A U.S. government built flying saucer is launched into space on a top secret test flight, but is brought down by exiled ruler of an outlaw nation who uses a remote control device to cause the ship to land at his secret base in Mexico. Agent Matt Helm is assigned to find the saucer and has to contend with an enemy agent and an Arab assassin.

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from United States
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The Matt Helm series of movies featuring Dean Martin are based upon the novels of the same character (loosely), but they are all parody movies. Similar to how "Naked Gun" spoofed many popular themes at the time, these films all poke fun at the spy movies by featuring the outrageousness of the films right in your face. Bond drinks martinis, Helm drinks - a lot. Bond beds a girl or two, Helm beds them all. Bond has fancy gadgets, Helm has them plus his home has them too. Bond has villains with sinister purpose (and sometimes a quirk or two), Helm has villains that are sometimes freaks or simply idiotic. These movies are blatantly obvious as spoofs and their value is that they are interesting to watch at least once or twice.

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Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California
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This film is a funny spoof of the James Bond series. Dean Martin is hilarious as the stereotypical spy with a drink in one hand and a sexy girl in the other. All the people who call this series a rip off of James Bond are missing the point. I especially loved Kurt Kaznar, playing the despicable character he would play so well in his most famous role on Land of the Giants as Alexander Fitzhugh. Also, Janice Rule is more than just window dressing. She plays the femme fetale role to the hilt and she shows a great flair for comedy in this film. The Matt Helm series was intended to be a parody of that series and did a great job of it.

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hoosierwood from Vincennes, IN
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Some think this is the worst. I say it is the best. A must see Austin Powers fans. Matt Helm inspired the rotating round bed. This movie had the gun in the bra (Fembots) and the Arab assassin. Co-star Janic Rule was great as a fellow agent. The dialog was like Steed and Miss Peale. Better than the past Helm females that were comic relief. The story was put together well, a bit silly about a flying saucer that only women can operate, but the plot line was solid. Not much filler action or girl scenes. Great location shot and the jazzed Mexican background music fit just right. Good action scene in the beer factory. The lifting machines used to lift kegs may have inspired the fight in the Alien film. A fun film.

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Poseidon-3 from Cincinnati, OH
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Third in a series of Matt Helm films starring Martin, this is often noted as being the worst or next to worst. Martin plays a swinging, hot-to-trot parody of James Bond in a film that takes every double entendre and gadget from that series and cranks them up to the nth degree. This time out, Martin must recover a stolen flying saucer with the aid of the female pilot who was stolen with it, then released. Rule (a pretty uncharacteristic choice for a film like this) plays the astronaut/pilot. Martin first attends a camp where he's refreshed in the ways of the spy (and where a battalion of voluptuous babes called The Slaygirls are being trained.) Then he's off to Mexico to track down the ship which is believed to have been nabbed by (the decidedly UN-Hispanic) Salmi. Various complications ensue including run-ins with bumbling second banana Kasznar and drop-dead eye candy Berger. It's pretty clear that the film isn't aiming for greatness, or even seriousness, when the two primary weapons are a bra that shoots bullets and a device that makes men's pants fall down! The latter device is pitifully ridiculous in that it melts belt buckles and somehow that leads to men's buttons, hooks and zippers also failing so that an army of henchman are forced to reach for their dangling trousers rather than catch their man.

There's a groovy title song played over credits that display a huge array of bikini-clad, heavily made up beauties that wind up having little or nothing to do with the plot. All of the kicky, funky music is by Hugo Montenegro and it's one of the film's better attributes. The film is only really bad if one is expecting serious spy drama or high brow jokes. The villain's chief gadget is a dopey looking satellite dish that shoots sparks out of it (along with a hand-held version.) It serves its greatest purpose pouring drinks for everyone. The one-liners in this film are of the lowest caliber possible and the ultra-macho point of view will likely be off-putting to some viewers. However, for those eager to see the type of kooky, colorful romps that inspired Mike Myers to create "Austin Powers", this is required viewing. (Check out how Dino's car trunk pops out an inflatable tent complete with bed, nightstand, lamp and metal chairs!) Martin isn't exactly flexing his acting muscles here, but he was playing into his image at the time of a boozy womanizer. Rule is a better actress than this fluff deserves and she doesn't really fit the boobs and hair-type of role, but she does well anyway. Berger is unbelievably luscious. Wearing what have to be the cinema's largest-ever earrings and sporting an impossibly golden tan, hair piled high and an aquamarine lounging gown, she is one of the most underrated beauties on record. She deserved a bigger career in Hollywood than she wound up with. There's a poolside fashion show of ultra-60's Oleg Cassini creations and most of the women wear false eyelashes so heavy they can almost open their eyes. It was a time that can never be repeated, so one should relish films like this as the time capsules they are and rent Oliver Stone movies when they want to be challenged.

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ShadeGrenade from Ambrosia
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The third 'Matt Helm' picture came out in the same year as 'You Only Live Twice' ( starring Sean Connery as 'James Bond' ), 'Casino Royale' ( an all-star 007 spoof headed by Peter Sellers ), 'In Like Flint' ( starring James Coburn as 'Derek Flint' ), and 'Billion Dollar Brain' ( starring Michael Caine as 'Harry Palmer' ). Two of those pictures had plots involving outer space, so 'The Ambushers' followed suit. After a breezy title sequence ( the catchy song is performed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart ), the film opens at a secret location somewhere in the States. I.C.E. have been brought in to supervise security on the test flight of an experimental flying saucer. The pilot is Sheila Sommers ( Janice Rule ). No sooner is the craft in flight than an anti-gravity beam pulls it back to Earth.

The thief is one Jose Ortega ( Albert Salmi ), owner of a beer factory in Acapulco. He intends selling the saucer to the highest bidder in order to finance a revolution against the Mexican Government.

Sheila is found in the jungle some time later, badly beaten and with no memory of her ordeal. The only thing she remembers is the jingle to a television commercial for Ortega's beer. To recuperate, she is sent to an I.C.E. rehabilitation centre by MacDonald. Also present ( on a refresher course ) is Matt Helm. Posing as husband and wife, he and Sheila fly to Acapulco to make the acquaintance of Mr.Ortega.

This is the second and last 'Helm' to be scripted by Herbert Baker and directed by Henry Levin. Once again Donald Hamilton's storyline ( which had an ex-Nazi out to destroy Texas with a Russian nuclear missile ) has been clumsily grafted onto a jokey, sci-fi plot. Agents from all over the world converge on Acapulco to buy the saucer. None are aware that it can only be flown by a woman. Any man who tries to do so is killed by radiation.

The locations are beautifully photographed by Burnett Guffey and Edward Colmans and the movie coasts along nicely with plenty of action and humour. There is a wonderful scene where Matt and Sheila must spend the night in the desert and his car automatically converts into a mini 'hotel'. Hugo Montenegro wrote the music, while Oleg Cassini ( Jackie Onassis' fashion designer ) provided the clothes.

Albert Salmi is particularly menacing as the villain, and Janice Rule makes a classy heroine as Sheila. Senta Berger sizzles as the top pilot for 'BIG O' - Francesca Medeiros. Kurt Kasznar ( who also appeared in 'Casino Royale' ) provides the odd laugh as Ortega's bumbling henchman. Yes, the Slaygirls are on hand again to assist Matt, some kitted out with guns in their brassieres.

At times you feel that there's a better movie struggling to get out. A stronger emphasis on adventure and less on comedy was needed. Better S.F.X. would have helped too. The saucer and Ortega's anti-gravity devices ( where did he get these, incidentally? ) look like left-over props from 'Star Trek'.

For all its shortcomings, this is the best Helm movie since 'The Silencers'. Harry and Michael Medved's decision to include it in their book 'The 50 Worst Films Of All Time' is mystifying.

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shepardjessica from sparks, nevada
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This Helm flick should be ranked slightly lower than THE SILENCERS or MURDERER'S ROW, but definitely better than that final train wreck - THE WRECKING CREW (great babes though). The Ambushers sports Janice Rule (great actress from the 60's - check her out in THE CHASE with Brando) and Senta Berger, a European beauty with exotic looks and voice. Beverly Adams is on hand again as the sweetheart assistant, Lovey Kravezit.

A 4 out of 10. Best performance = Janice Rule. Give this one a chance. It's not THAT bad! Dino is starting to show a lack of energy by the end of it, but the girls hold him up. If you're not a complete spy-spoof snob, this is a perfect way to waste 100 minutes.

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Simon Foster from United States
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I'd like to know more about the people writing negative reviews of a movie like this: how old are they? were they even alive during the 60s? This movie is a product of a different age. It was a simpler time. You could get away with making movies that had this kind of production values, script and, yes - allusions to rape in an action-comedy notwithstanding - moral values (I'm not saying they're high, they're just an indicator of the time).

Do you watch Charlie Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy and complain about the cinematography? You're watching a movie from the 60s guys - it's a time capsule. It can teach you about what life was like then, because at the time the Matt Helm movies were all completely acceptable and even successful.

I dread to think how you lot would handle a 'Carry On' film - yet they were some of the most successful movies ever made in England. You'd probably brand them sexist, vulgar, childish and uninventive though...duh!

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gridoon2015
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The third Matt Helm film - and easily the weakest up to this point. Though Maltin's BOMB rating seems a bit harsh - it IS watchable, after all - it's hard not to notice the drop-off in quality from its predecessor, "Murderers' Row". The villains are nobodies, the gadgets are not as cool as before (levitating gun StuOz
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My God! What a great UNDER-RATED movie! Where do I start? The opening theme song and the images that go with it get ten out of ten. Then after we are finished with the cool theme music we cut to the spaceship...with some cool Hugo Montenergo music playing over the spaceship footage. From this point I am hooked on this fun,fun,fun, very 1960s movie! Dean Martin is outstanding in this film and soon-to-be Land Of The Giants cast member Kurt Kasznar is fine as well. Albert Salmi is here and he will join Kurt as a guest star in one episode of Land Of The Giants (Graveyard Of Fools).

The only thing I have against the film is the train-track scene where it is a bit too obvious that the actors are actually in the studio and not out on location at all. The Ambushers is FUN.

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bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
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The Matt Helm series never quite had the class that James Bond did. 007 is still going strong with many actors who now have done the role and it shows no signs of slowing down. But the locker room type humor that typifies the Matt Helm series was definitely wearing thin when The Ambushers came out.

Dean Martin is once again intrepid secret agent Matt Helm whose cover as a fashion photographer takes him to Acapulco in search of a satellite that was captured. By of all people, a Mexican beer baron who is considerably more than that. Try and imagine August Busch or Jacob Ruppert in the spy business as well and you have the part Albert Salmi plays.

Salmi did vile and disgusting things to pilot Janice Rule upon her capture because, well he's Albert Salmi. She's traumatized and only in the company of Dean Martin with whom she shared some tender moments back in the day will she go back and try to find the thing.

Oh by the way, they need Rule because the satellite can't be flown by a man. Something in the atmosphere when the switch is thrown kills all members of the male species. The bad guys don't find this out until too late.

Dino walked through this one as did the rest of the cast which looks bored, but also eager because the Matt Helm films did make money back in the day.

Well at least we know that the hormonal kinks must have been worked out before July of 1969 when Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins went to the moon

spies|matt helm|

AKAs Titles:


Certifications:
Finland:K-16 / Netherlands:14 (orginal rating) / Portugal:M/18 / Sweden:15 / UK:PG / UK:A (original rating) / USA:Not Rated / USA:Approved (Suggested for Mature Audiences) / West Germany:16