I never forgot the beautiful Italian actress Christa Nelli (billed here as Krista Nell) when I was 19 in 1965, when she appeared in the ATV tv series, episode one, of "Riviera Police".I even went to the newspaper & magazine library at Colindale in NW London a few years ago, to obtain a photostat of the 30/7/65 issue of TV Times where she appeared as the cover girl advertising the new crime series.
It wasn't until this wonderful web site appeared that I was able to track down other films in which she appeared, in this case "The Beckett Affair" (or affare Beckett L') from 1966.I was immediatly struck by the central character of Rod Cooper played by American, Lang Jeffries and how like Sean Connery he was in looks, intonation, manner and even body language.For once Krista plays a goody girl who works under cover for the cops and looks her ravishing best.The plot is a bit confused to start with but appears to be about a renegade colonel who wants to take over power in Panama hiring Rod Cooper in the belief he is a hit man so he will be able to "bump off" the incumbent president.
Undoubtedly the French & Italian producers were looking to James Bond for inspiration and you must therefore expect heavy dubbing of English from these authentic language soundtracks from most of the players, a bit like the Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti" westerns from the early 1970s.An American video company called, "Something Weird Video" seems to specialise in these European French films of the 1960s and produce their own catalogue where you can peruse these titles.Another I bought was, "Massacre pour une Orgie".This was pretty strong stuff in the mid 1960s but now seems rather innocuous to our 2003 eyes! The budget was certainly a fraction of what Harry Saltzman & Cubby Broccoli lavished on the Bond franchise.It certainly lacks the black humour we've come to expect of James but occasionally I enjoy watching something different from British/American films because of the different Continental direction and conception.I rated it 6/10.
It wasn't until this wonderful web site appeared that I was able to track down other films in which she appeared, in this case "The Beckett Affair" (or affare Beckett L') from 1966.I was immediatly struck by the central character of Rod Cooper played by American, Lang Jeffries and how like Sean Connery he was in looks, intonation, manner and even body language.For once Krista plays a goody girl who works under cover for the cops and looks her ravishing best.The plot is a bit confused to start with but appears to be about a renegade colonel who wants to take over power in Panama hiring Rod Cooper in the belief he is a hit man so he will be able to "bump off" the incumbent president.
Undoubtedly the French & Italian producers were looking to James Bond for inspiration and you must therefore expect heavy dubbing of English from these authentic language soundtracks from most of the players, a bit like the Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti" westerns from the early 1970s.An American video company called, "Something Weird Video" seems to specialise in these European French films of the 1960s and produce their own catalogue where you can peruse these titles.Another I bought was, "Massacre pour une Orgie".This was pretty strong stuff in the mid 1960s but now seems rather innocuous to our 2003 eyes! The budget was certainly a fraction of what Harry Saltzman & Cubby Broccoli lavished on the Bond franchise.It certainly lacks the black humour we've come to expect of James but occasionally I enjoy watching something different from British/American films because of the different Continental direction and conception.I rated it 6/10.