Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966) User Reviews

Two Movies – Half the Entertainment Value

[k_t_t2001 · 4/10 · 4 March 2005]

In the 1960's, during the heyday of the weekend matinée and drive in movie lots, the American movie market burned through film at a truly phenomenal pace. In earlier days, Hollywood had satisfied this need with B Movie quickies: one week wonders pumped out by the now all but dead studio system. Now, in order to satisfy the voracious hunger of the American cinema, film distributors, such as American International Pictures, tapped foreign markets, importing films from Europe and Asia, quickly providing them with an English language soundtrack of sometimes dubious quality and then swiftly firing them into movie houses to fill the ever popular Double Bills.

In the process of converting these films into English, they were often re-scored and edited for content, to remove those dangerous seconds of celluloid that were deemed either too violent or too sexy for American audiences. While this process allowed the distributor to make slight alterations to a film, it remained, essentially, the same movie in the USA as it had been in its country of origin.

Such is not the case with LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO and DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS.

Both films begin with the military leaders of various nations being lured into an explosive, and fatal, kiss by the scantily clad charms of the insidious Dr. Goldfoot's robot girl bombs, and both films end with a climactic confrontation between the forces of good and evil aboard an airborne American jumbo bomber, but the events between produce two very different movies.

DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS stars the popular singer and would-be actor Fabian as well intentioned but barely competent Bill Dexter, an agent of the Security Intelligence Command, or SIC. Though he has been suspended by SIC, Dexter is the only one who realizes the threat posed by Dr. Goldfoot. Assisted by Colonel Benson's gorgeous, but frigid, secretary, Rosanna, ( the anything but frigid Laura Antonelli ) Dexter bumbles his way through various clichéd perils to save NATO's leaders from being blown to bits.

LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO stars the Italian comedy duo of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia as a pair of totally incompetent accidental spies, who, following information from American agent Bill Dexter, manage to track the villainous Dr. Goldfoot to his lair, and then get trapped there by him. Dexter arrives on the scene to rescue the bumbling duo, just in time for the climactic chase and final showdown aboard the bomber.

What both versions share is that neither will ever be mistaken for a great movie comedy. The scripts are weak, the jokes poor and Fabian is attractive, but bland. Then there are Franco and Ciccio. There are no shortage of great Italian directors, singers, actors and composers, but somehow the list of great Italian film comedians is much, much shorter. I suspect that Franco and Ciccio are indicative of the reason why. An even less appealing team than Marty Allen and Steve Rossi in LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS, it is truly frightening to reflect on this duo of barely talented "comedians" being so popular as to star in over one hundred motion pictures.

Surprisingly, then, it is LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO that is the better of the two movies. Without a doubt the best thing about either film is Vincent Price, and his Dr. Goldfoot character is better treated, though barely so, in the Italian release. Because of the increased screen time given to Franco and Ciccio, the Dexter character is presented in a more straightforward manner in his reduced role and comes off the better for it. Lastly, several of the American version's most preposterously bad moments, such as the very poorly done demise of Rosanna's robot double, are wisely not in the Italian cut of the film. The substituted Franco and Ciccio scenes are merely silly, rather than painfully embarrassing.

In watching either version, it is difficult to believe that the director was the great Mario Bava. On the other hand it is, sadly, very easy to believe reports that Bava undertook the job simply to fulfill contractual obligations, and had no great personal investment in the final project. Bava's innovative use of visuals, his mastery of colour and composition, were usually able to overcome the poorer scripts he sometimes had to work with. However LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO displays none of Mario Bava's usual flare, and frankly could have been directed by anyone.

The basic concept of LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO / DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS is an intriguing one; filled with potential. In the hands of talents like Vincent Price and Mario Bava the result should have been a first rate black comedy. Unfortunately the combination of too many other factors, both behind and in front of the camera, diminished the final result into films which are little more than interesting curiosities.

For fans of Mario Bava, Vincent Price or simply for the curious, both films have been made available on home video. DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS was released in a fair pan and scan VHS edition in 1995 as part of MGM's Vincent Price Collection. It is now out of print. LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO was recently released by IIF on DVD in a very nice 1.85:1 widescreen edition.

Starring Vincent Price and a Cast of Idiots

[masercot · 5/10 · 21 April 2012]

I've always said that I'd watch Vincent Price read a phone book. I should emend that statement after watching this movie: I'd watch Vincent Price read a phone book IF he was nowhere near a pair of Italian idiots...

I saw Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, so I knew what to expect; but, any camp enjoyment one could derive from this film was nullified by the idiot doormen/spies who mug their way through every scene like a horrible Jim Carey.

Price plays the role light and talks to the camera through some of the movie. He seems like he's having fun. Fabian's talents might better be used in another movie. His performance made Frankie Avalon look like Lawrence Olivier.

The girls are pretty, fleshy Italian types. There's a lot of them. They explode.

This movie should be seen if you've seen every other movie ever made and you want closure...

Wacky spy spoof that's kind of enjoyable

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 16 June 2010]

A rather bizarre mix of surreal gags, verbal comedy (including some breaking of the fourth wall) and juvenile slapstick (prepare for lots and lots of fast motion), "Dr. Goldfoot And The Girl Bombs" suffers from often shoddy special effects, and Franco Franchi's mugging will not be to everybody's taste, to put it mildly, but it also has its strengths: Vincent Price is far and away the best thing in the film, clearly having a ball with atypical (for him) low comedy, but hitting some high spots as well, through his excellent delivery ("And then there were none!"). The women are beautiful in that still-unsurpassed 1960s way, and they are everywhere you look! The one with the largest role is a young Laura Antonelli, in one of her first films: not only does she have a steamy seduction scene (playing a robot version of her human character), but she also shows a knack for slapstick comedy. I'd say take a chance with this film, even if you don't like it, it's short enough (about 80 minutes) not to take up too much of your time. Funniest bit: the recreation of the classic "mirror sequence" from "Duck Soup". ** out of 4.

Makes the first film look like Citizen Kane

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 27 November 2012]

The first movie was not what I call a good movie, but it did have a certain campiness and fun to it. This sequel however is just a weird mess in almost every way. The only redeeming qualities were the beautiful girls and especially Vincent Price's more expanded and deliciously arch performance. In regard to Price, Dr Gooldfoot and the Girl Bombs is arguably his worst film(though Green Hell and Story of Mankind are just as poor as well) but he being Price looks as though he was at least he was enjoying himself, though I read somewhere that that wasn't the case. Nothing else however works. The production values look as though that each one came from different films altogether, and it looks cheap, further disadvantaged by some very haphazard editing. In regards to the score, I am going to take a guess and say that the film at some point was re-scored. If that was the case, it didn't work as the music doesn't fit the film at all. The script is poor, with the comedy very ill-judged and everything else has a very overly-corny tone. The story feels padded, and has nothing surprising or exciting. Mario Bava's direction indicates that he was completely out of his depth, because he directs as though he didn't have a clue of what he was doing. Apart from Price, the acting is terrible. Fabian is really bland and looks lost, but what truly sinks Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is the double act Ciccio and Franco, mugging and grimacing with no charm, genuine comic timing or grace whatsoever. The pratfalls they do here are also hopelessly contrived. All in all, a weird and disappointingly messy film that makes the heavily flawed but somewhat entertaining first film look like Citizen Kane. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Worse than you could imagine

[LCShackley · 3/10 · 20 September 2011]

My wife will be happy to tell you that I watch a lot of bad movies, but usually in the genre of "so bad that they're good." The first movie in this series fell into that category, but this sequel moved the "bad" needle way past the "camp" point to the point of no return.

The plot is paper-thin, the dubbing is awful, the sets, rear projections, models, and special effects are grade-school level, and most of the actors are unbearable. The "funny" Italian duo (who I guess were big Italian stars...the short one reminds me vaguely of Larry Storch) never even APPROACH funny, especially with their dubbed voices. (Why do bad movies like this always use voice actors who use cartoon voices rather than normal speech?) You know the movie is in trouble when the director calls for sped-up action (a la Benny Hill).

Vincent Price, who would do anything for money, floats above the cesspool to some degree, especially when he's hamming it up straight to the camera. The other saving feature is Les Baxter's generic 60s score, with whiffs of the Tijuana Brass. If you survive to the end, you'll hear one of the worst closing themes since "The Green Slime."

An Italian Slapstick Comedy Lacking any Humor

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 29 April 2016]

Although his car plunges over a cliff at the end of the previous movie, "Dr. Goldfoot" (Vincent Price) does not die. Instead he reappears in this sequel and begins using female robots with bombs attached to them to blow up NATO generals all over the world. His goal is to start a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact so that he and his Chinese partners can take over the world. Fortunately, a disgraced agent for S.I.C. (Security Intelligence Command) by the name of "Bill Dexter" (Fabian) recognizes something sinister is afoot and with the help of a young woman named "Rosanna" (Laura Antonelli) sets out to investigate the matter. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I didn't particularly care for this movie for a number of reasons. First of all, for a comedy it just wasn't that funny with the two bumbling Italian agents "Franco" (Franco Franchi) and "Ciccio" (Ciccio Ingrassia) being especially annoying. Likewise, the script was equally horrid as well. To make matters even worse, although this movie proudly boasted of having a number of sexy, young ladies in skimpy bikinis, only Moa Tahi (as "Hardjob") and the aforementioned Laura Antonelli were even remotely attractive. In short, this movie turned out to be a very poor sequel and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Dr. Goldfoot vs. the Buffoons

[Bogmeister · 3/10 · 10 May 2008]

MASTER PLAN: blow up key U.S. generals with booby-trapped girl robots. The diabolical Dr. Goldfoot is back, in this sequel to "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine"(65). No lie! How they talked Vincent Price into this, I'm not sure, though he was already hamming it up in the previous movie. Here he's joined by a couple of comics who were Italy's answer to Abbott & Costello. Teen heartthrob Fabian replaces teen heartthrob Frankie Avalon as an agent of S.I.C., oh, yes! Rather than simple theft, which he indulged in previously, here Goldfoot teams with the Chinese for probable world domination (those dastardly Chinese - see also "Battle Beneath the Earth" which came out around the same time). Goldfoot explains all this by speaking directly to the audience, breaking that 4th wall. He still uses a machine which manufactures female robots, all dressed in golden bathing suits and boots, which he sends to kiss various generals; an intense enough smooch sets off an explosion. The only general left standing is Goldfoot's double. All this is kind of incidental; the main plot has the two main leads/buffoons improbably/accidentally join up with S.I.C. as agents.

Goldfoot, of course, is a broad parody of the outrageous villains from the James Bond films. He has a swimming pool of killer fish, probably something like piranha, so, every now and then, a skeleton turns up, freshly cleaned. This also copies "Our Man Flint" a bit, with the latest IBM computer (Rita) sabotaged by Goldfoot when it selects the best agents for the job. The two comedians are not very subtle, with over-the-top mugging, and a lot of the action is sped up (undercranked) to give it that slapstick silent comedy feeling. Otherwise, much of the humor falls flat, though it does pick up near the end. I've written that the previous Goldfoot movie was the most ridiculous parody of the Bond craze, but this Italian take on the whole thing takes it to yet another level. The final half-hour gives a new meaning to the term 'absurdity,' involving a balloon trip by the heroes which touches off of heaven at one point and then chases down a supersonic jet plane! Laura Antonelli figures prominently in these last few scenes; she became a somewhat famous sex symbol in Italian sex farces in the seventies. My DVD version was in Italian, with optional English subtitles. Heroes:3 Villain:4 Femme Fatales:5 Henchmen:2 Fights:2 Stunts/Chases:3 Gadgets:3 Auto:2 Locations:3 Pace:3 overall:3

The only time Bava and Price worked together

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 6 April 2020]

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is an odd film. This 1966 Eurospy parody is at once a sequel to two different movies that have nothing in common: Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger.

Fulvio Lucisano, the head of Italian International Film, wanted a sequel to his film. American-International Pictures wanted a sequel to theirs. They got their chocolate into one another's peanut butter and co-financed this movie.

That disparity continues the whole way through the two different versions. In America, the main story is about Vincent Price's Dr. Goldfoot battling against Fabian. Yet in Italy, the film has a different title (Le Spie Vengono dal Semifreddo, which means The Spies Who Came In from the Cool, a parody of 1965's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It also concentrates more on the antics of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. Together, they appeared in 116 films, usually as the main characters, and are the most famous Italian comedy team of all time.

Despite being blown up real good at the end of the last movie, Dr. Goldfoot is working alongside the Chinese, making exploding female robots - Mike Myers owes this movie money - when he's not impersonating a NATO general. Our hero is Security Intelligence Command agent Bill Dexter (Fabian!) who is too busy chasing women to save the world most of the time.

One of his conquests, Roseanna, is played by Laura Antonelli, who was Wanda in Venus In Furs. George Wang, who came to Italy by way of Shanghai to star in plenty of spaghetti westerns, is also here, as is former boxer Ennio Antonelli (he's also in the spy films Danger: Diabolik, Matchless and Agent 3S3: Massacre in the Sun.

Amazingly, this movie is directed by Mario Bava. He had no interest in the film, but he had a contract with Lucisano. The script changed nine times, people argued over the right women for each shot and even Price would say, that this movie was "the most dreadful movie I've ever been in. Just about everything that could go wrong, did."

That's right. The only time Bava would work with Price and we ended up with...this. Oh well. What can you do?

What were they thinking?

[BlackArt · 6 April 1999]

This is the second Dr. Goldfoot movie. What can I say about this film? It is a second rate sequel. Instead of Frankie Avalon, they got Fabian. The film was shot in Italy with a couple of goofy Italian comics. This one was played more for laughs. (Not that they got them.) Vincent Price is the ONLY reason to see this film. He has alot of gleeful fun as the evil doctor.

The final chase scene takes place in an Italian amusement park and is reminicent of an H.R. Puffinstuff episode. Lots of running around and unneccesary amusement park rides.

Fans of Austin Powers and/or Vincent Price will want to see this. Everyone else might be warned to see better films.

So Bad It's Good

[EmperorNortonII · 6/10 · 1 December 2000]

The 1960's produced a lot of silly movies. This is one of the farces that centers around girls in bikinis. It has its moments that are just plain silly, like its segment that resembles the silent movies. But I consider it a nice little piece of cheese.

Bava and Price combine to make a double career worst!

[The_Void · 3/10 · 19 June 2008]

Mario Bava is one of my all time favourite directors, and Vincent Price is one of my all time favourite actors; so despite the fact that I didn't like Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine at all, I still felt almost as if catching this needless sequel was a duty I had to fulfil. Before making this film, Bava had already directed a number of classics including Black Sabbath, Black Sunday and The Whip and The Body, while Vincent Price had completed his work on Roger Corman's Poe Anthology along with several other classic films. I can only assume, therefore, that the pair had decided to take a break from making good films as this is a million miles away from the best that the two men can do! Well, either that or they both just wanted to spend some time with scantily clad ladies, and I can't really blame them if that was the case! Anyway, the plot has something to do with dubious 'assassin' Dr Goldfoot building an army of robot bombs that look like pretty girls (will be familiar to Austin Powers fans!), and he uses them to eliminate some of Nato's world leaders...or something.

Mario Bava's best work was in the horror genre and as such a lot of what I like about his directorial style is relative to the genre; but he has proved on many occasions that he's capable of delivering good films in other genres, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise based on this film! There is a lot of nonsense happening in the movie and this undoubtedly distracts from the directing; but it's clear that Bava wasn't really trying. What a shame that this is the only film he and the great Vincent Price made together! The film was obviously intended to be funny; but all the humour if of the very goofy variety and I honestly did not laugh even once during the film. At a struggle, I could only really think of two good things to say about this film; one is that Vincent Price is entertaining (although he could read out a recipe book and it would be entertaining) and the other is that some of the girls featured are nice to look at. The first Dr Goldfoot film was terrible, and this one is worse. They couldn't even think of a catchy jingle to go over the title sequence! I wouldn't recommend this movie to even hardcore Bava and Price fans...

Watch before criticizing......

[Striker-7 · 10/10 · 1 May 1999]

Only the Italians can fully comprise the comicity one of Franco and Ciccio. I think that this movie, like all the others of the mythical duo, has been 30 years ago a lot ahead like ideas and it doesn't have nothing to envy to other comic movies.

Better than IMDB ratings suggest.

[rdoubleoc · 6/10 · 17 August 2020]

I watched The Amazing Dr G, and this, and this was WAY better and much more watchable (IDG was really bad quality, and only available on Tubi TV).

This was actually really well-preserved, and in my opinion, gives a nice glimpse of 1960s-70s American cinema which was then getting movies from overseas more than before.

It really gives the Austin powers vibe, but you can tell they didn't think they were making a cheap movie (in all fairness, at the time this movie was probably pretty good in terms of production quality, especially for a parody/spoof).

It's not bad, but if you like cult films and old movies you'll probably like this, even if just out of interest to see what it is.

Masochist's Delight Or, The Worst Comedy Ever Made In Italy

[carolsco · 1/10 · 17 January 2000]

Mario Bava made many GREAT movies in his career, but this isn't one of them! This film is horrible -- the script stinks, the photography is bad (very unusual for Bava) and the staging of scenes is inept -- there is nothing good about this film.

I usually defend composer Les Baxter, but his score is also rotten, and the original Italian music is even worse... And finally, can there be a worse comedy duo than Franco & Ciccio? Not in this universe!

I love Bava, but this movie is almost unwatchable

[bensonmum2 · 2/10 · 18 April 2008]

Mario Bava is responsible for some of my all-time favorite movies. Black Sunday, Kill Baby…Kill, Danger: Diabolik, Black Sabbath, and Blood and Black Lace are all in my top 100. I guess you could call me a Bava fanboy. As far as I'm concerned, Mario Bava was a genius and one of the greatest directors ever. I even love the movie that Bava considered his worst – Five Dolls for an August Moon. However, if he thought of Five Dolls for an August Moon as his worst then (as I wrote in my comment for that movie) "I guess Bava never had the misfortune of watching his movie Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs". I take it that there are some difference between the Italian version and the American version, but I doubt they'd change my opinion much. Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is just that – a complete and utter BOMB of a movie. Other than Vincent Price's gleeful performance as Dr. Goldfoot, I can't think of another positive thing to mention. The plot is ridiculous. The acting is abysmal. The comedy, especially on the part of the two Italian buffoons Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia (maybe it's a cultural thing), isn't funny at all. The music is terrible. The final chase scene is noteworthy for being just so incredibly stupid. And there are none of the Bava directorial trademarks or flourishes that I've come enjoy. And to top it all off, the dubbing is simply atrocious. I normally don't complain too much about dubbing, but in this case the whole movie has a hollow, staged sound to it. In the end, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is so bad that it makes Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (the first of the two Goldfoot movies) look like a masterpiece of cinema (which it most definitely isn't). As much as I hate to do it, I've got to give this Mario Bava film a 2/10.

Gruelling

[Frightening_Uncle_Joe · 1/10 · 5 February 2006]

Seeing this put me in a bad mood for the rest of the night. That's not a good thing for a comedy to do.

I'd be interested to see the US release of this, which I understand features a lot less of Franco and Ciccio. However, so far I've only managed the Italian cut, which regrettably is unspeakable, incomprehensible nonsense from start to finish.

There is one, and only one, good joke, a British general who speaks terrible Italian with an incredibly thick and somewhat camp English accent, and that's your lot. Even the normally reliable Vincent Price phones it in.

Bava can work cinematic miracles with high-camp sixties silliness - see "Danger: Diabolik" - but this is among the very worst films I have ever seen. Imagine a strange alternate universe where, having suffered a dreadful head injury, a demented Benny Hill sees out his twilight years directing feature-length episodes of "Chucklevision" and you'd be about there.

An awful sequel to an awful movie. Fans of Vincent Price and Mario Bava should avoid.

[Infofreak · 24 May 2003]

The first Dr. Goldfoot movie seemed like a lot of fun in theory - a campy, spy spoof starring horror legend Vincent Price as a mad scientist with an army of beautiful female robots. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to expectations. It's pretty awful, and REALLY unfunny. This sequel, believe it or not, is even worse. To add insult to injury it was directed by the (usually) brilliant Mario Bava, and released in the same year as his classic shocker 'Kill, Baby...Kill!' What went wrong exactly is hard to say but EVERYTHING about this movie stinks. Price really plays it for laughs but the script is rotten. Instead of Frankie Avalon, this time around it's Fabian. And most of the "comedy" is supplied by a couple of atrocious Italian comedians called Franco and Ciccio. Man, they are just SO bad, you won't believe it! The only thing that stopped me from switching this garbage off was perving at the gorgeous Laura Antonelli, who I had previously seen in Massimo Dallamano's 'Venus In Furs', which I highly recommend. 'Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs' is an all time low for Mario Bava, and the worst movie I've ever seen Vincent Price appear in. It's an awful sequel to an awful movie, and my advice is AVOID.

Worse Than the First One, Even With Mario Bava Directing

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 16 May 2010]

Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) has a new plan for world domination: he is going to send beautiful women after military men... except that when kissed, these women explode! He has also relocated to Italy, though this does nothing to stop SIC from tracking him down.

You can read pretty much any review or look at the rating on IMDb and you will get the idea that this is a bad film. Now, I do not think it is as bad as most people do, but I do accept a number of things: it is not as funny, the continuity from the first film makes little sense, Goldfoot keeps breaking the fourth wall for some reason, and Mario Bava is better than this.

Really, all you have is everything from the first film toned down a few notches. And as much as I enjoyed the first one, it is not really what one might call a great film. What made it work (besides Price) was Susan Hart, so without her the sequel was not going to be as good no matter what you did. Throwing in two bungling, unfunny Italian comics does not make it okay.

Troy Howarth has written a fine overview of the film (which he rightly calls "a mess") and reviewed it. His words are worth quoting. With regards to Price, Howarth thinks "this sort of material is quite beneath his talents. All told, this film represents an all-time low for both Price and Bava." I am inclined to agree.

According to Howarth, Bava "had no enthusiasm for the project and tried to pull out of it" but he was "under contract for one more film". The biggest problem, among many, was that the project "was to be edited into two completely different films" and the "American version, widely hailed as a bomb, is not the work of Mario Bava, as it was re-written, re-scored and re-edited without his participation". I have not seen the Italian version, but it is not rumored to be any better.

If you liked the first Goldfoot, I would recommend giving this one a chance, as long as you are aware that the American version is a sequel to this while the Italian version is a sequel to an Italian film, and both were cut from the same film. Despite all this it still makes sense, but the quality is understandably bad.

"You think it's easy to take over the world?"

[classicsoncall · 3/10 · 19 January 2015]

At least a couple of Sixties teen heart throbs had the good sense not to venture into the sequel to "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine". Can you just picture Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman conspiring to turn this over to buddy Fabian? He's probably still kicking himself.

However nothing must have scared Vincent Price, an actor who spent a good deal of his own time scaring movie audiences with stuff like "House on Haunted Hill" and "Tales of Terror". In it's own way, I guess 'Girl Bombs' is scary too; once you see it you'll be clawing the walls for a week until your nervous system settles down.

As bad as the first movie was, if you were paying attention you might have been amused by the Annette Funicello and Harvey Lembeck cameos, and a handful of sight gags that made the effort a little bit of fun. With those two Italian goofballs Franco and Ciccio, this was just tedious. But you know what - I gave it a shot. Having slogged my way through the picture, I can be confidently assured that for the rest of my life, I'll never have to see it again.

Bomb is right....

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 17 August 2016]

No sooner had I given a praise to the sweet natured farce, "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine", along came this, the first of many unnecessary sequels that lead to fiasco's in the future like "Exorcist II: The heretic", "Grease II" and "Airplane II". I am aware that the first film left the door open for a follow up, but it's too bad that they basically just watched Saturday morning cartoons for inspiration rather than come up with anything clever.

Back and as bad as ever, buffoonish evil scientist Vincent Price wants to take over the world, and he's about as likely to as Snidely Whiplash or Boris Badinov. Rather than fighting Frankie Avalon, he's after Fabian this time, hiding out in Europe and ten times as Looney as before. It's obvious from the start that this is going to be a fiasco, for even as silly as the first one was, it had charm and cleverness in its idiocy. This just screams juvenile and amateur with stupid Italian sidekicks for Fabian talking in sped up voices at times and acting like they are escapees from the Scooby Doo franchise. This one really bites the bomb.

Mindless Fun

[Lebowskidoo · 8/10 · 4 August 2019]

The sequel goes international! The first movie was such a hit in Italy, so the producers set the sequel there and filmed it there too.

Not as much fun as the first, but comes close. It does seem as though the budget got a little bigger though. Vincent Price is still having fun with it all, appearing in various disguises and hanging out with bikini clad girls and shooting foam at them. It's far better than my job in real life!

Frankie Avalon didn't return for the sequel, so they had to snag another 60's pop star, Fabian. I had to Google him because he wasn't well-known by me. All this went down before my time, but I like watching these American International movies, silly though they may seem. They are just mindless fun, not meant to be dissected for deeper meaning, because there isn't any.

Dr. Goldfoot strikes again

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 10 March 2015]

Vincent Price must have signed for two pictures otherwise I can hardly believe there was a demand for a sequel to Dr. Goldfoot In The Bikini Machine. This film was done in Italy and I can hardly believe that Vincent Price and Fabian the only two Americans in the cast weren't slightly embarrassed. I'm sure Fabian longed for the day when he was in films with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.

When last seen Dr. Goldfoot was driving off a cliff on to a beach on the Pacific coast. But somehow he survived the crash and he's now in business with whom we called the Red Chinese back in the day. He's developed a new line of beautiful female robots. These are plastic and in close embrace will explode and self destruct taking whomever they were embracing. Guess what one contacts with in order to trigger them?

In any event secret agent Fabian is seeking Price and he's got a real live Laura Antonelli seeking Price as well. Add to that Italian comedians Franco Fanelli and Cicco Ingrassia as a pair of bumbling agents. They've got to stop Dr. Goldfoot from setting the USSR and the US from annihilating each other with a war Goldfoot has plans to start.

As for Vincent Price I will say that this gives him an opportunity to play once again Dr. Goldfoot as a Snidely Whiplash type villain. He looks like he's having a great old time. Unfortunately he's in a film that's more stupid than funny.

Too Bad to Watch

[randylanders · 15 April 2010]

I'd heard this thing (movie is too generous a term) was watchable for the presence of Vincent Price. Sadly, it's not. The entire thing is so farcical and slapstick that even the most juvenile of viewers would find it distasteful.

Perhaps in the 60's when the farce was made, it would've been enjoyable -- had there been cameos by various American actors -- but there's not a single funny line or instance in its entire running time. Not one! Avoid this one like the plague. Given so many good films from the 60's in such as a state of disrepair or anonymity, it's amazing that this utter drek was dragged out to be shown on an HD satellite channel.

Dr. Goldfoot And The Girl Bombs (Mario Bava, 1966) **

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 30 April 2010]

With this film, I unceremoniously brought my Mario Bava retrospective – commemorating the 30th anniversary of his passing – to a rather undignified close due to personal familial difficulties. Incidentally, having watched – and been appalled by – it years ago on late-night Italian TV, I had actually added this title to the Bava mini-marathon at the eleventh hour (in fact, I only acquired it a couple of days before viewing!); with this in mind, I regret not keeping the VHS recording of that broadcast since I now have had to make do with a vertically stretched copy which boasts forced English subtitles to boot! The film is a genuine oddity in that a sequel is made not merely by hands other than the original's but by a different country altogether (though it still featured the same star and would be distributed, post-dubbing, by the company behind the first film anyway), considering that the titular figure is not a brand name a' la Tarzan, Zorro or, for that matter, Fu Manchu – where, for instance, the fourth and fifth entries in the Christopher Lee/Harry Alan Towers series of the 1960s eschewed British directorial involvement for that of notorious Spaniard Jess Franco (to the franchise's ultimate detriment, I might add)! To cut to the chase, I have to admit that I was not as intolerant towards the film as I had been on that preliminary viewing: ironically, I used to lap up vehicles by the comic duo of Ciccio (Ingrassia) & Franco (Franchi) as a kid but, somehow, I could not picture them in the same frame as horror icon Vincent Price or 'submitting' to the direction of a technician and master stylist like Bava (in any case, their work has not withstood the test of time all that well, pretty much in the way of the Abbott & Costello comedies – with the one most readily given to mugging, Franco, even supplying the rather noisy song over the opening credits)!; having perhaps checked out the just-as-campy original (called DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE [1965], by the way) in the interim may have softened my opinion of the sequel to a certain extent (though it is still a toss-up with the horrendous make-over job that became THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM [1975] in constituting the nadir of the Bava canon). The film sees Goldfoot (flanked by a Chinese acolyte named "Hardjob", in clear emulation of Harold Sakata's character from the James Bond extravaganza GOLDFINGER [1964]) upping the ante by being intent on world domination (with the female robots turning combustible, hence the U.S. title – since the Italian original is a parody of John Le Carre''s "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", brought to the screen the previous year, and puts the emphasis on the movie's star comedians!) rather just misappropriation of funds as in the first entry. To be honest, one is still embarrassed to associate the picture with either Price (especially when disguising himself in a nun's habit!) or Bava (and it is particularly lamentable that the two only managed to collaborate on material clearly below their standards and talents!) but, taken on its own merits (if such a term can be applied here), there are certainly some mild pleasures to be derived from the ensuing concoction – with the most inspired ideas being Ciccio & Franco picking up artillery items from the F.B.I. arsenal as if they were on a supermarket spree, the fact that the voice artist assigned to dub their burly and flustered Chief (remember that Italian films at this time were generally shot M.O.S.) is the same one who does Oliver Hardy in the Laurel & Hardy vehicles (I wonder how it sounded in the English-dubbed version?), and a rather brief reprise of the classic mirror gag devised by Max Linder (albeit most famously adopted by The Marx Bros.' DUCK SOUP [1933]) involving Price and Ingrassia! In the same vein, the finale partly recreates the conclusion of DR. STRANGELOVE: OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1963); for what it is worth, then, soon-to-be erotic diva Laura Antonelli plays the obligatory-but-insignificant damsel-in-distress here (alongside Fabian's straight-man hero, who fares somewhat better).

How?

[w00f · 2/10 · 3 July 2020]

How could Mario Bava directing Vincent Price result in this running sore of a terrible movie? Come for the idiotic screenplay, stay for the casual racism. Gouge your own eyes out, stick them in your ears, and flee toward the exit ASAP. I watched this because I love Vincent Price but in this exercise in incompetence even he isn't enjoyable.

Some things are best left in the past.