Directed by Woody Allen and Senkich Taniguchi
Written by Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, et al
1966/US/Japan
Benedict Pictures Corp./National Recording Studios/Toho Company
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Woody Allen: They wanted in Hollywood to make the definitive spy picture. And they came to me to supervise the project, you know, because I think that, if you know me at all, you know that death is my bread and danger my butter – oh, no, danger’s my bread, and death is my butter. No, no, wait. Danger’s my bread, death – no, death is – no, I’m sorry. Death is my – death and danger are my various breads and various butters.[/box]
Woody Allen’s first film couldn’t be sillier. It made me laugh and that’s all I ask for from a comedy.
American International Pictures bought up a pretty lame-looking Japanese spy film for $66,000 then decided the plot was too complicated for American audiences. Someone came up with the idea of re-dubbing it as a comedy and Woody Allen got the job.
The Japanese film featured lots of violence and female flesh. It involved the search for a secret microfilm. Allen and his friends stripped out the soundtrack, dubbed the film over in English, and added wacky sound effects and a score performed by The Lovin’ Spoonful. The story becomes a spy spoof about the search for a secret egg salad recipe. I thought the one-liners were amusing and was surprised by the explicitness of some of the dialogue.
It’s not quite the first Woody Allen film I ever saw – that would be Sleeper on TV and Annie Hall in the theater – but I have been a fan of this movie since the mid-1970s when I caught it on late night television. Knowing this movie really well was a thing amongst some of the nerds where I went to high school, and we had a great time repeating the lines and imitating the sound effects just like it was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Which we also did with the Marx Brothers and the Bowery Boys.)
I enjoyed it way more than I expected from its mediocre IMDb rating. Any comedy that can actually make me laugh is a winner in my books and this has several LOL momemnt.
Also … Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama!