MISSION TO CARACAS

Roland Carey as agent Gil Becker

MISSION TO CARACAS/Mission speciale a Caracas/1965. Director: Raoul Andre. 

In Caracas Special agent Gil Becker (Roland Carey using the name "Rod Carter") is after a self-described evil Frenchman named Vasson (Saro Urzi). Vasson works with Madame de Lainville (Louise Carletti), the directress of an institution for underprivileged young girls, but she has no intention of being underprivileged herself. 

Agent Becker with femme fatale

Vasson exchanges a formula for a deadly neurotoxin, PK 23, for a bunch of diamonds from a consortium, which he passes off to Madame. On a cruise ship some of Madame's female associates try their damnedest to get the briefcase containing the diamonds away from the directress, with the result that she is thrown overboard and, later, six or seven of the gals engage in a protracted "cat fight." Meanwhile there are assorted spies who don't want the diamonds, but rather the briefcase, which contains special secret documents irradiated in such a way that the writing will eventually vanish. Dodging assorted spies and weapons, including a camera that doubles as a weapon, Becker does his best to outwit everyone. 

Paul Demange and Carey

Mission to Caracas is a pretty bad eurospy film. Believe me, it wasn't easy coming up with a coherent synopsis of the plot as there are so many characters working at cross purposes you need a scorecard. French-Swiss actor Carey makes a perfectly acceptable super-spy, but he appeared mostly in "peplum" movies; this was his only appearance as Gil Becker. Even dubbed, Urzi makes an impression as the slimy but charming Vasson. The movie is all but ruined by a horrible jazzy headache-inducing score that never matches up with the action on screen, and many of the action sequences are clumsily staged. A Spanish-Italian-French co-production.

Verdict: Try and follow it if you dare! *1/2.