Some Girls Do

Plot synopsis:
A series of inexplicable accidents befall the development of the world's first supersonic airliner, the SST1 - a man falls victim to a homicidal air stewardess (an uncredited Maria Aitken) and two women (Yutte Stensgaard and an uncredited Joanna Lumley) perform separate acts of sabotage during tests. The Air Ministry calls on Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond (Richard Johnson) to investigate.
Aided by ditzy American blonde Flicky (Sydne Rome), Drummond uncovers a plot by criminal mastermind Carl Petersen (James Villiers), who stands to gain eight million pounds if the aircraft is not ready by a certain date. Petersen, assisted by beautiful but deadly assassins Helga (Daliah Lavi) and Pandora (Beba Loncar), has developed a number of robots: beautiful girls with electronic brains to help him sabotage the SST1 project by means of infrasound (sound waves with too low frequency to be detected by the human ear) which can be directed at people or objects with devastating results.
After the initial sabotage attacks by Peterson's robots, Helga and Pandora begin systematically murdering various people associated with the SSTI, such as engineer Dudley Mortimer (Maurice Denham) and Miss Mary (Robert Morley), a spy who runs a cooking class as a front for his activities. Helga makes contact with Drummond at a shooting party, and attempts to kill him by planting a bomb in his telephone after sleeping with him. Then Helga and Pandora try to kill Drummond again by sabotaging a glider fight, having cut the ripcord from his parachute. Drummond manages to manually open his parachute and escape death.
The trail leads Drummond to North Africa, following up on a lead on an infrasound-powered powerboat, where he is assisted by Peregrine Carruthers (Ronnie Stevens) from the British Embassy. Pandora kills the boat owner with a miniature infrasound device, but is thwarted in her attempt to steal the boat. Drummond and Peregrine decide to drive the powerboat in a scheduled race: Helga and Pandora also participate in the race and successfully capture the men and the boat, delivering them all to Petersen at his island headquarters, staffed by an army of his female robots, including the defective but endearing No. 7 (Vanessa Howard). Drummond and Peregrine are also reunited with Flicky, who has successfully infiltrated Petersen's organisation.
Over dinner, Petersen reveals the full details of his plan to use infrasound technology to sabotage the SST1's maiden flight. That night, Drummond sleeps with Helga once more, while Pandora contents herself with seducing Peregrine. In the morning, Drummond attempts to retrieve the infrasound powerboat and is met by Flicky, who tells him she is actually a CIA agent assigned to help him. They are caught by Helga - Drummond escapes but Helga holds Flicky at gunpoint. Petersen sends his robots to search the island for the runaway agent - Drummond is cornered by No. 7, but to his surprise, she deliberately chooses not to reveal his location.
Peregrine and Flicky are held hostage in Petersen's control room and are forced to witness the SST1's destruction as he puts his plan into action. Drummond scales the wall of Petersen's hideout, and saves the SST1 from destruction by using Petersen's infrasound waves against him, destroying his control room. Petersen, Pandora and Helga are all apparently killed in the explosion.
Drummond, Flicky, Peregrine and No. 7 escape the subsequent mayhem, having retrieved the infrasound device. Flicky reveals herself to be a double agent working for the Russians and escapes on the powerboat with the device. Peregrine, wanting to improve his Russian relations, decides to go with her. As the base finally explodes, Drummond finds comfort in the arms of the beautiful No. 7.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
Three years after 'Deadlier Than The Male', Richard Johnson was back as Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond, this time investigating mysterious sabotage incidents involving the S.S.T.-1, Britain's newest supersonic airliner.
The same ingredients ( beautiful girls, gadgets, nice location filming, fast-moving action ) are here, but with a dash more humour.
Daliah Lavi and Beba Loncar head a long line of luscious babes, including a young Joanna Lumley, and the delectable Adrienne Posta!
This movie should not be mistaken as a budget imitation of a James Bond film, as it possesses it's own distinctive characteristics.
Yet, for it's time (1969) it is just as adventurous and entertaining with  Richard Johnson performing the role of  (Bulldog) Hugh Drummond, similar to your James Bond Secret agent, but with a touch of humour and to some extent, a bit of sarcasm.
Like Bond, Drummond is well skilled, serious and intelligent and is out to investigate what is behind a series of murders disguised as accidents, that are carried out by what appears to be beautiful young women (hence it's title Some Girls Do).
Drummond is also targeted when flying a glider and is meant to crash down when his parachute has been tampered with by the beautiful robotic women who watch from below, but manages to skillfully and successfully release open the parachute, landing down safely as if nothing had happened..
A fine performance by Sydney Rome as the typical James Bond type girl, but Drummond is not at all fooled by her pampering and charming behaviour, as he is very intelligent in sensing her motives..
She does play the bimbo but is very cunning, as most Bond style girls are.In a nutshell I did enjoy this movie and am not surprised that any criticisms are really more to do with it's comparisons to modern released movies.
However, I am very surprised that the character of Bulldog Drummond was not pursued in later years like with remakes of  `A Thomas Crown Affair', `The Avengers', `The Saint' etc.
I believe that the character of `Bulldog' Drummond could have been further modernized and made into a big hit in the late 1970's upto the 1990's with newer adventures, as it had all the charm and character of serving  action/adventure style movies, but on a larger scale.
If you are tired of all the Politically Correct "no fun" offerings that Hollywood dishes out these days and yearn for some good clean fun from a bygone era when "Womyn" were just happy to be "Chicks" and men were having fun like no tomorrow (their grins say it all, lucky bastards!;-), and would like to indulge in an escapist fantasy with some naughtiness to it on a guys' night in, then you may find this film quite enjoyable.
Besides which guy doesn't like watching "hot chicks" in short minis being seduced with kisses that turn their heads, even if they are robot "chicks"?
This is obviously from the era when Jim Kirk was doing the same to exotically dressed "Hot Chicks" on TV in the original Star Trek series, and this film doesn't do such a bad job with the same naughtiness factor to it.And if you like this one then try its predecessor film.
The Movie industry just doesn't have the same level of beauty in their female actors anymore as they try to relate too much to a female audience to the great disappointment of the male audience.If like me you fall asleep during chick flicks and would love to watch a movie made just for guys then enjoy this one..
I enjoy the Bond movies and however similar, the two Hugh Drummond films from the 60s have their own, unique style.
But fans of the better known Bond films should find something to enjoy in either of the lesser known films Deadlier Than the Male or Some Girls Do.I can just about sum up what I like about Some Girls Do by using what I wrote for Deadlier Than the Male as a guide.
The 60s feel, Richard Johnson's Drummond, the villainous James Villers, scenes stealers like Ronnie Stevens and Robert Morley, terrific locations, and the implausible yet wonderful gadgets and traps, including a small army of female automatons, are all a delight.
Lavi, in particular, is one of those women that seem to have only existed in the 60s that I enjoy watching so much.It's too bad they only made two of these films.
This sequel for the 1966 trash classic "Deadlier than the male" is quite a disappointment compared with the original spy movie.
The movie lacks highlights like the great Robert Morley's hammy appearances, provided only in the first half of the movie.
The best scenes belong to Daliah Lavi as the bad girl, while pretty Sydne Rome (as the good girl) is absolutely colorless.
Campier, less successful sequel to DEADLIER THAN THE MALE (1967) – basically the only department where this surpasses the original is in the title track!
Incidentally, it makes no attempt to be a direct continuation of the earlier film – with, for instance, the figures of the boss and his secretary nowhere to be seen: in fact, here Bulldog Drummond (a returning but not-as-effective Richard Johnson) seems to have gone up in the world as he now has a female assistant of his own and, when we first see him, he is sun-bathing (and ditching a host of Hungarian girls!?) in the company of a debuting Sydne Rome.The latter's amiably klutzy character recalls those played by Stella Stevens and Sharon Tate in the first and fourth entries in the comparable and contemporaneous "Matt Helm" series with Dean Martin.
Indeed, the whole film seems to be closer to the spoofy spirit of that franchise (attributable perhaps to the fact that Hammer's Jimmy Sangster did not collaborate to the script this time around) – which, unlike the Drummond duo, had copied the gadget-craze that were a fixture of the prototypical James Bond extravaganzas.More illogically, not only does the supposedly-dead arch-criminal Carl Peterson turn up again here (albeit played by a different, younger actor i.e. James Villiers) but the two do not even recognize one another immediately (besides, Peterson had merely dual identities in the first film whereas he has three here and is a master of disguise besides!).
That said, it does attempt to duplicate elements that had worked first time out, namely Peterson's two principal hench-girls working as a team, except that Daliah Lavi (who had appeared in the first and best Matt Helm adventure THE SILENCERS {1966}) and Beba Loncar are not nearly as intriguing as Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina and, what is more, there is little chemistry between them!
GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMB {1966]): one is Yutte Stensgard (soon to take the leading role in Hammer's maligned – and Sangster-directed – LUST FOR A VAMPIRE {1971}) and Vanessa Howard (who more or less duplicates the Suzanna Leigh role from the first film, in that she improbably hitches up with the hero at the finale)with Rome (who proves no nitwit but rather a triple agent!) going all of a sudden for Drummond's comic-relief partner (describing his car as "positively psychedelic" and eliciting a "Cool, baby!" response from Drummond at a party!).
As for the climax, in spite of all the ongoing action at the villain's fortress (which again includes a couple of non-entities for male underlings), Peterson's come-uppance is down to that infallible – and completely baffling – in-built self-destructing switch in his unwieldy controlling device!.
This follow-up to the James Bond-type thriller "Deadlier Than the Male" features the return of investigator Hugh Drummond, as played by Richard Johnson, who can pass for Sean Connery's brother from certain angles.
It's safe to say, even, that Johnson would have made a pretty good James Bond in the sixties, though Connery is hard to beat.
The plot and tone of this one seems to copy certain aspects of the previous Drummond adventure, especially the sight of two smiling femme fatales carrying out their assassinations in a good-natured manner.
As seems to be the doom of many an action spy series, the succeeding entries in a film series always succumb to the more banal and camp ingredients, as if the filmmakers have to shy away from making things too serious and make it more fun (Bond survived this, but others did not).
Of course, nothing can surpass the hammy performance of Morley in a brief role.The first half of this escapist thriller sort of plods along, with the highlight being a tepid sequence of Drummond falling from a small airplane/glider with an apparently malfunctioning parachute.
A lot of it is standard detective stuff, with the main femme fatale (Lavi, she of "The Silencers" and "Casino Royale" Bond spoofs) offering some intrigue.
But then, we and Drummond shift to the island base/lair of the main villain (Villiers) and his private army, composed mostly of female robots.
Still, it's kind of entertaining, in that lopsided fashion, and Johnson as the maverick agent is still very good in the role.
The last half reminded me of the 'Flint' duo of Bond spoofs, especially "In Like Flint." There's a bit of a twist at the climax, but it's fairly meaningless and arbitrary.
Betty Box, this time without her brother Syndey Box with whom she co-produced the predecessor to this bit of fluff, 'Deadlier than the Male' (slightly less fluffy, but equally inane), here returns with her final offering of a pseudo-James Bond film using the name, and no more, of Hugh Drummond, and the name, and no more, of Drummond's villain nemesis Carl Peterson.
Peterson is played here by James Villiers, trying as hard as he can to be deeply villainous but unable to convince.
James has got all these girls in short skirts who are robots, you see, 'under my complete control' as he boasts, who kill on command, and when they are not needed, he or Daliah Lavi presses a button in the neck of the girl and she goes to sleep.
Richard Johnson plays Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond, an upmarket Bond looking well past his sell-by date.
Daliah Lavi is there amongst the cyborgs and lower down the order there's a certain Joanna Lumley credited as 'Robot on a suicide mission', just like the director..
Sequel to the reasonable "Deadliest of the species", featuring the return of Richard Johnson as Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond.
More stunts, more girls and an even more exotic location fail to boost this flagging film, which begins to feel very tired rather too early on, and its' plot less run-around nature soon becomes tedious.
Cashing in on the success of Bondmania, this film failed to even show any understanding of what it was trying to copy in a film which features Robert Morley as a camp cookery teacher, called "Miss Mary", Johnson giving love-making lessons to a female robot, an embarrassing Bond-wannabe, played by Ronnie Stevens, a carbon-copy villain with a Napoleon complex, and a lot of embarrassing stuff you just wish would end mercifully soon.
Notable for featuring an early appearance by Joanna Lumley in the pre/during credits sequence.PROS; -A few airborne stunts look nice, and are mildly suspenseful.-Some nice scenery; the villains' base is particularly aesthetically pleasing -Ronnie Stevens is endearing in a terrible part -Daliah Lavi is a strong presence, as the film's central villainess CONS; -Richard Johnson looks tired, and can't act his way out of a bad part in a derivative film-The theme song is among the worst ever-penned, and is written buy should-have-known-better John Barry collaborator Don Black-No pace, no atmosphere, drive, plot or excitement really in any scene– the film is virtually dead, and merely exists to show women in bikinis and a lot of embarrassing gags -Drummond is not a real character, merely a Bond-clone, with no personality or interesting characteristics-A weak, overlong boat race/chase sequence -Robert Morley in a hugely embarrassing role for a good, if somewhat limited actor -Many of the main women in this film look very similar, and its' hard to tell some of them apart-Actually, virtually everything; it's not a good film.
Having watched - and enjoyed - DEADLIER THAN THE MALE, I was keen to see the sequel, SOME GIRLS DO.
In the first film, I thought Richard Johnson was pretty colourless ...
Whereas MALE had the joyous coupling of Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina as the prime murderesses, here we have Daliah Lavi, who looks good but simply doesn't work, and the dire Beba Loncar (how did she ever get a job?).
And nobody in the supporting cast is any good either, even talented and usually reliable stars such as Adrienne Posta, Robert Morley and James Villiers - a pale version of villain Peterson compared to Nigel Green in MALE.
Other than the title song, NOTHING in this film is any good.
why was Virginia North brought back from the original film, but playing a different role?
She must have had someone boosting her, as her small and indifferently played role in MALE warranted her special billing, and her minor role in SOME GIRLS likewise got her a good credit in the trailer, and several unnecessary (and badly edited-in) closeups.
Instead of being a man of adventure that gets sucked into solving crimes, Dick Johnson's version of Drummond is much more like a James Bond character--fighting and bedding very sexy ladies and trying to stop some big baddie who is bent on international wickedness instead of just murder or robbery.
It's best just to forget about the earlier Drummonds and treat this one like an all-new character.During the course of the film, various acts of sabotage are made on the SST-1 project (the 'SST' was an early name for what became the Concord project in the UK and France).
If this sounds a bit familiar, this is because it's much like the plot of Johnson's other Drummond flick, "Deadlier Than a Male".
However, Drummond is not alone in investigating the sabotage- -a kooky and sexy lady assistant (similar to Britt Ekland in "The Man With the Golden Gun") is there as well.
Also WHY and HOW these ladies work are a bit different from the previous film...as they are robotic in their actions and loyalty.While this film is a decent spy-type film, it's less original than the last.
Additionally, the film relies on two bad clichés ALSO found in the last film--the megalomaniac baddie who, instead of just killing Drummond, keeps him around supposedly to give him a chance to kill him AND all women (even robotic ones) find Drummond so sexy that they cannot control themselves.
It's a shame, as the film is pretty good otherwise.
If I've understood the movie, the two main "villainesses" weren't robots themselves, which makes the last scene just a little surprising.
This is a little surprising for the hero of a light, "escapist" kind of adventure film.
(Pretty bold, in other words.) Seeing her in this and a few other adventure films, it's a little hard to believe that Daliah Lavi never ended up in an ACTUAL Bond movie (apart from Casino Royale, which both is and isn't one)..
The problem with SOME GIRLS DO is that it goes too far out of its way to be tongue-in-cheek, meaning that the comedy is forced and laboured rather than natural-feeling, as in the original movie.
The good news is that Richard Johnson returns as the Sapper's dapper Bulldog Drummond, battling bad guys and bedding babes left, right, and centre, and the production values feel just as good as in the first film, resulting in a colourful, bright, action-packed little tale.
Once again, Carl Petersen is the bad guy, once again he's bumping off officials by utilising killer women, except this time the women are all robots.
While we had the excellent likes of Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina in DEADLIER THAN THE MALE, here we have the absolutely awful Sydne Rome and yummy-but-bland Yutte Stensgaard, who took away a lot of the enjoyment factor for me.In any case, there are a lot of laughs on offer here, some successful, some not.
Robert Morley hams it up something rotten as 'Miss Mary', the head of a chef school, while James Villiers is equally hammy as the chief bad guy; he's no Nigel Green.
There's some poor back projection in the action scenes aboard plane and boat which is typical of the decade, and an extended climax in the villain's lair which is fairly good.
However, Johnson seems to be having less fun in the role and his lines are less suave this time around; perhaps he was already tiring of the character on his second film in.
Maybe that's why there was no third Bulldog Drummond film – and if we look at the law of diminishing returns, perhaps we can be thankful for that!.
A Remake of the Movie "Deadlier Than the Male".
After several murders of key personnel involved in the making of a super-sonic airliner called the SST1, "Hugh Drummond" (Richard Johnson) is sent to investigate who the mastermind is behind them.
However, his investigation puts him directly in the cross-hairs of two attractive but deadly female assassins named "Pandora" (Beba Loncar) and "Helga" (Daliah Lavi) who are both very good at their jobs.
Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film is essentially a remake of the movie "Deadlier Than the Male" which was produced only two years earlier.
To be sure there were a number of attractive young ladies to be found all through the movie but other than the aforementioned Daliah Lavi, and to a lesser extent Sydne Rome, none of them really stood out in my opinion.
In short, this was an okay James Bond clone but it wasn't nearly as good as "Deadlier Than the Male" and I have rated it accordingly.