OSS 117: Five Film Collection OSS 117 Is Unleashed / OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok / OSS 117: Mission For a Killer / OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo / OSS 117 - Double Agent

This collection contains the five OSS 117 films from the 60's from Kino. The picture quality is terrific. The subtitles are okay. I wish the films contained an English audio track. I know there are dubbed versions out there especially of the final film with John Gavin using John's own voice. I realize the dubbed versions can be cheesy but it's just easier to follow a film when they're speaking English. I'm not against subtitles but I sometimes have a hard time keeping up and if you look away even for a second you might miss something important to the story. But I'm happy with the purchase. These are all fun films. I get why the first OSS 117 movie wasn't a part of the package (from 1957). It's mostly boring and maybe there isn't a good print available. But at least it is available on YouTube for those who want to see how the series started even before the first James Bond film. I was curious about these movies after watching the 2006 and 2009 films with Jean Dujardin. Those are for laughs. These are more serious spy films and compare to other Eurospy ones like the Kommisar X series.

I watched "Topaz" the other night and sort of liked Fredrick Stafford in it; so I checked him out and saw that he had been OSS117 in a couple of those 60's films. The first two films were adequate with Kerwin Matthews (of those stop-action Ray Harryhausen movies). However, the second two with Fredrick Stafford were as good as the early James Bond movies. John Gavin in the last movie was 'meh'--pretty as he was, he made a better Ambassador to Mexico. The movies were startlingly similar to the James Bond storylines (the OSS117 novels predated James Bond novels by 4 years--so I'm wondering who stole from whom)All-in-all, the movies were fun--the sort of Saturday Morning classic movie or TV fare like "The Falcon" or "The Saint" and all the lead actors resemble each other as American versions of Sean Connery.

Here is the hot dossier on the five Agent OSS 117 movies from 1963-1968: picture and sound are uniformly excellent, but English subtitles were not available on "Panic in Bangkok" and "Mission to Tokyo," and are not easily produced by the menu on the other three films, although by using the icon on my remote, I got those up. So Kino Lorber, you need to fix this problem. The five movies are kind of modest adventures in exotic locales, with the tall, dark, handsome, and daring Agent OSS 117 fighting sinister bad guys and romancing beautiful women in the James Bond tradition, if not with James Bond money, although they are all up to professional standards. Kerwin Mathews stars in the first two, Frederick Stafford in the next two, and John Gavin in the fifth. The stars are all suave and dashing, though not as mean as James Bond, and the authentic European, Asian, North African, and Brazilian backgrounds are pleasingly atmospheric. As for the plots, if you have seen 007 or "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." or even "Get Smart," they are of that spying, brawling, and loving up the ladies variety. The series is of French-Italian co-production, in French language, and as I said, I was able to get the English subtitles up on just three movies. But eef you understand French, there ees no problem, I guess.

this is dated material its back a few years so it was afore james bond was a blur but it also provided a backdrop for more adventurous escapades this series of films are entertaining some what dry but they had less to work with so less dialogue but still i felt very well done if your not into slower action then avoid this offering but on the other hand if different fits this will fit very nicely

At first I thought that these were the recent comic films made over the last 10 years. Instead these are films made in the 60s, around the time of the original Bond films. While there is occasional humor (not unlike the Bond films) these are straightforward spy films and not at all campy.

These films are classics. So much adventure. And you get to see the world right out of the classic era

Very good quality

Fairly good series entry for this type of genre. The Italian film industry held their own in the James Bond craze of the 1960’s with tons of 007 ripoffs but this film collection proves that the French could hold their own just as well. Exotic locales, cute gadgets, gorgeous women, Henchmen, villains, mcguffuns and of course that “devil may care” super agent OSS 117. (Played here in part by American familiars Kerwin Mathews and John Gavin but my favorite would be Frederick Stanfford who seemed to be most comfortable as the suave spy and even resembles Sean Connery in certainShots) These remastered editions are great in both sound and picture quality 2:35:1 with the exception of “oss 117 is unleashed” which is in 1:66;1 and “oss 117: double agent” which says 2:35:1 but shows full screen on my projection Unit. So if you don’t mind the subtitles this is great diversion from the big studio productions of united artists. Keep on killing them Kino studios!

I love older movies, French ones are actually are fun! It is a kind of take off of the James Bond movies from the early 60's, no political correctness in these movies. The hero is an America agent (LOL) who speaks fluent French, I am sure some do, but it's kind of hilarious in these movies that takes them over the top, but without too much special gadgets.

Bought it for a friend and he loved it.

Only the last three of the films are really all that good. It's a shame they couldn't get the English dubbed films as some of the subtitles are hard to read.