Matt Helm movie update

The News In Film Web site reports that Gary Ross is close to being named to direct a new Matt Helm movie.
An excerpt:
According to The Playlist, George Clooney and Jon Hamm were considered for the title character, but eliminated for separate reasons. Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, The A-Team) is the front runner for the [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (conclusion): the film’s legacy

This week marks the 45th anniversry of Goldfinger’s U.K. premier. What’s the film’s legacy? Try these on for size:
1. Most obvious, it was the first 007 mega-hit.
Dr. No and From Russia With Love had been successful, but Goldfinger turned 007 into a worldwide phenomenon. It set a record at the time for recouping its costs [...]

Salute to Lalo Schifrin

You don’t hear a lot about Lalo Schifrin these days, and that’s too bad because he’s a tremendously talented composer. So, we thought we’d remedy that and remind readers about his contributions to spy entertainment.
One of his early contributions came during the second season (1965-66) of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He scored only one episode [...]

HMSS nominations for top composers for 1960s spy entertainment

In a previous post, we touched upon this subject. The more we thought about it, the more we thought we had an excuse to make another post. So, without further ado:
1) John Barry: arranger, The James Bond Theme, in Dr. No; composer, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s [...]

Spielberg interested in Matt Helm; is a faithful adaptation possible?

Variety reported on July 29 that Steven Spielberg was interested in directing a Matt Helm movie.
An excerpt: Spielberg’s camp said he is attached to produce, but it’s unclear if he’s going to direct. Clearly, Spielberg is excited about the project again after the rewrite that Paul Attanasio delivered last week.
A day later, reports [...]

The Silencers preview of For Your Eyes Only’s ad campaign

One of the most famous James Bond movie posters was For Your Eyes Only, the 1981 Roger Moore 007 movie, where we see, in the foreground, a woman’s legs rather prominently. If you’ve forgotten, well, just CLICK RIGHT HERE.
Fifteen years earlier, The Silencers, Dean Martin’s first screen outing as Matt Helm debuted. One version of [...]

U.K. Matt Helm paperback covers

A reader responded to a post we did about the evolution of Matt Helm paperback novels in the U.S. It turns out the U.K. versions were quite diiferent, many of them relying on photographs rather than illustrations.
For example, to view a U.K. cover for the third Helm novel, The Removers, click RIGHT HERE. To see [...]

A final look at Matt Helm titles: The Wrecking Crew

We wrap up our look at the titles of Matt Helm movies with a brief discussion of the series finale, The Wrecking Crew.
To be honest, it’s a mixed bag. The visuals are much stronger than the series previous entry, The Ambushers. They’re at least based on something in the movie, a bank of monitors used [...]

1967: The cheesy titles of The Ambushers

We’ve taken a look at the titles of the first two Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin. So when you’re on a roll, you might as keep going.
The third Helm movie, The Ambushers, is often cited as the worst in the four-film series (a shame because it’s based on a very good serious Helm novel [...]

1966: Murderers’ Row fascination with dots in main title

It’s nothing significant but it seems too much just to be coincidence.
Some time back, we linked to the main titles of The Silencers, the first Matt Helm movie produced by Irving Allen, the ex-parter of Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. Allen utilized women doing strip tease dances (plus Cyd Charisse lipsynching to Vicki Carr’s vocals) [...]