The Last of the Secret Agents?
The Last of the Secret Agents?
| 25 May 1966 (USA)
The Last of the Secret Agents? Trailers

Marty and Steve, American tourists in France, are given a multipurpose umbrella and pitted against an international band of art thieves. Among the stolen treasures is the Statue Of Liberty.

Reviews
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Yonilikka-22 Spy spoofs were ten a penny in the 1960's. Norman Abbott's 'Last Of The Secret Agents?' ( 1966 ) is one of the better ones. It was intended to showcase the then-popular comedy double act Allen & Rossi ( Marty Allen and Steve Rossi ). With his mobile face and shock of untidy black hair ( and "Hello Dere!" as a catchphrase ), Marty is firmly in the Lou Costello mold of comic sidekicks, while Rossi is a Dean Martin tribute act. 'Last' is a decent film, and this is mainly due to its associate producer and writer, the talented Mel Tolkin. Marty and Steve are a pair of down on their luck furniture removal men based in France. A mysterious organisation known only as THEM ( also the name of an organisation to be found in the 'Captain America' and 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Marvel comics of that period ) has them under surveillance. It specialises in stealing valuable art treasures and wants to use Marty and Steve as unwitting couriers. 'J.Fredrick Duval', head of G.G.I. ( Good Guys Institute ) recruits the boys to find out what THEM's latest scheme is and, if possible, wreck it. Marty is given a gadget-packed umbrella which contains a gun and a radio, and even converts into a hot-air balloon. As it turns out, their Blofeld-like leader 'Zoltan Schumach' ( Theo Marcuse ) is out to steal the Venus De Milo...The gags come thick and fast ( the passengers' changing clothes each time a train enters a tunnel was copied a year later by the 'Matt Helm' movie 'The Ambushers' ), some work and some don't, but overall this is an extremely likable motion picture, packed with 1960's colour, gorgeous girls and good humour. As well as Bond, the 'Batman' television spoof is spoofed, along with war movies ( Harvey Korman's cameo is hilarious! ) and cigarette commercials. Nancy Sinatra plays Rossi's love interest 'Micheline' and gets to sing the title theme. If Allen and Rossi did not, as was hoped, become the 1960's answer to Lewis and Martin, well, at least, they had a good try.
moonspinner55 Art thieves in France are in for trouble when a couple of clumsy American tourists-turned-spies (Steve Rossi and Marty Allen) are assigned to expose their operation. Loud, poorly-written slapstick comedy might appeal to Three Stooges or Martin & Lewis fans. It isn't a bad-looking film, but it's shrill instead of funny. Director Norman Abbott (who also co-wrote the script and produced!) seems to really believe Marty Allen is the next Jerry Lewis or Lou Costello (he isn't) and there's far too much of him. Linking this to later spoofs like "The Naked Gun" is really doing this movie a favor. It has some snap, but it's a bit long and bumbling. Good supporting cast features Nancy Sinatra, who also sings the title cut penned by Lee Hazlewood (which is more clever than anything else in the picture). *1/2 from ****
jcholguin This film took parts of Man From U.N.C.L.E, Get Smart and Abbott & Costello but it fails badly. Steve Rossi and Marty Allen team together as secret agents that join "GGI" to battle the evilness of "THEM." A counter to the "CONTROL" and "KAOS" of Get Smart. Marty Allen does everything possible to be funny, from big eyes to falling down but it rarely works. Rossi is the straight man, ladies man and the singer but also fails to make this film believable. But then Get Smart was not believable but then Maxwell Smart made this a very enjoyable TV Series. Maybe that is the answer, as a TV Series, this may have worked well as a 30 minute show but fails because it is too long as a movie. One of the commentaries mentioned Martin & Lewis and maybe this is true but I never watched that team so my comparison is with Abbott & Costello. It was typical of a thin, straight man vs the fat, tubby man is very much Abbott & Costello. Even the intelligence or lack of remind me of the classic comedy team of old. If you have nothing to do, then by all means watch this film.
BobLib This little spy spoof has been universally put down by the critics. One wonders if any of them actually saw it or just read the credits. This ahead-of-its-time little picture is very much the precurser of the Zucker/Brooks school of many years later, with many inspired, singularly off-beat gags.Marty Allen and Steve Rossi have been described as everything from a couple of borscht-belters who got lucky, to the ultimate '60's Vegas lounge act, to the poor man's Martin and Lewis. I don't know much about that, but I do know that they're very funny here, Rossi sometimes more so than Allen, whose whiney delivery ("Hello, dere[sic]!") tends to grate sometimes. The late John Williams ("Some of the great popular songs were actually written by the great masters" for you retromercial fans!) was one of those actors who could shine in a broom closet, and he doesn't disappoint here. Neither does Theo Mercuese, who could play some of the slimiest villains of all time (Remember "The Night of the Bottomless Pit" on the original "Wild, Wild West?" A tru e classic.). He plays one with a light touch here, and does so delightfully.A hidden alternate comedy treasure. If you can't find the video, look for it on American Movie Classics, where it's run fairly frequently.