Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Michael Ledo American moon rockets (remember them?) are suspected of being sabotaged when the sixth one in a row blows up. It is believed a "radiation force" is responsible as they discover "signals from the bottom of the sea." So much for science. To find out what is going on they call in...Harry Sennet (Anthony Eisley),the American version of James Bond. He works with Capt. Flanagan (Diana Lorys) who is also a love interest. It is decided the best way to scour the sea bottom off Cape Kennedy is for Harry to go to Florida and buy a seaplane pretending to be a playboy. Harry also provides some gumshoe style narration while Capt. Flanagan has her own jazz swagger music. Harry drives one of those cars that stays stationary while the same scenery quickly moves behind it.Perhaps in 1966 this was a decent film...okay it wasn't back then either. Today this production has all that spy camp value we have come to love including hibernation chambers. Watch it for camp value only. I don't know where they got the drawing of the girl in the red tight jumpsuit. It has nothing to do with the film.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Warning: If you watch this on a Rare Flix DVD there is nudity in the movie trailers.

mark.waltz An American variation of James Bond is still a poor man's James Bond, and this one really deserves the title of "the rip-off movie". It's all about some convoluted attempt for foreign enemies to interfere with space travel, and starring third string leading man Anthony Eisley, it is short on A talent. What it lacks in a Sean Connery or Dean Martin or even a James Coburn, it makes up for in scantily clad blonds of every side of the spectrum, some of them more cartoonish than Bullwinkle's Natasha.In spite of a concrete, believable plot, there are plenty of engaging action sequences including a very intense scene where Eisley and his companion for the evening get stuck in a giant tank quickly filling up with scalding hot water. The main villain is a total rip-off of the Bond villains, and this makes it ultra predictable. But I still couldn't help bit enjoy it even though at times, I couldn't figure out at all what the heck was going on.

MartinHafer If you grew up watching late 50s and 60s TV shows, chances are that you would recognize Anthony Eisley but not his name. While Eisley never became a big star, he was rather ubiquitous on TV. I remember him from "Dragnet", "The FBI" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" but he's more remembered for "Hawaiian Eye". However, in "Lightning Bolt" he's given the chance to be a star--albeit in a very low-budget Italian spy caper. Often American 2nd and 3rd tier actors were brought in to star in Italian films of the era. Since few knew Italian, the films were completely dubbed and marketed internationally. Many were horrible, some were classics (such as "La Strada" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and most were somewhere in the middle--like "Lightning Bolt".In "Lightning Bolt" (a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman"), Eisley (who is inexplicably red-haired) stars as Lt. Harry Sennett--an American James Bond-type hero. His mission is to discover what's causing the rockets at Cape Kennedy to go off course and explode. This means lots of pretty girls, fast cars and danger. The plot is very similar to two films--"You Only Live Twice" (a Bond film about Blofeld capturing manned rockets) and "Strange Brew" (since the evil boss-man turns out to be an insane brewmeister!!).So is it good? Well, yes and no. The film looks like they wanted to make a Bond film but only had about a tenth the budget. Some of the sets are impressive but all too often the stunts and action scenes come off as not quite ready for the bit screen. As for Eisley, he isn't bad as he isn't meant to be as smooth or sexy as Bond and is pretty decent in the action scenes. The print is often poor. In some cases you cannot blame the filmmakers--such as the scratchy or grainy sections. But, in others they obviously used lousy stock footage. "Lightning Bolt" is a movie with much to dislike. Yet, it also has a certain kitschy fun that makes it worth seeing. It certainly is NOT a film for everyone--but for the right audience it's worth seeing. For a much better Italian action/adventure film, try watching the much more slickly made "Danger: Diabolik"--especially since Diabolik dresses EXACTLY the same as the brewmeister's henchmen. Overall, bad but quite enjoyable.

mike robson Shot in Rome,usually known in the English speaking world as "Lightning Bolt"(so like "Thunderball"!),this movie is an especially tacky example of the Euro-Superspy genre of the 1960's.Often these movies starred second string American actors to help US sales-and this has Anthony Eisley(best known as a lead in the TV detective series "Hawaiian Eye"),who spent a lot of his career in such Euro schlock.Handsome,tough looking and businesslike,Eisley was suitable for these kinds of roles,but here he is immersed in a distinctly third rate "Bond" caper.The story has elements from "Dr No"(villain who shoots down US moon rockets-cue the grainy stock footage of Cape Kennedy which fills the movie),but here the tale is clumsily developed and full of absurdities.The villain,vaguely resembles Goldfinger,and is-wait for it-a fiendish beer manufacturer,just like the villain in the Matt Helm movie "The Ambushers"(1967).Eisley's hero "Harry Sennet" at times acts with incredible stupidity.He drives right on to a rocket launch site to try and stop it leaving-just as it blasts off!In another unprofessional moment,Sennet,captured and surrounded by thugs,goes into a rage and tries to attack the gloating villain,when it's obvious he will fail and just gets more battering from the bad guys for his trouble-007 would be appalled!And here is a hero who more than once tries to "buy off" enemies by offering them cheques!(a wonderfully absurd scene has him doing a cheque for a gunman who's ready to shoot him!). The English dubbing is clear but often incongruous(a renowned rocket scientist who speaks in a "Barry Fitzgerald" Irish burr?).To try to make the narrative more coherent,we have Sennet providing a frequently cornball "tough guy" voice-over at certain points.I did quite like the villainess with an acid squirting gun,and the "underwater city" hideout has a certain threadbare pop art mid 60's charm(with its ice-chamber where the villain stores his frozen victims).The final action and destruction scenes are far better done than the rest of the movie,the director seems more at home with fighting/mayhem than other aspects of film making.There are a lot of better examples of 60's Eurospy out there,but "Lightning Bolt" is tolerable if you are interested in the genre.