A Quick Look at Matt Helm

   If James Bond is the Sinatra of the spy world, Matt Helm is the Dean Martin. Fittingly, Dean Martin played Matt Helm in a series of movies for Columbia Pictures in the 60's. The film Helm bears little to no resemblance to the ruthless assassin detailed in the books of Donald Hamilton, but it's hard to complain against such a wonderful series as THE SILENCERS, MURDERERS' ROW, THE AMBUSHERS, and THE WRECKING CREW. Unfortunately, Dino bowed out before he could make the promised fifth film and Tony Franciosa was groomed into a Dean-A-Like for a 70's TV pilot movie called MATT HELM, and the short-lived teleseries that followed. The movies are lighter in tone than the Bonds, but aren't outright spoofs. Really, they're near perfect 60's pop spy vehicles, and Martin's casting is so obvious you can't escape it. Fun stuff.

   THE SILENCERS finds Matt pulled away from his swinging bachelor pad (and day job as a girlie rag photographer) when ICE (Intelligence Counter Espionage) detects that enemy organization BIG-O is up to something on US soil. And indeed they are, as Victor Buono's Chinese madman Tung Se has arranged for a missile launch and underground atomic test to be conducted simultaneously -a combination which will destroy the States if BIG-O's missile controls can't be stopped! 

   In MURDERERS' ROW, Matt must track down a missing scientist who has developed a powerful laser beam that can wipe Washington off the map in one sweep! His main suspect is industrialist Julian Wahl, played by the great Karl Malden. Ann-Margret is the scientist's go-go dancer daughter who teams up with Helm to find that Wahl has her father on his private island. From the opening notes of the film's driving main theme, this one never stops delivering. The Helm series gets it's own Odd Job-like henchman in the form of Tom Reese's ruthless BIG-O assassin Ironhead. The climax features a hovercraft chase! While the Helms were never quite as opulent as the Bonds (or even the Flints), they remain relentlessly enjoyable pop fun.

   My first Helm was THE AMBUSHERS, the third in the series. This time around, Matt must team up with a female agent suffering amnesia after being tortured nearly to death -she the pilot of an experimental flying saucer. The saucer gives off a form of radiation harmful only to males, so female pilots are required. A Latin dictator captures the saucer and holds it ransom to the highest bidder, and BIG-O agent Senta Berger is among those looking to bid. It wasn't until this entry that we finally learned what BIG-O stands for: Bureau for International Government and Order. Matt, of course, works for I.C.E. -Intelligence Counter Espionage, and the opening of the film finds our hero at an I.C.E. training facility.  The film's titles are accompanied by a title tune that's plenty catchy and a whole lot of lounge. Unfortunately, the 45 version sounds completely different! By the way, a very similar flying saucer also turned up in an episode of I Dream of Jeannie as an experimental "jet-plate" and some have confused the two props as being the same. The TV saucer, however, isn't as wide. Oddly, though, what I'm pretty sure is Wahl's crane scoop from the second film can be glimpsed in a junkyard in another Jeannie episode.

   The last Helm movie is in kind of an odd position. Though it was a well-mounted effort, THE WRECKING CREW did lackluster business at the boxoffice. Dino also lost interest and the film would be his last as the swinging secret agent. The plot concerns an aristocrat who hijacks a billion dollar gold shipment and threatens to destroy the world economy. Matt blasts into action, despite his helpful fellow agent Sharon Tate causing him more trouble than good. The cast on this one is simply amazing, and the fight scenes are a step up from the previous films (in which Dino's stunt double handled much of the heavy action several yards away from the camera). Small wonder, since Bruce Lee helped choreograph the action. One of the henchmen is Lee student and future action superstar Chuck Norris! Unfortunately, the casting is also part of the problem. John Larch replaces James Gregory as Matt's boss, MacDonald. He's fine, but the change is jarring. He should've had one more film in order to make the transition smoother. And of course, Sharon Tate hangs over the film like a specter, given her brutal murder at the hands of the Manson family was not far off. Finally, the film's casting of Tina Louise as a gypsy henchgirl is more trivia than anything else. It was her first post-Island job, and her appearance didn't impress the critics. 

   The end of the movie promises a fifth adventure to be titled "The Ravagers." I like to think the 70's TV pilot film MATT HELM holds this slot. In MATT HELM, Tony Franciosa plays a Helm who has broken from the spy world and settled into the position of private dick. A short-lived series followed. Tony did an incredible job of playing the Dean Martin Helm, even copying expertly the same mannerisms. Still, a private Eye is quite a come down from a globe-trotting super spy.

TV's MATT HELM, 1975