and Anne-Marie drive to her home inBahia where another assassination attempt takes place by setting the road they are driving on aflame. Arriving at Anne-Marie's ranch courtesy of the unsuccessful assassin's vehicle, her friend Leandro (Raymond Pellegrin) flies them to the remote region of the Indians who harvest the flowers. They discover the locale is the headquarters of a secret neofascist organisation who wish to take over South America.
The film was the 11th biggest hit of the year in France with admissions of 2,686,432.[3]