Tony Mastroianni Review Collection

"Last of the Secret Agents?" -- We Can Hope

Cleveland Press June 3, 1966

The scene is supposed to be Cannes, France, but it's strictly Dullsville as the TV and night-club team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi make their movie debut in a dreary thing called "The Last of the Secret Agents?"

There's a good deal of frantic activity as the pair attempts slapstick that never comes off, satire that's merely dull and a story about secret agents and international art thefts that never generates any interest.

Allen, stout and bushy-haired, seems limited to rolling his eyes and yelling, "Hello dere!" Rossi a singing straight man, is merely bland.

THE COMPARISON to old Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin comedies is inevitable. There isn't any comparison.

The pair plays a couple of bungling friends who are recruited by the GGI (Good Guys Institute) to help fight a group of arch criminals known as THEM.

Even this latter gimmick is never fully realized as a comedy device, being limited to: "Gee, THEM sure know how to hurt a guy."

Nancy Sinatra is around with a French accent and Lou Jacobi is wasted as saloon keeper. The movie exploits suggestiveness to the point that it can't even be recommended for kids.