Retired secret agent Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is a photographer of beautiful models with beautiful assistant Lovey Kravezit. His former boss Macdonald at Intelligence Counter Espionage with deadly Tina recruit him back in the fight against the evil Big O organization led by Tung-Tze who plans to use the underground atomic bomb test in New Mexico to start WWIII. Andreyev is the evil henchman. Matt encounters bumbling bosom blonde Gail Hendricks (Stella Stevens) and Sam Gunther.Before Austin Powers, there was Matt Helm. This is a semi-spoof of Jimmy Bond. Dean Martin is the perfect lady's man to play the role. It's a lot of scantily clad beautiful women and outrageous spy stuff. It is semi-spoof because it's not that that far from the actual Bond franchise. It's got some song and dance as long as the dancing has the girls jiggling. The most important part is that this is fun and Martin seems to be having fun winking at the audience.

"I did the best I could with the tools I had and the opportunities given me.", this is Stella Stevens's personal quote. And she's right, have you seen her breasts in "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"(1970) directed by Sam Peckinpah? Well, you should, it's a very good movie. "The Silencers" it's just a parody without too many pretensions to the James Bond films. And it's not very bad, which is due mostly to Stella Stevens. Another attraction of the film is the presence of Cyd Charisse, beautiful and perhaps the most talented and seductive dancer of all time. And also Victor Buono as Tung-Tze, an actor much too good for the movies in which he played. Daliah Lavi is also a nice presence. As it regards Dean Martin, he is an extraordinary singer with a unique and very charming voice. But as an actor, is not exactly what one might call an actor, he is just a nice guy, many times looking dumb into the camera. Almost like Daniel Bond Craig...

In comparison to the early 1960's James Bond adventures, the success of which it is obviously trying to emulate, "The Silencers" is a bit more racy, a bit more campy (or, in Victor Buono's case, a lot more campy), and, paradoxically, a bit more violent. The production values, however, are closer to the numerous European Bond-influenced spy flicks made during that decade, rather than to the legitimate Bond films themselves. The pacing is sluggish and there are several sequences that would benefit from some serious editing (the one with Helm and Gail in the car after the chase, for example). At least near the end enough stuff blows up, and some neat gadgets are put to work, giving the film some semblance of action. Stella Stevens shows not only her killer curves but also a flair for slapstick comedy, however my favorite woman in the movie is the slinky, exotic Goddess Daliah Lavi - she is also part of the one genuinely surprising twist in the plot. Flawless face, astonishing body, she never got to be an official Bond girl but at least with films such as this and "Casino Royale" (1967) she came close. ** out of 4.

If Harry Palmer was the poor man's James Bond, and Derek Flint was the poor man's Harry Palmer, then where does that leave Dean Martin's Matt Helm? Bottom feeding in the secret agent pond, I suppose. The Helm films began promisingly, entertainingly and shlockily with 1966's "The Silencers," a promise that was soon dissipated in two very poor films and redeemed somewhat, in 1969, in the fourth and last. Dino basically plays himself here, and these films seem something like extended sketches on the old "Dean Martin Show." But Matt Helm IS cool. How cool? Well, he wears a turtleneck and sports jacket to lounge around a Phoenix pool, and his apartment features a circular bed that dumps him into his bubble bath in the morning. He also has a bar in his car so that he can get tippled while he drives. (Hey, wait a minute...that ain't cool, kids!) A la Bond, he also comes equipped with some nifty gadgets in "The Silencers" (a backward-firing pistol and sports jacket buttonbombs), fights a criminal organization (the leeringly named Big O), makes dumb jokes (his put-down of Frank Sinatra IS pretty funny, actually) and woos the babes. Here, he spends time with Nancy Kovack, Cyd Charisse, Israeli actress Dahlia Lavi and the wonderfully klutzy Stella Stevens; a quartet of pulchritude that would amazingly be topped in Helm's final film, "The Wrecking Crew," with its remarkable Tina Louise/Elke Sommer/Nancy Kwan/Sharon Tate foursome. "The Silencers" also features the phoniest-looking laser beam ever and a moderately exciting ending. This movie's kinda fun, actually. Oh...did I mention that Helm's secretary is named Lovey Kravezit?