James Tont operazione U.N.O.

Last updated
James Tont operazione U.N.O.
Jamestontuno1.jpg
A Spanish film poster.
Directed by Bruno Corbucci
Giovanni Grimaldi
Written by Giovanni Grimaldi
Bruno Corbucci
Produced by Luigi Carpentieri
Ermanno Donati
Starring Lando Buzzanca
Cinematography Alessandro D'Eva
Raffaele Masciocchi
Music by Marcello Giombini
Release date
  • 1965 (1965)
CountryFrance/Italy
Language Italian

James Tont operazione U.N.O. or Operation Goldsinger is a 1965 French and Italian international co-production Eurospy film spoof based on James Bond's Goldfinger . [1] Co-written and co-directed by Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi, the film stars Lando Buzzanca as James Tont Agent 007 12 a parody of James Bond and Loris Gizzi as Erik Goldsinger, a parody of Auric Goldfinger. It was followed by James Tont operazione D.U.E. .

Contents

Plot

James Tont (from Italian tonto, "dumb"), Agent 007 12 of Her Majesty's Secret Service is sent to Trinidad where he recovers microfilm concealed inside an enemy agent. After performing surgery to remove the microfilm and the enemy agent's inflamed appendix, Tont is ordered to Las Vegas to contact CIA Agent Tristian Rider for further instructions. Prior to meeting Rider, Tont meets music producer Erik Goldsinger, one of the wealthiest men in the world. Seeing that Goldsinger wins at the crap table by using loaded dice, Tont defeats Goldsinger by outcheating him; altering the spots on a die from three to two. Goldsinger if further humiliated when Tont refuses to give him a chance to win back his money. Goldsinger storms off with his Oriental manservant Kayo crushing the loaded dice in his fist and giving Tont the powdered remnants.

Goldsinger's revenge comes soon. Joyce Patterson, one of Goldsinger's singers and female agents seduces Tont, drugs him and attempts to assassinate him by covering him in gold paint that proves non fatal when she fails to cover his body completely. The golden Tont is discovered by Tristian Rider who informs Tont that his mission is to investigate Goldsinger.

Rider sends Tont to New York City to obtain information from Barbara Ray, CIA Agent SOS 112 who is secretly working for Goldsinger as a musical director. To avoid suspicion she tests Tont as a singer by having him sing on a film clip. Listening to Tont's recording in his office, Goldsinger is ready to sign the talented Tont. When viewing the musical film he recognises Tont as the man who defeated him at the gambling tables. Goldsinger becomes enraged that Tont is not dead. He punishes Joyce by sending her to be disciplined in Hong Kong and attempts to assassinate Tont by sending him to a studio that has a lowered ceiling that will crush Tont. Tont is rescued by CIA Agent SOS 117, an intrepid white mouse who is also a ventriloquist.

Tont is dispatched back to London where his chief briefs him on the incomplete details of Operation April Fool/UNO (United Nations Organisation) gathered from the recovered microfilm. Goldsinger is employed by Red China to use his international music corporation to destroy by unknown means the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York in retaliation for Red China being refused entry. Warning Tont that 007 34 will replace him if Tont wastes time or fails, Tont is sent to pursue Goldsinger to his headquarters in Italy to discover his plans to attack the United Nations building. In order to blend in with the population, Tont is given the identity of Giacomino Tontonati and a Fiat 500 D equipped with a multitude of secret weapons and special devices. Tont's third encounter with Goldsinger will affect the entire world.,

Cast

Soundtrack

In addition to the parody of specific plot elements and characters from Goldfinger, the film features a spoof variation of John Barry's Shirley Bassey title song. As part of the plot Tont believes that Goldsinger's messages to initiate his scheme are somehow hidden in popular songs, Tont views film clips featuring Gianni Morandi, Pino Donaggio and Valeria Piaggio.

Reaction

During the height of the James Bond mania in 1965, so many Italian films used "007" that United Artists informed the Italian film industry that only James Bond could be 007, and threatened legal action. [2]

Goldsinger was not given an American theatrical release but it was one of a package of twenty English dubbed Continental European films to be shown on American television from August 1966 by the RKO General and Independent Television Corporation [3] In 1967 an American court ruled in favour of United Artists and Danjaq, the producers of the James Bond 007-film series to prevent RKO from screening James Tont – Operation Goldsinger. [4]

Related Research Articles

Q (<i>James Bond</i>) Fictional character from the James Bond franchise

Q is a character in the James Bond films and novelisations. Q is the head of Q Branch, the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service charged with oversight of top secret field technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oddjob</span> Fictional character from the James Bond film series

Oddjob is a fictional character in the espionage novels and films featuring James Bond. He is a henchman to the villain Auric Goldfinger in the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger and its 1964 film adaptation, making a cameo appearance in the mid-credits scene of Inspector Gadget (1999). In the film adaptation of Goldfinger, he was played by the Japanese-American actor and professional wrestler Harold Sakata. Oddjob, who also appears in the James Bond animated series and in several video games, is one of the most popular characters in the Bond series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auric Goldfinger</span> Fictional James Bond villain

Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Ian Fleming's 1959 seventh James Bond novel, Goldfinger, and the 1964 film it inspired. His first name, Auric, is an adjective meaning "of gold". Fleming chose the name to commemorate the architect Ernő Goldfinger, who had built his home in Hampstead next door to Fleming's; he disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and destruction of Victorian terraces and decided to name a memorable villain after him. According to a 1965 Forbes article and The New York Times, the Goldfinger persona was based on gold-mining magnate Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.

<i>Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die</i> 1966 film by Arduino Maiuri, Henry Levin

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die is a James Bond spoof film released in 1966 as an Italian-American co-production between Dino De Laurentiis' Cinematografica and Columbia Pictures. Directed by Henry Levin, with stars Mike Connors, Dorothy Provine, and as the villain, Raf Vallone, it was originally filmed from January to March 1966 under the title Operation Paradise and distributed in some parts of the English-speaking world as If All the Women in the World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lando Buzzanca</span> Italian actor (1935–2022)

Gerlando "Lando" Buzzanca was an Italian stage, film, and television actor whose career spanned 65 years.

<i>Goldfinger</i> (film) 1964 spy film by Guy Hamilton

Goldfinger is a 1964 spy film and the third instalment in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe and Shirley Eaton. Goldfinger was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. The film was the first of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruno Corbucci</span> Italian screenwriter and film director

Bruno Corbucci was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He was the younger brother of Sergio Corbucci and wrote many of his films. He was born in Rome, where he also died.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloria Paul</span> Retired British film actress (b. 1940)

Gloria Paul is a British retired film actress and dancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurospy film</span> Genre of spy films

Eurospy film, or Spaghetti spy film, is a genre of spy films produced in Europe, especially in Italy, France, and Spain, that either sincerely imitated or else parodied the British James Bond spy series feature films. The first wave of Eurospy films was released in 1964, two years after the first James Bond film, Dr. No, and in the same year as the premiere of what many consider to be the apotheosis of the Bond series, Goldfinger. For the most part, the Eurospy craze lasted until around 1967 or 1968. In Italy, where most of these films were produced, this trend replaced the declining sword and sandal genre.

<i>Our Man in Jamaica</i> 1965 Italian film

Our Man in Jamaica/Operation Jamaica is a 1965 Italian Spanish German international co-production Eurospy adventure film directed by an uncredited Mel Welles. It was credited to Ernst R. von Theumer for reasons of European funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franco Ressel</span> Italian actor

Franco Ressel was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1961 and 1985.

<i>Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger</i> 1965 Italian film

Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger or Due mafiosi contro Goldginger is a 1965 Eurospy comedy film directed by Giorgio Simonelli starring the comic duo Franco and Ciccio. It is a spoof of the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger. It was picked up by American International Pictures and dubbed into English to be shown on their AIP-TV movie package as The Amazing Dr. G or Two Crazy Secret Agents.

<i>James Tont operazione D.U.E.</i> 1966 film

James Tont operazione D.U.E. or The Wacky World of James Tont is a 1966 French/Italian international co-production spy film spoof based on James Bond's Thunderball and featuring elements predating the release of You Only Live Twice. Directed by Bruno Corbucci, the Eurospy spy-fi comedy adventure is the sequel to James Tont operazione U.N.O. (1965) with Lando Buzzanca repeating his role as 00 Agent James Tont, a satire of James Bond and Loris Gizzi as the black monocle wearing supervillain spoof of Emilio Largo.

<i>Il vostro super agente Flit</i> 1966 Italian film

Il vostro superagente Flit is a 1966 Italian spy comedy film that is a parody of Our Man Flint. Starring Raimondo Vianello and Raffaella Carra, it was directed by Mariano Laurenti in his debut as a director and written by Bruno Corbucci, who also wrote the James Tont films.

<i>Lightning Bolt</i> (film) 1966 film

Lightning Bolt is a 1966 spy-fi film shot in Techniscope in 1965 that was directed by Anthony Dawson in his first entry into the Eurospy genre. The film was co-financed and released in the US by the Woolner Brothers who re-titled it Lightning Bolt with the tagline "strikes like a ball of thunder". It was released as a double feature with Red Dragon in 1967 two years after the film had been shot. The film's star, Anthony Eisley, commented that the film was released too late to take advantage of the James Bond craze.

<i>007 Legends</i> 2012 video game

007 Legends is a first-person shooter video game featuring the character of British secret agent James Bond. It was developed by Eurocom and first released by Activision on October 2012 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with Microsoft Windows and Wii U versions releasing later that year. Wii U release of the game was cancelled in Australia and the game was removed from all digital storefronts in January 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Grimaldi</span> Italian screenwriter, journalist and film director

Giovanni Grimaldi was an Italian screenwriter, journalist and film director. He was sometimes credited as Gianni Grimaldi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loris Gizzi</span> Italian actor

Loris Gizzi was an Italian actor.

References

  1. Blake, Matt; Deal, David (July 2004). The Eurospy Guide. Luminary Press. pp. 116–117. ISBN   1887664521.
  2. Chapman, James (2000). Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films. Columbia University Press. ISBN   9780231120487.
  3. Heffernan, Kevin (25 March 2004). Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953–1968. Duke University Press Books. p. 241. ISBN   0822332159.
  4. Anonymous (7 September 1967). "Production Notes". The Film Daily. Vol. 131. Wid's Films and Film Folk Incorporated. p. 196.