While watching this I had a feeling of familiarity. It had the tone of Chuck Norris's first film, Good Guys Wear Black. Like that film it featured well known performers to bolster both the lead, Adam West in this case, as well as box office. Now this is not a good film. It's undernourished visually, with at least one too many songs from Buddy Greco. Still, Adam holds his own with the stilted dialog and more complicated than it needed to be plot. Nancy Kwan while beautiful is mostly wasted in what amounts to a series of cameo appearances that does very little to push forward a crime story as it morphs into a spy thriller. Nehimiah Persoff pretty much steals every scene he's in, as West's Johhny Cain spends much of his screentime listening rather than taking action. In the end, not a bad attempt to try to shake his "Batman" persona. Another attempt, with a more explosive and perhaps personal story with the same characters might have been worth it. Perhaps even as a new TV series.

2011:

Searching around online for any info related to Mario Bava's wonderful Giallo,I was shocked to discover a movie with the same title,starring lead Batman actor Adam West.Originally hoping the the title would be easy to track down,I was saddened to find,that with the exception of a 30 second clip,the entire movie appeared to have become lost in time.

Easter 2014:

With there having been a recent announcement about West's Batman TV show finally reaching DVD,I decided to start searching again for a copy of the movie.To my delightful surprise,I found out that Olive Films had just brought out the title on DVD and Blu-Ray!,which led to me at last getting ready to see Adam West meet the girl who knew to much.

The plot:

Retiring from the CIA,former spy Johnny Cain spends his quiet days running a nightclub called The Big C's.Getting an urgent phone call,Cain rushes to the club and discovers that a leading mob boss called Tony Grinaldi has been killed in an attack in his club.Claiming to have no idea about why the attack took place,Cain's CIA buddies tell him that they don't feel he's being completely honest with them.Whilst Cain gets the good news that the mob don't believe that he had anything to do with Grinaldi's death,the mob give Cain the added bonus of having 72 hours to find out the motives behind the killing,before they order a hit which will send Cain to the big nightclub in the sky.

View on the film:

Before getting to the movie,I have to mention that whilst the Olive Films DVD gave the title a clean picture and a very clear soundtrack,the DVD sadly features a fault,which leads to the audio of the (thankfully dialogue light) 8 minutes being about 30 seconds ahead of the image.

Backed by Joe Greene's smooth score,director Francis D.Lyon covers the title's low budget by creating a warm jazzy atmosphere,with Lyon filling Cain's nightclub with fistfights and warm oranges and blues,as Cain finds himself searching for the reasons behind the killing.Giving the punches some real force,the screenplay by Charles Wallace creates a fun mix of espionage and Film Noir,with Cain finding that he must use his old spy skills in order to escape from the shadow of the mob.

Being given a number of good one liners,Adam West delivers each of the hits with a real relish,with some of the more outrageous lines allowing for some choice cut Adam West Ham (which is not related to the UK football team West Ham) as Cain finds out about the girl who knows too much.