''The Ambushers'' is a 1967 American adventure comedy spy-fi film starring

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of t ...

, along with

Senta Berger Senta Verhoeven (née Berger; ''Austrian German:'' , ; born 13 May 1941) is an Austrian-German actress. She received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three Bambi Awards, two Romys, an Ad ...

and

Janice Rule Mary Janice Rule (August 15, 1931 – October 17, 2003) was an American actress and psychotherapist, earning her PhD while still acting, then acting occasionally while working in her new profession. Early life Rule was born in Norwood, Ohio, to ...

. It is the third of four films in the Matt Helm series, and is very loosely based upon the 1963 novel of the same name by

Donald Hamilton Donald Bengtsson Hamilton (March 24, 1916 – November 20, 2006) was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime ...

as well as ''

The Menacers ''The Menacers'', first published in 1968, was the eleventh novel in the Matt Helm spy series by Donald Hamilton and the first published since the launch of the ''Matt Helm'' film series starring Dean Martin. Plot summary For reasons unknown, fl ...

'' (1968) that featured UFOs and a Mexican setting. When a government-built

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

is hijacked mid-flight by Jose Ortega, the exiled ruler for an outlaw nation, secret agent Matt Helm and the ship's former pilot Sheila Sommers are sent to recover it.

Plot

Helm is sent to the ICE (Intelligence and Counter Espionage) Training Headquarters to uncover a traitor in the organisation. While there he meets ICE agent Sheila Sommers, a test pilot who has been recovered from a Central American jungle with no memory of what happened to the experimental flying saucer she flew. Due to the electro-magnetic power of the saucer, only a woman is able to fly it, as males of the species are killed by the energy. Helm had worked with Sommers on an assignment where the two had posed as man and wife. When Sommers meets Helm, her memory comes back. Mac, the head of ICE, decides to send Helm and Sommers (posing again as his wife) undercover as a photographer doing a story on the Montezuma Beer Brewery, whose advertising jingle is the same tune as the anthem of Ortega's political movement. Along the way, they must deal with Ortega's henchmen, Francesca Madeiros (an operative for Big O, Helm's main nemesis), who poses as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

and seduces Helm, an

assassin Assassination is the murder of a prominent or VIP, important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not ha ...

named Nassim and a tough thug named Rocco.

Themes

The film was the third of four produced in the late 1960s starring Martin as secret agent

. It followed ''

The Silencers ''The Silencers'' is the title of a 1962 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin Matt Helm. Plot summary When a female agent in Mexico is killed before Helm can complete his mission to extract her, he f ...

'' and '' Murderers' Row'' and like those earlier films followed the approach of being a

spoof Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to: * Forgery of goods or documents * Semen, in Australian slang * Spoof (game), a guessing game * Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets __NOTOC__ ...

of the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film series rather than a straight adaptation of Hamilton's novel. It was followed by one more, '' The Wrecking Crew'' in 1969. ''The Ambushers'' features a scene similar to one in the later James Bond film '' Live and Let Die'' (1973), in which one of the hero's love interests is stripped of her clothes by way of a magnetic gadget.

Cast

Production

The film was originally known as ''The Devastators''.

Reception

This film is generally considered the weakest of the four Helm films, and is cited in the book ''

The Fifty Worst Films of All Time ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' by Harry and

Michael Medved Michael Saul Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is syndicated via G ...

. The Medveds also cited a review of ''The Ambushers'' by critic

Judith Crist Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic. She appeared regularly on the ''Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...

which stated: "The sole distinction of this vomitous mess is that it just about reaches the nadir of witlessness, smirky sexiness and bad taste – and it's dull, dull, dull to boot."

Box office

The film earned

theatrical rental A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is freq ...

s of $4.7 million in the United States and Canada from an estimated gross of $10 million. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.

Soundtrack

Hugo Montenegro Hugo Mario Montenegro (September 2, 1925 – February 6, 1981) was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio M ...

became the third composer in as many films to do the score for the series. He wrote (along with

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...

who worked on ''Murderer's Row'') the theme song, "The Ambushers", which featured the vocals of Boyce & Hart, two of the songwriters from ''Murderer's Row''. Montenegro went on to compose the score solo for the next Matt Helm film, '' The Wrecking Crew''.

References

External links

* *
Original film trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambushers, The 1967 films 1960s English-language films American spy comedy films Columbia Pictures films American science fiction comedy films Films directed by Henry Levin 1960s spy comedy films Films based on American novels Films scored by Hugo Montenegro Films set in Mexico Films shot in Mexico American sequel films 1960s science fiction comedy films 1967 comedy films 1960s American films