The Silencers (1966) User Reviews (73)

Double O Martin

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 13 December 2017]

Retired secret agent Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is a photographer of beautiful models with beautiful assistant Lovey Kravezit. His former boss Macdonald at Intelligence Counter Espionage with deadly Tina recruit him back in the fight against the evil Big O organization led by Tung-Tze who plans to use the underground atomic bomb test in New Mexico to start WWIII. Andreyev is the evil henchman. Matt encounters bumbling bosom blonde Gail Hendricks (Stella Stevens) and Sam Gunther.

Before Austin Powers, there was Matt Helm. This is a semi-spoof of Jimmy Bond. Dean Martin is the perfect lady's man to play the role. It's a lot of scantily clad beautiful women and outrageous spy stuff. It is semi-spoof because it's not that that far from the actual Bond franchise. It's got some song and dance as long as the dancing has the girls jiggling. The most important part is that this is fun and Martin seems to be having fun winking at the audience.

"It happened down in Santiago..."

[movibuf1962 · 7/10 · 15 July 2005]

I recently bought the DVD, and I forgot how much fun it was. It's not rocket science at all, and one could argue that even as an obvious spy spoof (in the best Bond and Flint traditions) it hiccups a bit throughout its own pretensions: Dean Martin's photographer-as-spy is properly cool, but there's a fine line between being laid-back and appearing to sleep on camera. (I could also say something about a modern audience being more than a bit startled at the immense objectifying of women throughout the whole film, but society is currently enjoying a renaissance of all things politically INcorrect and telling the rest of us to shut up- so I'll shut up.) Martin's female co-stars are all a smörgåsbord of beauty and sex appeal- every last one of them, but the one who seems to have emerged with the strongest impression is Stella Stevens' accident-prone klutz (whose airhead personality got on my nerves after a while, but I cannot deny that she looked fantastic as a redhead). For me, I preferred the enigma that is Daliah Lavi (a black-haired siren of Mideastern gorgeousness), who emerges a double agent and semi-lover of Helm's. The film does two brilliant things which take its visual appeal to dizzying heights: It launches the film with clever opening credits which peek under a bevy of gorgeous strippers, each doing a 'legitimate' strip-tease (no true nudity). Ending the strip parade is the film's other secret weapon: Cyd Charisse. I love that TPTB had the foresight to acknowledge a younger and older demographic at the same time- while simultaneously spotlighting one of filmdom's greatest dancers in a cameo (at the age of 45)- with the longest, most gorgeous legs in history. After singing the title song Charisse emerges a second time about 37 minutes into the film (in an important plot point) to perform a stunning dance in a Vegas nightclub to the Vikki Carr song "In Santiago-" then disappears much too quickly. Otherwise, there is a lot of fun with Martin poking fun at his own persona: many songs become sexual double-entendre, an audio cameo by Sinatra is quickly nixed, and so forth.

A reasonably enjoyable spy flick thanks to Martin and Stevens

[grstmc · 6/10 · 23 March 2002]

THE SILENCERS was the first in a line of spy films starring the legendary Dean Martin, but it will probably be enjoyed more by fans of old Dino than by fans of the genre. For one thing, there's no way it can be taken seriously as an action-adventure, with all of the star's mugging and leering, his double entendres, and frequent song parodies that come out of nowhere. But neither is it really a comedy, since there is a lot of realistic violence and mayhem.

Rather, it hovers back and forth and in between the two, a world in which Martin is completely at home as the all too casual superspy Matt Helm, agent for ICE (Intelligence and Counter Espionage). You know that he'll meander along in his own inimitable way, boozing, joking, and scoring, until he saves the world at film's end. If you accept that, then you can kick back and enjoy the show for its low-brow humor and the adequate action.

Forget the plot. I'm not sure that I can explain much beyond relating that the evil BIG O (Bureau of International Government and Order) is out to start WWIII between the superpowers. The main bad guys are played by Victor Buono (made up to be Chinese!), Robert Webber, and Arthur O'Connell. Each of them have done far better work elsewhere, and there's nothing in their roles here that couldn't have been handled by a call to central casting.

The ladies are another matter. Helm is joined by a partner, played by Daliah Lavi (in a step down from the previous year's LORD JIM), who tries very hard in her role. Making a better impression are Cyd Charisse and Stella Stevens. Charisse, the only female co-star in Martin's "over forty" age bracket, proves that she's still got it with a libido-raising routine during the credits, and turns up again later as an exotic dancer who passes along some vital microfilm during her act.

Stevens really livens things up, as a redhead who is suspected of being an enemy agent because she's the girlfriend(?) of Webber, and happens to wind up with the microfilm. She's innocent (well, at least of being a spy) but gets dragged along, accompanying Helm on his mission. Later on, her character turns out to be not quite so dumb, and does her part to battle the bad guys and save the world. While Helm is singlehandedly mowing down the enemy, she shows more ingenuity using her favorite new toy, the reverse-firing gun (a clever weapon, as you'll see).

Again, this film will be enjoyed if you know what to expect, and you'll know what to expect if you know Dino, who played Helm the way he played himself. If you're a fan of his well-worn persona, then that's probably good enough. Along with his easygoing style and humor, throw in assorted action sequences, and many beautiful women (especially sexy Stevens, who does a lot with her role), and you've got THE SILENCERS. It succeeds as very passable entertainment, and is certainly the best of the entire Matt Helm series.

For guns, girls and mayhem, this movie will not disappoint.

[mrudder2002 · 16 February 2002]

The first in the Matt helm series; some say the best of all the James Bond spoofs. Violence and humor are equally mixed, as they are in the Bond pictures. *The Silencers* probably has the most alluring collection of femmes fatales as Hollywood has ever assembled. Klutzy (or is she really?) Stella Stevens, brunette Dahlia Lavi, blond Nancy Kovack, and dancer Cyd Charisse all have important roles. It is not giving away too much to say that of these four women, two are good, two are bad, and three of them suffer the fate of getting shot to death at surprising moments.

A bit of trivia: Beverly Adams, Helm's curvaceous secretary, married Yvres St. Laurent. And deadly Nancy Kovack married conductor Zubin Mehta, the lucky devil. Kovack, clad in only her high heeled shoes and one of Martin's white shirts, tries to seduce him into coming back to work for ICE, his old outfit. It is perhaps the most erotic three minute scene in any spy movie.

Good fun

[grantss · 6/10 · 31 August 2019]

Good fun. A James Bond spoof, made 30 years before Austin Powers!

Has all the Bond ingredients - debonair leading man, stunningly beautiful women, random plot, weird "when would you ever use that?" gadgets (which then are used!), bloated megalomaniac villains, hero-gets-captured-but-not-killed-instantly-just-so-that-he-can-escape silliness.

Dean Martin is great in the lead role.

I love it!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 16 April 2020]

Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli once worked together as Warwick Productions, putting movies out through Columbia Pictures. Broccoli wanted to buy the rights to the James Bond novels, but Allen wasn't interested. They broke up their partnership, Broccoli went into partnership with Harry Saltzman and the rest was history.

After the success of the Bond series, Allen decided to make his own spy movies. He read a copy of one of the Matt Helm novels at an airport, saying it was "The Silencers or The Death of a Citizen, I forget which," and within 24 hours had the rights bought and sold to Columbia Pictures to make a series of films.

Hamilton's books were serious spy novels about an assassin recruited to continue killing for the government, while these films are spoofs starring Dean Martin. "We had wanted Paul Newman or one of the good stars but no one would go up against Sean Connery. Nobody wants to go up against a successful series," said Allen. Martin had no such issues.

Matt Helm is a retired secret agent, much happier to be shooting models instead of foreign agents. Ably assisted by Lovely Kravezit (Beverly Adams, Torture Garden, as well as the wife of Vidal Sassoon), he goes back to the ICE (Intelligence and Counter-Espionage) agency to battle the Big O (Bureau for International Government and Order) organization and criminal mastermind Tung-Tze (Victor Buono, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?).

The Matt Helm movies are all really about our hero meeting all manner of gorgeous women, who are often called The Slaygirls. Here, they are Daliah Lavi (The Whip and the Body), Stella Stevens (Playboy Playmate of the Month for January 1960), Nancy Kovack (Marooned) and Cyd Charisse as the singing seductress Sarita.

Matt's boss Macdonald is played by James Gregory, who would later play General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Frank Luger on Barney Miller.

As late as 2018, there have been rumors of a new series of these films with Bradley Cooper involved. Who knows what those will be like, but I doubt Helm will have a full bar in the back of his car.

Here's a scopitone of the movie's theme song. These color 16 mm film shorts with a magnetic soundtrack were designed to be shown in specially designed jukeboxes. Joi Lansing was inspired by burlesque to do her own version of the theme song from this movie. Lansing appears in two of my favorite crazy films, the musical mess Hillbillys in a Haunted House and the 1970 biker monster mashup Bigfoot.

Let's be clear -- the Matt Helm series was never actually filmed...

[A_Different_Drummer · 1/10 · 2 December 2013]

Just in case this fact was not made clear in the other reviews. Back in the spy era (James Bond, Our Man Flint, Secret Agent, Man from UNCLE, I SPY, Callan etc etc) there was a very popular series of thrillers penned by a respected suspense writer, Donald Hamilton. Although (arguably) all the entries in the series (27 in all) were of lesser quality than the very first and most visceral work, DEATH OF A CITIZEN, readers worldwide were captivated by the character and the first-person narrative, and Hamilton continued to pen them for decades, into a ripe old age. Hollywood (speaking broadly here) was aware of the success of this series and, faced with a choice between attempting to actually bring the character to life on-screen, or creating a cheap, superficial, low-quality, vehicle for superstar Dean Martin to merely show up for, and walk away with a large paycheck for everyone, well, let's just say the second idea was just too good to pass up. SO HERE IS THE POINT OF THE REVIEW. There were a handful of films made under the Matt Helm title. They had nothing to do with Matt Helm. And just in case this is too confusing, I will add that they (speaking broadly again) also made a TV series with the name MATT HELM, but (hopefully you are ahead of me here) it had nothing to do with the Hamilton character either, it was about a detective, and about making more money for the producers by using a name that resonated with the public. So, bottom line, all the Martin films are not based on the actual character and taken together as a whole they contain the cinematic equivalent of a can of beer left open in the sun for 48 hours. And leave the same taste in your mouth. Glad we had a chance to clear that up.

Dino. And Plenty of Eye-Candy

[BoomerDT · 7/10 · 6 July 2022]

By the mid 60's Dean Martin was on top of the entertainment world, even above his pal Sinatra. His hit records even knocked the Beatles off the top of the pop charts in 1964, his film career was going great after his break-up with partner Jerry Lewis nearly 10 years earlier, and his weekly variety show-part comedy, part music- was in the Top Ten. And in the film world, thanks to Sean Connery and the 007 franchise, spy flicks had become the biggest and hippest genre. So it was natural to pair up Dean in the first- and best- of 4 spy spoofs with Dino as super cool Secret Agent Matt Helm, who also doubles as a photographer of beautiful scantliy clad women for "Slaymate" magazine. The nonsensical plot in "The Silencers" isn't important, but Dean seems to have a lot of fun. But besides Dino playing the King of Cool the other reason to watch are a collection of drop dead sexy co-stars. Dalilah Lavi, Beverly Adams, Cyd Charisse-showing her incredible legs and figure in a couple dancing routines, and most notably Stella Stevens as a sexy bimbo, quite naive, who somehow gets caught up in esponiage ring ran by the Evil Crime Organization, "Big O." Double entendres flourish through out "The Silencers" as do the gorgeous women, all dressed provactively. Plenty of gimmicks and laughs in this...Bond movies of the period are serious dramas in compaison.

Bad Start to an Alright Series

[nutsy · 1/10 · 14 April 2004]

Many dreadful things followed in the profitable wake of the James Bond series. The Matt Helm series was not the worst of these. They were a comic turn on a serious series of spy novels by Donald Hamilton. Now, I love Dean Martin, and Bond spoofs/rip-offs, I even love some of the Matt Helm films (#2, MURDERER'S ROW, and #3, THE AMBUSHERS), but THE SILENCERS is just plain bad.

Director Phil Karlson (WALKING TALL) is mostly to blame for the failure of this film. I know this because he also directed THE WRECKING CREW, the last film in the series, and it had all the same problems. He introduces us to our hero, lying naked in bed, having dreams of models in various silly costumes which are narrated by Martin's singing. Meanwhile, Matt Helm's boss, MacDonald (James Gregory) is trying to call him to get him on his mission. This is supposed to be funny, but it's tedious as hell and a bad start for an action-comedy.

In the only well shot scene in the movie, we see agents of I.C.E. (the good guys) chasing agents of BIG-O (the bad guys) in cars on a deserted stretch of highway in Arizona. The viewer is introduced to a fairly standard plot involving the threat of the United States being destroyed with its own missiles. Things never pan out quite right in this movie, though. All the action sequences are mishandled and the attempts at romance and comedy are painful. The bad guys, who are supposed to be imposing and exotic, try to defeat Helm with mundane items like police cars and telephones. Meanwhile, Matt Helm gets a gun that can shoot backwards (leading to a bad running gag) and exploding coat buttons.

The film's love interest is Stella Stevens, playing a clumsy girl who somehow got caught up with BIG-O without knowing it ("Big *O*? You are sick! S-I-Q-U-E, sick!"). The scenes between her and Dean Martin are all awful stuff that tries to be funny, but just slows the movie down. A very long sequence has the pair driving to San Juan. Helm gets her drunk to get her to talk, and... Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Things do end up building to a Bond-like climax involving BIG-O's underground base of operations and an animated missile. Our villain, the man in the chair, has to be the saddest attempt to make a white man look Oriental in screen history. I'd call it racist, but it's really just pathetic.

MURDERER'S ROW had all these bugs worked out and came in a tighter, funnier package thanks to Henry Levin. THE AMBUSHERS, often called the worst in the series, is still bad, but it's a lot easier to watch than this or THE WRECKING CREW. THE SILENCERS simply does everything wrong. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it wants to be funny or what. Elmer Bernstein wrote a good score for this, so it's even more annoying that Karlson leaves so much of this film silent. If you are stuck watching this for some reason try to either fast forward or fake a heart-attack. If you want a Bond spoof/rip-off that won't make you want to die, see either MURDERER'S ROW or OUR MAN FLINT. THE SILENCERS can only give you pleasure if you burn the tape and get high inhaling the fumes.

The Iceman Cometh

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 15 April 2021]

Dean Martin briefly took time off from carousing with the Rat Pack to make this, the first and least worst of the Matt Helm pictures.

Carrying a film on his shoulders alone being plainly beyond him (stuntmen are necessary for anything resembling action), Paramount has bolstered Martin with a first-rate supporting cast and lavish production values (including a score by Elmer Bernstein and photography by Oscar-winning cameraman Burnet Guffey), including outlandish gimmicks like a gun that fires backwards.

Lines like "She's dead! Somebody killed her!!" demonstrate both the calibre of the dialogue and of the fate of most of the succession of big-haired females that Dino leers at during the course of the movie; with memorable but very marginal appearances by Cyd Charisse (who also sings the title song) and Nancy Kovack. Fortunately a red-haired Stella Stevens provides a likeably klutzy female lead ("If you were an Indian, Custer would still be alive") to give you someone to root for when things start getting blown up.

Astoundingly bad

[dnhyt · 1/10 · 26 January 2012]

This is a really bad movie. Do not waste any part of your life watching it. It is not so much a Bond spoof as an eighth-grader's prequel of Austin Powers, by way of Las Vegas. If you've ever read any of the Matt Helm books, you'll hate this movie, because it has absolutely nothing in common with the books besides the character's name.

This Matt Helm sings. He has a huge collection of impractical and silly gadgets. His dialog is painfully stilted and inappropriate, and he talks too much. If the Dean Martin character were completely removed from the movie, it would be a third-rate period TV action show. With him in it, it's much worse than that.

I hope whoever approved the making of this turkey lost his job and never worked in the movie business again.

Mr. Cool Dean Martin

[Petey-10 · 8/10 · 26 June 2007]

He's super spy Matt Helm.All the girls love him and all the men envy him.And some want to kill him.In the 1960's they made four Matt Helm movies.The Silencers (1966) is the first one of them directed by Phil Karlson.In this movie Matt Helm's job is to prevent WWIII.Not an easy job to do, except for Matt Helm.Matt Helm movies were James Bond parodies.They did the same Austin Powers did some decades later.And this agent could also sing! The actor who portrayed Matt Helm was super cool Dean Martin.The leading lady of this first movie was portrayed by super sexy Stella Stevens (Gail).Daliah Lavi plays Tina.The singing and dancing beauty Cyd Charisse is Sarita.The movie history has pretty much forgotten these movies.I found The Silencers rather entertaining.Matt Helm movies look very 60's.It's probably the nostalgia that raises the value of these movies.And the super cool Dean Martin.

The First Matt Helm Is The Best Matt Helm

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 25 July 2009]

The Silencers was the first of four films that Dean Martin made as secret agent Matt Helm. The original novels by Donald Hamilton have a far more serious Helm in them. So if you're not a Dean Martin fan expecting to see Dean Martin as himself, don't bother with the film.

But there are certainly plenty of those around to watch Dino become our American James Bond. You have to remember that Bond if he was anything was always a gentleman. Dino as Helm is more like a locker room version of Bond, you wouldn't see Bond in the training room bragging about all his conquests.

In between the women and his cover job as a photographer Dino does work for ICE, Intelligence and Counter Espionage. In this film Dean's got his assignment to track down a defecting US scientist who is working with the Goldfinger/Blofeld of this film, Victor Buono. Buono's got his own secret organization which wants to cause international mischief between the superpowers, in this case by diverting a missile to target a spot where an underground atomic test has taken place and to blow it up, unloosing all kinds of radioactivity over the Southwest USA.

One thing about the Helm films as well as the Bond films, you will always see plenty of beautiful women. In this case we've got Cyd Charisse, Dalilah Lavi, Stella Stevens, and as Dino's personal secretary Lovey Kravezit, Beverly Adams. Adams gets a lot farther with him than poor lovesick Moneypenny does with James Bond.

Stella Stevens is such a klutz we're not sure who she's really helping in this film. It's a nice comic performance, one of Stella's best on screen. With musical opportunities fewer and fewer it's always a pleasure to see Cyd Charisse dance with her voice dubbed by Vikki Carr.

The first Helm was the best, sadly they deteriorated in quality as the series continued. The Silencers also has Dino singing some nice parody lyrics to some popular standards that his generation and mine will recognize.

Sad imitation

[dmuel · 2/10 · 12 March 2016]

After James Bond began piling up revenue with a string of box office winners, there were numerous imitators, lots of spies popping up on the big screen. Martin's Matt Helm was among the worst of the Hollywood rip offs. It is difficult to view these terribly contrived stories with Martin crooning sappy songs on his way to save the world from evil plots and criminal syndicates. His "irresistible" sex appeal on screen strains credulity, and nothing in his demeanor suggests sophistication or cleverness. While there may have been even worse, lower- budget spy flicks than the Matt Helm franchise, this is a very pale effort compared to any of the various Bond incarnations.

Dean Martin as a secret agent?

[grendelkhan · 28 September 2003]

Yep, that's the premise, and the beginning to the silliest spy series, before a certain dentally-challenged International Man of Mystery arrived.

Dean Martin starred as Matt Helm, the lead character in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. The books were serious spy adventures; but, there is nothing serious about the film series. Dean plays it tongue-in-cheek, often making fun of his own image and rivalry with fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra. The films are filled with strange characters and silly gadgets.

Martin has fun with the role and keeps the film rolling along, but Stella Stevens makes it memorable. She is sexy as hell, but is such a lovable klutz that she dominates every scene. Victor Buono gets to chew the most scenery this side of his Batman appearances.

The gadgets make James Bond look like a documentary: a gun that shoots backward unless the trigger is pushed, exploding buttons, a station wagon with a fold down bed and bar, and Helm's many household appliances.

These films were anything but serious, but this one is very entertaining. The films tended to get worse with each new entry, but most of the elements work well here. If you are looking for serious spy cinema, try 007 or Harry Palmer. If you want some goofy fun, try this.

What about Nancy?

[Col_Hessler · 6/10 · 13 February 2005]

I've been reading the comments and I've only seen one of you talk about Nancy Kovack. I remember when I saw this at the age of 10, and I thought, and still do think, that Nancy was just very sexy. True, she wasn't a real blonde, the brown eyes gave it away, but the husky voice, the come hither act, and those gorgeous legs, made this one flick I love to put on late at night. I heard that the DVD has a smaller picture so when we last see our Nancy baby, that we don't get to see her butt. That's a shame, 'cause it was a nice one. Anyway, I liked her so much in this flick. And, it was what made my mind up that a girl in a man's shirt is very sexy.

Matt Helm comes of retirement to carry out a new assignment , being sympathetically played by Dean Martin

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 19 January 2022]

A plotless spoof of James Bond movie with a mismatched cast , entertainment and bizarre amusement . Run-of-the-mill spy , rip-off movie with usual ingredients : wonderful girls with mini-skirts , pursuits , fights , fantastic gadgets , helicopters , luxurious cars and a complete mess . Silly spoof , resulting to be a typical product of the Sixties played by a motley cast of dozens . It deals with a veteran , retired spy , Matt Helm : Dean Martin , who's assigned a new mission . Matt is re-activated in order to take down an evil organization from exploding an atom bomb over the United States . It seems that the nasty organization Big O headed by Tung-Ze : Victor Buono has an evil scheme called "Operation: Fallout , as he will explode an atomic bomb over Alamogordo and subsequently to begin WWIII between USA and Russia . But only Matt Helm can stop them , that is if Matt can stay away from the babes and the booze. Follow Matt Helm secret agent from bedroom to bedlam with guns, girls and dynamite! Matt Helm shoots the works! . The Slaygirls will slay you! . Girls, Gags & Gadgets! . The Best Spy Thriller of Nineteen Sexty-Sex! . Meet Matt Helm and his Slaygirls! . Slaygirls will slay you and so will Lovey Kravezit! . Follow his secret from bedroom to bedlam, with guns, girls and dynamite!

This funny but virtually failed film can stand as one of the amusing spoofs marking the 1960s comedy . This first Matt Helm movie , being based on the novels "The Silencers" and "Death of a Citizen" from Donald Hamilton and really influenced by Sean Connery's James Bond series , Euro-spy movies and maybe ¨Get Smart¨ writers watched this film before making their series . It has entertainment and amusement enough , displaying some diverting sketches , though with lots of flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , but it has big fun , so it cares . And yet there are some attractive bits within , adding scenes of bizarre hilarity . It is a colorful lark , though very dated in its shiny Sixties pop-art way . Still , the all-star-cast is fun , and it stars Dean Martin as secret agent Matt Helm who must save the American atomic missile system from sabotage and standing out Daliah Lavi as gorgeous , sexy Tina . As the main enjoyment is to guess who's the beautiful girl appearing here and there , including the following ones : Daliah Lavi , Stella Stevens, Nancy Kovack , Cyd Charisse , Beverly Adams . Along with a plethota of notorious secondaries as Victor Buono , Arthur O'Connell , Robert Webber , James Gregory , Roger C. Carmel , Richard Devon , among others . It is followed ¨Murderer's Row¨(1966) and ¨The Wrecking Crew¨(1968) and there's a TV series : ¨Matt Helm¨ starred by David Janssen .

It packs a colorful and shimmering cinematography by Burnett Guffey. Likewise , catching and agreeable musical score by Elmer Bernstein , including an enjoyable leitmotif . This rompy spoof motion picture was professionally directed by Phil Karlson . There were no half measures in this filmmaker . He would make adventure movies or violent and noir films . As he directed Western as ¨Gunman's walk¨ , ¨They rode west¨, ¨Texas rangers, ¨Iroquois trail¨ and Gansters genre or Noir films as ¨Phoenix city story¨ and ¨Scarface mob¨ . Failure alternated with hits through his career, though Karlson's direction was more than successful in ¨ Walking tall¨ with invaluable help of Joe Don Baker . The Silencers(1966) rating : Acceptable and passable spy movie , 6/10 .The flick will appeal to Dean Martin fans . Not wanting to compete with the Sean Connery vehicles , this movie was intented to be a stylish spoof but it was wrong . It is funny and attractive ; nevertheless , for some reviewers , it's an overlong failure and overblown bore .

The best Matt Helm film.

[brefane · 4/10 · 14 April 2014]

Though it lacks style or wit, The Silencers is the best of the 4 Dean Martin Matt Helm films. Like another Bond parody, 1967's Casino Royale, The Silencers features gorgeous women, endless innuendo and an irrelevant plot. Stella Stevens walks away with the acting honors and a relaxed and charming Daliah Lavi is both a perfect foil and complement to Dean Martin's under appreciated talents Cyd Charisse is in great form, but for my money Victor Buono made a better villain on TV's Batman than he does here. The photography by Burnett Guffey (Bonnie and Clyde) is bright and appealing, and director Phil Karlson (Walking Tall) seems to be marking time with this poorly paced film. Still, it's fun.

Fun enough, I suppose

[nightwishouge · 6/10 · 14 February 2019]

The Silencers introduces us to Dean Martin's character via a ludicrously over-the-top depiction of a swinger's bedroom in 1960s America, complete with an ambulatory bed that dumps the lazing occupants directly into a Jacuzzi. Pretty standard 60's sex-comedy stuff; a slightly more explicit manifestation of a comedic allusion somebody might make in a Doris Day movie. (The later station wagon sporting a couch in the back seat hits a similar note.) "Okay," I thought. "This is basically going to be Austin Powers before Austin Powers: a silly James Bond spoof."

Well, not quite. The Silencers doesn't really follow through on that.

The movie is light-hearted enough throughout. But since it gets caught up in as many cliches as it sends up, it's not really consistent enough to be a spoof--unless the Roger Moore Bond films can accurately be described as such. This strikes about the same ratio of goofiness to sincerity.

Should I go on comparing this film to Bond? It seems only natural, since the franchise was developed as an answer to the Broccoli undertakings. Notable to me were the sexual politics on display. Matt Helm is surprisingly respectful of leading female-bystander-dragged-into-covert-operations Gail, played by Stella Stevens. For a long time, forced into a road trip with Helm to clear her name, she demands he keep his distance. I kept expecting him to force a kiss on her anyway, because that's how the sixties rolled. To my amazement, that never happened. Instead Helm simply kicks back and relaxes in waiting for the inevitable sexual chemistry to drive her into his arms more willingly. For those of us who get queasy when Connery's Bond seduces a woman by forcing himself on her with brutish force, it's refreshing.

Speaking of Stella Stevens, I also found her performance to be one of the highlights of the film .(The other is the dance number in the opening credits with Cyd Charisse.) She handles the comedy pretty well while also delivering as required in the dramatic moments. Probably the standout scene in the film for me is a moment in which, after struggling over a gun, Gail fully believes she is about to be executed by a henchman. She doesn't cower and beg and scream for Matt Helm. Instead she raises herself up with all the courage and dignity she can muster and looks the gunman straight in the eye with a defiant glare just as he prepares to pull the trigger. I found this surprisingly powerful and endearing for such a silly film. (The resolution of this scene is also one of the funnier outcomes.)

There's also a TLR camera that shoots throwing stars out of the lens. As a vintage camera enthusiast I was pretty keen on that.

Will I see the sequels? If I can find them, I might. Mainly because I know Ann-Margret is in one of them.

Impossible to make a worse movie

[qormi · 1/10 · 3 August 2019]

The Silencers is a 6th grade boy's fantasy fueled by the box of Playboy magazines he found under his father's bed in the year 1965. Dean Martin plays a 50 year old sleepy chick magnet who is constantly pursued by hot supermodel types whose sole purpose in life is to get him in bed. But nothing happens because neither Matt Helm nor the lust filled babes know what to do or how to do it. So they keep trying to seduce each other and never get to second base.

More on Nancy

[Troytroy · 6/10 · 9 May 2005]

Just like the last commenter. I first saw this movie when I was about 12. All the woman are alluring; but, Nancy's scene was definitely a notch above. Of all the Matt Helm movies, she and Elke Sommer in the Wrecking Crew are the most seductive and deadliest. Fortunately for Matt and unfortunately for the beauties their own people eliminate them. Even when Nancy is limp in Matt's arms he still has a what just happened look. That's the difference between Matt and Bond. James is always in control; Matt survives due to the incompetence of his enemies. But, that's the point of these movies - comedy. These movies are dated when viewed now; but, are worth watching for those who want a taste of the 60's.

Coma ain't cool

[plex · 2/10 · 5 December 2012]

By the time Matt Helm emerged, 4 bond films had been released. Just long enough for greedy Hollywood to try to cash in on someone else's success formula. I viewed 3 of the 4 Helm movies and it became obvious that they saw the Bond films and said "Lets do everything different than Bond." Maybe they had to execute them differently due to copyright or plagiarism, I don't know. But even had they emulated the Bond formulas more closely, Albert Broccoli would still be laughing and certainly not threatened. But that laughter would come out of ridicule and not from any on-screen humor. Helm, played by Dean Martin is so laid back he appears to be in a stupor. He couldn't move fast if a sloth was chasing him. He, like Bond, is a misogynistic boozer who is licensed to kill, but only those words exemplify any actual resemblance. Martin, who is nearly 50 in the first 2 installments and over 50 in the 2nd two, drives a wood paneled station wagon, chain smokes, and drinks while driving. He has to be coaxed into performing any act of duty as he is constantly resisting work. Of course he beds just about any woman he meets, which is sort of creepy because some of them are half his age, if that. I will say, the Helm women equal the Bond women in looks, but not sex appeal, as they are written as 1-dimensional excuses to be a prop for fashion designers.On the topic of fashion, Helm's look is a turtleneck under a blazer. His "day job" seems to be a fashion photographer and he spends more time fantasizing and singing about them then shooting them. The songs are crooner-corny, the jokes are stupid. But the stupidity does not stop there. The scripts are so vapid they could almost be improvised. The three movies I saw plodded along at a snails pace, poorly edited, terrible continuity, and repeated variations on the same scenery. The villains had little evil about them, and apparently spent much of their time performing the dirty duties their lackey's should have. Admittedly I only continued to watch these films for the babes, but they were so plastic and un-sexy, that even that quickly became boring for me. By comparison, the Flint movies were more entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't approaching this with too much serious enthusiasm at the onset. Dean Martin cannot act, and I knew he would play the rat-pack cool-card to the hilt. I also understand parody and kitsch. But these films were not intelligent enough on any level to deliver. The 1st two films end with Helm sliding into his indoor pool/tub from a robotic bed, with a girl at his side, I can only assume the next two did the same. My question is: why couldn't they have placed the film canisters and scripts along with them?

Helm takes off

[Kakueke · 9/10 · 10 March 2002]

Dean Martin stars in this spy spoof, the beginning of the Matt Helm series. Matt may have a blase attitude about his duties and all the beautiful women around him throwing themselves at him, but he still carries out his duties well and ends up obliging the women, with good humor and lines. The screenplay is interspersed with Dean's singing, lending to the lighthearted atmosphere. While tongue in cheek, the plot is good, as Victor Buono plays the lead villain who is seeking to engineer a nuclear disaster. Among many gorgeous women in this male fantasy, the leading one is Stella Stevens, who plays Gail Hendrix, suspected of being a spy till the end. There is a nice scene when she and Dean are pulled over in a car on the highway in a rainstorm. Some people just don't enjoy spoofs, but I do if they are well done, and with its many nice elements I enjoyed this more than most real things.

THE SILENCERS (Phil Karlson, 1966) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 27 May 2008]

I'd always wanted to check out Dean Martin's Matt Helm series of comedy-thrillers spoofing the hugely successful James Bond films; I'd seen a few imitations of the latter already (including James Coburn's two Derek Flint movies) and one good lampoon in CARRY ON SPYING (1964) – but this first of the Helms is generally considered as the most successful of the lot.

And great fun it is, too – with Martin gleefully sending up not just the secret agent formula (pardon the pun) but his own image as a singer, boozer and womanizer! Starting off with the amusingly lewd credit sequence (those for the Bond films themselves were known to be quite risqué) which is highlighted by Cyd Charisse dancing and miming the title tune (vocals provided by Vicki Carr), we're then introduced to the comfortable lifestyle of a retired secret agent. Matt Helm's house, in fact, is equipped with any number of appliances such as a multi-purpose bed and shower parts strategically placed to appease the censor(!) and a gorgeous personal secretary with the suggestive name of Lovey Kravezit!! Incidentally, like Bond, he comes armed with a plethora of unlikely gadgets-cum-deadly weapons such as knives darting out of a camera (Helm is an amateur photographer), a jacket fitted with micro-bombs and, best of all, a gun that can shoot in reverse!

Helm operates in the service of I.C.E. (Intelligence Counter Espionage), whose nemesis is The Big O; their current leader is an underused Victor Buono as an improbable Asian and his nefarious plan involves a wide-spread infestation of radioactivity which would eventually spark a war between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Helm's superior is played by James Gregory and his luscious aide is Daliah Lavi; they're supposed to pick up a compromising tape from the leading performer (Charisse) at a swank club. However, she's murdered in mid-routine and in full view of the audience (shades of Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS [1935] perhaps?)…but, before she expires, Charisse confides the tape and a cryptic message to Stella Stevens (who happens to be standing nearest to her). The latter constitutes a delightful presence as an accident-prone red-headed beauty whom Helm even dubs a "disaster area"; having been involved with Robert Webber (who's revealed as an operative of The Big O), Helm suspects that Stevens is too and tries to get her to reveal their intentions…but it eventually transpires that the double agent resides within his own ranks! Martin and Stevens are caught and taken to the enemy underground base but, naturally, manage to escape, outwit Buono, defeat his henchmen, and thwart the operation in the nick of time.

The film provides stylish and witty entertainment spiced with in-jokes (including a friendly jibe at Martin's fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra) and the occasional verse sung by Martin himself commenting on the action(!); incidentally, Elmer Bernstein's score is quite good. If one had to nitpick, the plot isn't all that interesting or even very suspenseful – though a car chase early on and the final outburst of action is competently handled by director Karlson. Still, the film's mainstay are undoubtedly the two leading performances – one laid-back but, at the same time, shrewdly self-deprecating and the other at once sexy and charmingly maladroit.

One final nod to the James Bond extravaganzas is the film's epilogue announcing the next adventure of the secret agent; by the way, I'll be following this myself with another Martin/Helm outing – though it happens to be the very last one in the series, THE WRECKING CREW (1969; mind you, all three sequels are reportedly much inferior!), which I acquired concurrently with THE SILENCERS

It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World

[Lejink · 3/10 · 23 October 2020]

I've been trying to reconcile myself as to how I came to watch this particular movie. I do recall seeing it, or one of its sequels, on TV perhaps when I was 10 or 11 and I suppose responding to its spy-world escapism in the wake of the Bond movies or shows like "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". In fact I've just made a point of watching most of the Bond movies I've not seen before which mostly comprised Roger Moore's lighter, more humorous take on the Fleming character, so maybe that led me to it. Anyway, it happened and I'm kind of sorry it did.

I can see why it might have appealed in some way to my pre-teen self way back then, with its gadgetry, pretty girls, espionage and an enviable guy who never loses and always gets the girl. But that's the problem, the film seems to be aimed at exactly that twelve year-old-kid demographic. I probably didn't even know Dean Martin's background at the time or I might have seen how miscast he was in the part for starters.

Now I see it for what it is, a rather cheap, tawdry, sexist take on 007. Don't get me wrong, the 60's Bond movies occasionally splashed in the same murky waters but I'd argue much more at the shallow end. I mean, the first time we meet Helm-girl Stella Stevens she's in a bikini by a pool, bending over with old Dino sitting close by, getting an eyeful of her derrière. Later he rips off her dress to supposedly look for a concealed microfilm but of course it's only a titillating means of revealing Miss Stevens' in her fetching lingerie. If Benny Hill did James Bond, it couldn't be more leering and lairy than this.

Martin boozes and schmoozes his way through proceedings, his stunt-man arguably getting more screen time than him, although no-fool Dino does all his own work when it comes to making out with the pretty ladies who even in the more enlightened year of 1966 seem to fall like summer rain for a boozy old lech who dresses like their dad and croons to their mums.

I get that camp was in and secret-agents were very much in vogue this particular year with the success of shows like "Batman" and "Get Smart" but I don't remember either of those two series being anywhere near as crass and unfunny as this. What it is, is proof that not everything from the Swinging Sixties was cool and hip.