Released in 1980 and directed by Clive Donner, "The Nude Bomb" brings back Don Adams as the bumbling agent Maxwell Smart in this parody of spy flicks, mostly the 007 franchise. Andrea Howard plays his new assistant, Agent 22, while Vittorio Gassman is on hand as the villain, an ee-vil fashion designer who blackmails the clothes-wearing public with the threat of total nudity via a "Nude Bomb." Pamela Hensley and Sylvia Kristel play two other female agents. Rhonda Fleming is also on hand.
Coming out a decade after the demise of the Get Smart TV series that ran from 1965-1970, fans of the show tended to reject this movie version because it eliminated practically the entire peripheral cast and changed the good-guy organization from CONTROL to PITS, although it kept KAOS. The plot is just an excuse to string together as many mildly amusing silly gags as possible with the requisite low-budget set pieces and Bond-ian spoofs. The sequences include skydiving (Reminiscent of Roger Moore's stint as 007), exposition on secret agent weapons, a long chase at Universal City, a Switzerland ski segment, the secret hideout in a mountain and more.
The big question is: Where is Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 on the series? Adams was told she turned the movie down, but she later informed him that she wasn't even contacted by the producers, likely because she was 45 at the time and they wanted a younger actress. This was a big mistake. But she returned for the TV movie "Get Smart, Again" in 1989, as well as a failed new Get Smart series in 1995.
If you can forgive the deviances from the show, this is a fun, somewhat amusing parody with a couple of laugh-out-loud scenes (e.g. the magazine at the newsstand). Unfortunately, the director has little eye for women and the flick generally drops the ball in this mandatory area. Still, it works as a comical period piece.
ADDITIONAL ACTORS: Dana Elcar, Norman Lloyd, Bill Dana, Gary Imhoff and Sarah Rush.
The film runs 94 minutes and was shot in at Universal Studios and Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California.
GRADE: B-
Coming out a decade after the demise of the Get Smart TV series that ran from 1965-1970, fans of the show tended to reject this movie version because it eliminated practically the entire peripheral cast and changed the good-guy organization from CONTROL to PITS, although it kept KAOS. The plot is just an excuse to string together as many mildly amusing silly gags as possible with the requisite low-budget set pieces and Bond-ian spoofs. The sequences include skydiving (Reminiscent of Roger Moore's stint as 007), exposition on secret agent weapons, a long chase at Universal City, a Switzerland ski segment, the secret hideout in a mountain and more.
The big question is: Where is Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 on the series? Adams was told she turned the movie down, but she later informed him that she wasn't even contacted by the producers, likely because she was 45 at the time and they wanted a younger actress. This was a big mistake. But she returned for the TV movie "Get Smart, Again" in 1989, as well as a failed new Get Smart series in 1995.
If you can forgive the deviances from the show, this is a fun, somewhat amusing parody with a couple of laugh-out-loud scenes (e.g. the magazine at the newsstand). Unfortunately, the director has little eye for women and the flick generally drops the ball in this mandatory area. Still, it works as a comical period piece.
ADDITIONAL ACTORS: Dana Elcar, Norman Lloyd, Bill Dana, Gary Imhoff and Sarah Rush.
The film runs 94 minutes and was shot in at Universal Studios and Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California.
GRADE: B-