‘Submit to the master or be quick-frozen forever in his cold-storage harem!’
Lightning Bolt is a 1966 action adventure with sci-fi elements involving space launches being sabotaged by a madman. It is highly derivative of the phenomenally popular James Bond movies.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti [as Anthony Dawson] (Alien from the Deep; Yor: The Hunter from the Future; Killer Fish; Battle of the Worlds; Castle of Blood; Horror Castle) from a screenplay by Alfonso Balcazar and [uncredited] Ernesto Gastaldi and Jose Antonio de la Lorna.
The Seven Film-Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas-BGA co-production stars Anthony Eisley (Dracula vs. Frankenstein; The Naked Kiss), Wandisa Guida, Diana Lorys (House of Psychotic Women; Fangs of the Living Dead) and Folco Lulli.
Plot:
Harry Sennet (Anthony Eisley), the cleverest agent of top-secret Section S, goes to the oceanside to investigate the regular malfunctions of space rockets leaving “the Cape” (presumably Cape Kennedy). The missiles blow up shortly after leaving the launch pads. The culprit, whose hideout is a sprawling underwater base nearby, is megalomaniac master criminal Rehte (Folco Lulli). He intends to weaponize the moon with his laser beams, which he then counts on to blackmail and dominate the Earth. Thus he cannot abide anyone else getting a successful space launch to the moon first.
Review:
It is hard to believe that James Bond material was, if anything, even more fever-pitched and over-marketed in the mid-1960s than it is today (or any given decade). Italian – and Spanish filmmakers – were particularly guilty in this regard.
Among their many 007 carbon copies is Lightning Bolt – with plot elements reflective of Thunderball (1965). Needless to say, it was filmed at a much lower cost. Do we dare suggest a title change to “The Budget Was Not Enough?”
But know this, if you can get past the grainy stock footage of actual aerospace launches going wrong and a recurring conceit of using acetylene blow-torches to pass for “laser beams” and other money-savers, there are… a few… enjoyable tidbits here. If one has nothing better to watch.
A good portion of the first act happens in a tropical resort that, we are given to understand, is exclusively patronised by spies spying on other spies – in other words, lots of bikini-clad-beauties-watching poolside opportunities, though Harry Sennet is surprisingly faithful (under the circumstances) to his M-type superior/lover, Patricia Flanigan (Diana Lorys).
In a detail that could have come out of the smarmy, alcohol-tippling “Matt Helm” super-spy spoofs (starring Dean Martin) belched out concurrently by Columbia, Rehte uses as his cover business… a brewery – and it is via his fleet of trucks with giant rotating beer-stein replicas that the villain beams out the electronic waves that foul NASA’s guidance systems, right there in plain sight.
Rehte also has a morbid freezer of kidnapped scientists and other underlings in suspended animation for use down the line… maybe. Because he has not quite mastered reviving them, bringing the hostages back to life triggers rapid, hideous decay-death, in the manner of Poe’s M. Valdemar.
The spare production design of Rehte’s submarine empire is sort of good, not unlike what William Cameron Menzies pulled off economically for the sci-fi classic Invaders from Mars (though coloured water impersonates volcanic magma, alas). B-movie veteran Eisley is acceptable in the lead role, making the most of the fact that every once in a while he gets to say an amusing line.
Best of all, perhaps, Harry Sennet never returned to darken our screens again. Margheriti also directed (and acted in) the notorious Operation Kid Brother, a Bond pastiche that hijacked several established 007 supporting cast members in small roles and enticed Sean Connery’s non-actor brother Neil to take the lead.
If you dislike the whole Bond hype thing intensely and were stuck in the year 1966, you probably won’t be able to find a quantum of solace here.
Charles Cassady Jr, MOVIES & MANIA
Countries of origin:
Italy
Spain
Original titles:
Operazione Goldman – Italy
Operación Goldman – Spain
Technical specs:
1 hour 34 minutes
Mono
Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1
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