Hammerhead (1968)

Who payed the critics

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

American agent Charles Hood needs to stop international criminal Hammerhead from stealing a secret report on nuclear defense. British production has cheeky asides and a bouncy score from David Whitaker--as well as a curious obsession with erotic art!--but is so mild it barely makes an impression. Adaptation of the spy novel by James Mayo (aka Stephen Coulter) opens with a garish hippie happening in London that is liable to scare away the film's target audience. In the lead, Vince Edwards seems a little sheepish; he fills the bill but lacks the punchy personality to make Hood a three-dimensional hero. *1/2 from ****

The other reviews are pretty spot-on in assessing this as utter drek, but oddly nobody has mentioned the ludicrous scene in which Judy Geeson - worst actress of 1968 without a doubt - suddenly bursts into song. After a good hour (which seems like a lifetime) of Geeson's high pitched, twelve year old schoolgirl voice, she appears in a nightclub 'singing', only her voice has been dubbed by a Madeline Bell soundalike (for those who aren't familiar with Miss Bell, she is a husky voiced jazz singer of the Shirley Bassey type). A more unsuitable voice double for Judy Geeson would be hard to imagine! The only plus in the entire film is the great Diana Dors, injecting interest and style into a project sadly lacking in both departments.

Made at the height of the spy movie craze, Hammerhead commits the worst sin of all in the movie trade - it's monotonous. I enjoy an entertaining bad movie as much as the next, but a boring bad movie is unforgivable and forgettable. So why am I writing this review, you may ask? Because I'm a nice guy and I'm doing this as a public service. If you're a hard-core James Bond/spy movie fanatic like me, you HAVE to see every release that came out during that period. It's inevitable that you're going to track this one down. Don't say I didn't warn you.Oh, I'm sorry-I forgot to mention the plot. Vince Edwards, who some of us remember. on TV as Dr. Ben Casey, doffs his O.R. scrubs and puts on his suit and tie to become... Well, that's the beauty of this incomprehensible film. When you watching you're not exactly sure what he's supposed to be. One minute he says he's an international jewel thief, the next minute, perky Brit flower child Judy Geeson accuses him of being a spy. Even though you never really find out what he is, by the end of the movie, you don't really care. From the beginning to the end, this piece of crap keeps going back and forth to scenes of "Flower power children", dancing in the streets, dancing on top of boats, dancing on top of cars, dancing up on stage...well you get the idea. Maybe if you take some hallucinogens, this movie will really be enjoyable for you. When I think of "dated" movies, I think some of the worst ones come from the "psychedelic age". This movie smells like stale pot. I recommend avoid at all costs.

i loved this when i saw it on tv umpteen years ago. as i remember it, it was among the more stylish of Bond ripoffs; & of course, tres-60's. but the only image that sticks with me (SPOILER ALERT) is a scene of mass dancing on the beach, while the timer ticks down that will destroy the world. and it does...