Lightning Bolt (film)

Lightning Bolt

Italian film poster for Lightning Bolt
Directed by Antonio Margheriti[1]
Produced by
  • Giuseppe De Blasio
  • Anacleto Fontini
Screenplay by
Starring
Music by Riz Ortolani[1]
Cinematography Riccardo Pallottini[1]
Edited by Juan Oliver[1]
Production
companies
  • Seven Film/BGA
  • P.C. Balcazar[1]
Release dates
  • 1966 (1966)

[2]

Running time
 94 minutes
Country

Lightning Bolt (Italian: Operazione Goldman) is an Italian-Spanish international co-production spy-fi film shot in Techniscope in 1965 that was directed by Antonio Margheriti in his first entry into the Eurospy genre. The film was co-financed and released in the US by the Woolner Brothers who re-titled it Lightning Bolt with the tagline "strikes like a ball of thunder" . It was released as a double feature with Red Dragon in 1967[3] two years after the film had been shot. The film's star, Anthony Eisley commented that the film was released too late to take advantage of the James Bond craze.[4]

Plot

Department "S" of the Federal Security Investigation Commission sends Harry Sennet, an international secret agent nicknamed "Goldman" due to his unlimited expense account to investigate suspected sabotage of US space program rocket launches. Sennet, who carries a chequebook instead of a weapon and his superior Captain Flanagan discover a Auric Goldfinger type beer baron named Rehte is destroying the rockets through laser beams fired at the rockets from Rehte's beer trucks parked outside the installation. Rehte's lair is a Dr. No type underwater city off the coast of Cape Canaveral where he plans to launch a rocket to the Moon carrying a laser cannon that can target cities on the Earth for destruction.[5]

Production

Sent to Italy by the Woolner Brothers, former Hawaiian Eye actor Anthony Eisley was told by director Antonio Margheriti that he looked "too Italian". Margheriti insisted Eisley's dark hair be dyed blonde; it came out red. Eisley recalled working on the film in Rome and Lazio where the production designer recreated Florida was one of the most fun experiences that he ever had.[6] Other locations included an actual brewery and an underwater silo was a former Olympic swimming pool in Rome.[7] The production also used a large amount of film footage of the NASA space program.

To look like an American made film, director Margheriti was billed as "Anthony Dawson" whilst Wandisa Guida was billed as "Wandisa Leigh". Eisley recalled the original negative of the film was lost and for its American release they had to reassemble the film from various prints that gave it a bad quality.[8] In the American version Eisley provided narration to give the print a more coherent story. One of the characters was given the name "Woolner".

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin described the dubbed dialogue as "taut, witty, even idiomatic" and that it camouflages "what were obviously rather wooden performances".[9] The review went on to note that the sets of underwater city are "particularly attractive"[9] Variety stated that the films plot unfolded was done in a "professional and rapid" manner, but was still "standard spy fare". The review also noted that Margheriti's direction was "adequate" while Riz Ortolani's score was an unusual departure for him, and closer to Morricone's Dollars Trilogy music.[10]

in 1986, Kim Newman wrote about the film in the Monthly Film Bulletin while covering the Eurospy trend in Europe.[11] Newman described the film as "fast, witty and absurd enough to pass muster."[11] In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), Lightning Bolt was described as "one of the better pieces of Italian hokum that have their origin in the operatic technology of the James Bond series of films".[12] The review praised the sets particularly the underwater city and the "apocalyptic conflagration at the end" as "wittily engineered."[12]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lightning Bolt "(Operazione Goldman)"". Monthly Film Bulletin. London. 35 (408): 42. 1968. ISSN 0027-0407.
  2. ↑ Paul 2005, p. 178.
  3. ↑ http://www.antoniomargheriti.com/images/Operazione%20goldman/goldman22.jpg
  4. ↑ p. 134 Weaver, Tom Anthony Eisley Interview Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup McFarland, 1 Jan 2006
  5. ↑ pp.134-136 Blake, Matt & Deal, David The Eurospy Guide 2004 Luminary Press
  6. ↑ pp.134-136 Weaver, Tom Anthony Eisley Interview Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls, and Makeup McFarland, 2006
  7. ↑ Eisley p.136
  8. ↑ Eisley Interview in Weaver
  9. 1 2 "Lightning Bolt "(Operazione Goldman)"". Monthly Film Bulletin. London. 35 (408): 43. 1968. ISSN 0027-0407.
  10. ↑ Willis 1985, p. 219: "Review is of English-language version viewed in New York on May 24, 1967"
  11. 1 2 Newman, Kim (1986). "Thirty Years in Another Town: The History of Italian Exploitation II". Monthly Film Bulletin. London. 53 (624): 51–52. ISSN 0027-0407.
  12. 1 2 Hardy 1984, p. 243.

References

  • Hardy, Phil, ed. (1984). Science Fiction. New York : Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00842-9. 
  • Paul, Louis (2005). Italian Horror Film Directors. McFarland. ISBN 0786487496. 
  • Willis, Donald, ed. (1985). Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. Garland Publishing Inc. ISBN 0-8240-6263-9. 

External links


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