The Nude Bomb (1980 Get Smart Feature
Film/Universal DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C-
Give or
take his endless TV commercials officially and unofficially emulating and
imitating Maxwell Smart, the huge financial success of the Roger Moore James
Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me
(1977) and Moonraker (1979) drove
Universal Pictures to gamble and get Don Adams back into the role hat made him
famous, greenlighting a big screen revival (one of the first of its kind from a
hit TV show) of Get Smart in the
first full-length Smart story since the original show folded. These days, any such revival would replace
the original stars, in part because dramatic TV is far worse these days (save
cable to some extent) and good shows to revive within the time of the original
stars time is near zilch. Hiring Clive
Donner to direct, the result was The
Nude Bomb.
It is all
but forgotten as a trivia question and is not always in print, but with the new
Steve Carrell Get Smart feature,
Universal has issued a basic DVD of the film (no extras) for the film that
missed it by more “than that much” at the box office and otherwise. Still, a cult has built around the film and
it will be a new curio all over again.
This
time, Max is called in to stop the title device from rendering the earth a
world without clothes, including some “tests” that are meant to be funny. Though there are some jabs at Bond (the
opening aimed at the Moonraker
opening) of the time, the film’s look lands up emulating the Dean Martin/Matt
Helm and James Coburn/Derek Flint films more than any Bonds, which makes it
dated in odd ways. In a recent twist, to
save money and promote their studio tour, Universal shot more of the film at
their studios in obvious ways than any film they made in the last few
generations. With the recent fire
destroying sets going back to the 1930s, some of the scenery only just now
disappeared.
Besides
troubles with the silly, odd Bill Dana (co-stars here)/Leonard
Stern/Arne Sultan screenplay, the absence of Adams co-stars are painfully
obvious. Edward Platt had passed away,
while Barbara Feldon was (and still is as of this posting) alive, well and
passed on the script. The result is adding
several new female characters, but despite their beauty and even talent, it was
like trying to make up for Lindsey Buckingham leaving Fleetwood Mac with two
guitarists – it just did not work.
The late
Dana Elcar played the new Chief, an actor with a solid, enduring career of many
roles. His casting made sense. With no new 99, we instead get Sylvia
Kristel, the original Emmanuel and star of some other skin flicks in one of her
more legitimate roles. I give her credit
for sending herself up. Then there is
Pamela Hensley, a Universal veteran at the time who was the female villain at
the time of the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers
TV series and was also quite good looking, as used to best effect in her turn
in the 1975 Rollerball. Andrea Howard (Santa Barbara, Summer School)
round out the new agents, none of whom we’d see again after this film. Rhonda Fleming also shows up as a mysterious
older woman.
Add the
silly way it treats the spy genre, its time, adds the gaudiness of Disco and
Hollywood, plus fails to update the franchise totally as it misunderstands the
success of the Moore Bonds (which were comic in themselves and needed no
spoofing) and you get a film that is all over the place. Even the title is supposed to be an in-joke
(New Bond, Nude Bomb… get it? Do you
want to?) and even that passed without notice.
However,
the cast (also including no less than Norman Lloyd, Vittorio Gassman, Vito
Scotti and even George Lazenby in a sly cameo) is interesting and Adams does
give it his all, which is why the film is worth seeing in the first place. However, expect a dumb time and one that is
no match for the original series.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a little soft, but color is not bad
for its age and was lensed by the great Director of Photography Harry L. Wolf,
in one of his few feature films. A
longtime cinematographer for Universal TV, he made their series look great and
was even president of the American Society of Cinematographers. Bet this will look good on Blu-ray. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is slightly
compressed, but good for its age. Lalo
Schifrin (Mission: Impossible, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., some of the
Dean Martin/Matt Helm films) does an amusing score, but that only does so
much. Again, there are no extras.
For more
on the two TV series versions of the show, you can read all about the original
hit series in the Complete 1960s Series collection box set at this link…
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6400/Get+Smart+–+The+Complete+Series
…or the
failed 1994 revival series at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7019/Get+Smart+–+The+Complete+1994
- Nicholas Sheffo
