You didn’t really think I would forget it was 45 years ago today that Murderers’ Row, the second of four films starring Dean Martin as Donald Hamilton’s U.S. government counter-agent, Matt Helm, debuted in U.S. movie theaters, did you? Below you’ll find the trailer for that 1966 film, plus stills from Murderers’ Row, backdropped by composer Lalo Schifrin’s wonderful music for the film.
To learn more about Dean Martin’s parody-ish Matt Helm pictures (which are not to be confused with the 1975-1976 Tony Franciosa TV series, Matt Helm), I refer you to Matthew R. Bradley’s article at CinemaRetro, “Mr. Helm Goes to Hollywood.”
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
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2 comments:
Nor should each be confused with Hamilton's novels. There's supposedly an unpublished Helm, but last I heard, his son "wasn't ready to publish it."
And I can't remember the last time I heard anything about the Helm film. Possibly a good thing considering Hollywood's track record.
Thanks so much for linking to my article, and especially for the great music! I'm a Schifrin fan from way back (KELLY'S HEROES is one of my all-time favorite films), and always thought it was a shame that more of the Helm movies didn't have instrumental main-title themes. I wrote the piece because I was fascinated by the fact that, as Randy points out, there was such a difference in tone between the books and films.
The espionage-minded among you may also be interested in a series of James Bond posts I've been running on my own blog, Bradley on Film. Although the difference in tone is less marked there, at least in the early Connery films, I've adopted a similar page-to-screen approach for 007. You can follow the series starting here: http://bradleyonfilm.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/samedi-night-fever/
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