DEADLY RECRUITS/DEATH MERCHANTS SET
DEATH MERCHANTS, THE
[Original title: The Spy Who Never Was(1976)]:
OMG!! Other than some brief nudity, there is
absolutely no intrinsic value to this movie!
The "plot" is that a man is mistaken for a spy,
whom the "spies" know this is happening, yet
do nothing to stop the obvious conclusion of
the movie! With it based upon the conflict
between the Israelis and the Arabs, most people
in the US/Canada ect would have no idea of
the meanings of most of the movie! Not only
that, but the acting is appalling, the music is
boring, and the movie is only worth one watch,
if not for anything other than the nudity! LOL D+
From IMDb.com:
***SPOILERS*** Slow boring and disjointed spy
thriller with Jason Robards Jr who's between
or just finished making the film "All the Presidents
Men" as tough as well as handicapped,he walks
with a crutch, Isreali anti-terrorist inspector Barken.
Inspector Barken is barking up the wrong tree
in him trying to track down an Arab terrorist
ring in Jerusalem if he thinks that Jewish/German
corporate lawyer Arthur Hersfeld, Hardy Kruger,
is of any help in helping him get the job done.
Robards to his credit kept himself scarce during
most of the movie hoping that people watching
it will by either falling asleep or walking out,
before he comes on the scene, completely
forget that he was ever in the movie!
As for Hersfeld he gets involved with all this
cloak & dagger stuff almost by accident when
he's mistaken at the Hamburg Airport in being
Israeli super spy Hurzog by the Arab terrorist
waiting for him there in order to knock him
off! We find out early in the movie that this
Hurzog fellow in nothing but a fake or plant
by the Israelis in order to draw the Arab
terrorists out in the open and then have
the Israeli Mossad and special forces finish
them off.
Kruger who looked and acted like he didn't
really want to be in the film, even as its
leading man, but needed the money does his
best to be convincing as a man on the run
from both the Arabs & Israelis. But he's so
bad in doing it that he comes across as if
he's gotten confused by getting off the wrong
stop on his bus instead or running for his life
with danger lurking in every twist and turn
that he makes.
We also get to see, with and without her clothes
on, beautiful and deadly Gila Almagor as rich
and spoiled as well as Arab terrorist diva or
femme fatal Amina. It's Amina who ends up
having an affair with the half Jewish and son
of holocaust survivors Arthur Hersfeld who
despite given order by her superiors in the
terrorist organization to knock him off, in
them thinking that he's Israeli super spy
Hurzog, just can't bring herself to assassinate
him.****SPOILER ALERT*** That's until he movie
gets so boring and ridicules with Arthur or
Hardy Kruger having difficulty keeping a
straight face in the dialog he's been given
that he's finally killed off, by Amina & friends,
so that the audience, or whatever is left of
it, can finally be speared any more suffering.
P.S Check out little Jennifer Jason Leigh as
the girl with the bouncing ball in her debut
movie role. - sol
