# Wrecking Crew, The (1969)

### reviewed by
Afterburner

    Review of:
    THE WRECKING CREW (1969)

    Review written:  1/24/98
    Copyright 1998 Afterburner
    Email me at:  aburner@erols.com

Rating (out of 10): N/A. See review for further details.

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For those who haven't seen any of them, the Matt Helm movies answer the question "What if Hugh Hefner (founder and publisher of Playboy Magazine) had been a secret agent on the side?" Dean Martin plays Matt Helm, an affable, boozing photographer of scantily-clad women who works for "Slaymate" magazine. But that's just a cover! The truth is that Helm is *really* an affable, boozing, super-competent secret agent who works for the Intelligence Counter Espionage (ICE) organization.

Before we go further, I should point out that the Matt Helm movies are all pretty bad. But they're wonderfully bad, and they're great, cheezy, campy fun. I tend to speak glowingly of the Matt Helm movies because I enjoy them for their over-the-top campiness, but more serious-minded viewers will probably be turned off.

In many ways, however, THE WRECKING CREW (1969) is the best of the four Matt Helm movies. While it still has a great deal of camp, the series appeared to be maturing with this movie, and it's a shame that this one ended up being the last of the series (despite a promise in the closing credits for "The Ravagers," which was never made).

The movie begins with Count Massimo pilfering a few billion dollars of gold bullion from a train. The gold bullion belongs to the USA. It was on a train heading through Denmark on its way to London. No, I don't know why either. It's a Matt Helm movie. You just gotta accept it.

Helm is assigned to find the gold and get it back before the press finds out and before the world bankers repossess the USA. And so he travels to Denmark, meeting up with Lola Medina (a post-"Gilligan's Island" Tina Louise), and with the accident prone Freya Carlson (Sharon Tate), ostensibly a functionary for the Denmark Department of Tourism (but REALLY a secret agent in her own right -- as if anybody didn't see *that* coming).

There are several things which make this the best of the four Matt Helm movies. The villan, Count Massimo Contini (Nigel Green) is easily the best of the series. The fight scenes (choreographed by Bruce Lee) are light-years ahead of the fight scenes in the other three. And in several scenes, Martin actually seems to *act*. Incredible, but true.

Of course, this is still a Matt Helm movie after all is said and done with, and so we're also treated to the following:

* The villanous plan being divided up into approximately 12 "phases," apparently for no other reason than to give Nigel Green an opportunity to say things like "We're entering Phase 3 of the plan right on schedule" or "We're precisely 10 seconds behind schedule." This is because Nigel Green pronounces "schedule" with a soft "sch," so it sounds like "shed-ule." My guess is the writers and the director thought this sounded really cool and wanted to hear him say it 7 or 8 times during the movie. * A mini-helicopter which fits unassembled into the trunk of a car, and can be assembled in a matter of two minutes. * A camera which shoots out a green fog. This fog instantly blinds people for 10 minutes unless they're wearing special goggles. Even if they're across the room and/or upwind. * Copenhagen police officers who sound suspiciously like they were raised in the USA, and who know that a homicide has been committed even though they haven't visited the crime scene and the only witness to the incident is Helm.

Yes, despite its good qualities, it's still a Matt Helm movie. But it's pretty good for all that, and it's a shame that "The Ravagers" never saw the light of day. Would have been interesting to see where they went with the movie. Hmmm... Maybe we can convince Tarantino to do a Matt Helm movie...

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