Ever notice how every secret agent in the movies seems to have a gimmick? Well, Perry Liston - code name: Matchless - has got a doozie. When confronted with unavoidable capture or certain death from enemies, he can literally vanish into thin air. He's not superhuman though. His ability to become invisible at will is completely dependent on a unique ring given to him by a fellow prisoner in a Chinese jail. And the ring's powers are limited: it can only be used once every 10 hours and the wearer can expect his invisible state to last no more than twenty minutes. Those are the rules and Matchless (1966), a quirky international spy spoof, plays fast and loose with the gimmick.

In the title role, Patrick O'Neal is not really a professional spy. He's actually a reporter from The New York Tribune who signs his columns with the byline of "Matchless." While on assignment in China, he is captured and tortured in a secret prison by Chinese agents who think he possesses top-secret information about a lethal chemical substance. He miraculously escapes a firing squad only to end up imprisoned by American military intelligence who are after the same thing. Considering his limited options, Liston agrees to masquerade as a secret agent for the U.S., teaming up with fellow spy Arabella (Ira von Furstenberg). Their mission leads them to the lair of international criminal Andreanu (Donald Pleasence) who keeps samples of the deadly chemical in a Munich bank. Complicating their assignment are Hank Norris (Henry Silva) and Tipsy (Nicoletta Machiavelli), rival spies for the Chinese.

Matchless is less a spy spoof than a fantasy adventure with sci-fi overtones. Besides the 'Invisible Man' gimmick, there are Andreanu's household of robotic servants including a black cyborg attendant named Charles, centrifugal force spinners used as torturing devices, and the post-operative results of "Operation Plastic Surgery" - Chinese and American agents who have had their facial features altered in order to infiltrate the enemy's ranks. And since Matchless was made in the midst of the sixties spy craze, there are plenty of gorgeous women to ogle. Ira von Furstenberg - a European Princess making her screen debut here - gets to sport a flashy wardrobe (one 'evening wear' outfit accents her bare midriff) but co-star Nicoletta Machiavelli makes an even stronger impression, particularly in the sequence where she drops from the sky via helicopter onto Andreanu's estate, clad in a silver metallic suit. It looks like something out of Fantomas (1913-14) or Les Vampires (1915-16), the fantasy serials of film director Louis Feuillade.

The director of Matchless - Alberto Lattuada - may sound familiar to you. That's because he co-directed Variety Lights with Federico Fellini in 1950 and has worked on numerous Italian and European films including Mafioso (1962) and Stay As You Are (1978) starring Marcello Mastroianni and Natassia Kinski in her first starring role. While Matchless is certainly not Lattuada's best work, it's still a lot of fun and more entertaining than most James Bond imitations. Not only does it boast a catchy music score by Ennio Morricone and Gino Marinuzzi, Jr. but it features a wide range of interesting locations, spanning the globe from New York (glimpses from the top of the Pan Am building, the Brooklyn Bridge and the subway) to London to Munich. The special effects are goofy (how about that scene where Arabella is carried down a corridor by the invisible "Matchless"?) and Mike Myers of the Austin Powers films would love the pop-art opening credit sequence, set amid an array of multicolored test tubes and beakers filled with bubbling liquids.

Producer: Luigi Carpentieri, Ermanno Donati
Director: Alberto Lattuada
Screenplay: Alberto Lattuada, Luigi Malerba, Mario Pierotti, Jack Pulman
Production Design: Gisella Longo
Cinematography: Alessandro D'Eva
Costume Design: Piero Tosi
Film Editing: Franco Fraticelli
Original Music: Gino Marinuzzi, Jr., Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni
Principal Cast: Patrick O'Neal (Perry "Matchless" Liston), Ira von Furstenberg (Arabella), Donald Pleasence (Andreanu), Henry Silva (Hank Norris), Sorrell Booke (Colonel Coolpepper), Howard St. John (General Shapiro), Tipsy (Nicoletta Machiavelli), Elisabetta Wu (O-Lan).
C-104m. Letterboxed.

By Jeff Stafford