The Ambushers is a 1967 spy

Spy film

The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 filmed in Acapulco

Acapulco

Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...

 starring Dean Martin

Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

, Senta Berger

Senta Berger

Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...

 and Janice Rule

Janice Rule

-Early life and career:Born in Norwood, Ohio, her career included stage, screen and television work. Rule studied ballet and began dancing in Chicago nightclubs in her teens. She soon attracted attention in Hollywood and made her film debut in 1951...

. It is loosely based upon the novel of the same title

The Ambushers

The Ambushers is the title of a novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1963, continuing the exploits of assassin Matt Helm.-Plot introduction:Matt Helm conducts a by-the-book assassination in the Central American nation of Costa Verde...

 by Donald Hamilton

Donald Hamilton

Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country...

.

The film was the third of four produced in the late 1960s starring Martin as secret agent Matt Helm

Matt Helm

Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...

. It followed The Silencers

The Silencers (film)

The Silencers is the title of an American spy film spoof motion picture produced in 1966 and starring Dean Martin as agent Matt Helm. It is only loosely based upon the novel The Silencers by Donald Hamilton, as well as another of Hamilton's Helm novels, Death of a Citizen.The film was the first of...

and Murderers' Row

Murderers' Row (film)

Murderers' Row is a 1966 American comedy-spy-fi film starring Dean Martin and very loosely based upon the Matt Helm spy novel Murderers' Row by Donald Hamilton, which was published in 1962....

and like those earlier films followed the approach of being a spoof

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 of the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film series rather than a straight adaptation of Hamilton's novel. It was followed by one more, The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew (1969 film)

The Wrecking Crew, released in 1969 and starring Dean Martin, Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate is the fourth and final film in a series of American comedy-spy-fi theatrical releases featuring Martin as secret agent Matt Helm....

in 1969.

This film is generally considered the weakest of the four Helm films, and is cited in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time

The Fifty Worst Films of All Time

The Fifty Worst Films of All Time is a 1978 book by Harry Medved, with Randy Dreyfuss and Michael Medved. This book represents choices for the 50 worst sound films ever made, in alphabetical order...

by Harry and Michael Medved

Michael Medved

Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...

.

Plot

When a government-built flying saucer

Flying saucer

A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...

 is hijacked mid-flight by Jose Ortega, the exiled ruler for an outlaw nation, secret agent Matt Helm and the ship's former pilot Sheila Sommars are sent to recover it.

Along the way, they must deal with Ortega's henchmen, Francesca Madeiros (an operative for Helm's main nemesis Big O), who poses as a model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 and seduces Helm, an assassin

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 named Nassim, plus a tough thug named Rocco.

Music

Hugo Montenegro

Hugo Montenegro

Hugo Montenegro was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best known work is derived from interpretations of the music from Spaghetti westerns, especially his cover version of the main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

 became the third composer in as many films to do the score for the series. He wrote (along with Herbert Baker

Herbert Baker

Sir Herbert Baker was a British architect.Baker was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892–1912....

 who worked on Murderer's Row) the theme song, "The Ambushers," which featured the vocals of Boyce & Hart, two of the songwriters from Murderer's Row. Montenegro went on to compose the score solo for the next Matt Helm film, The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew may refer to:In film:*Wrecking Crew , an American film directed by Frank McDonald*The Wrecking Crew , a 1969 film starring Dean Martin and Elke Sommer...

.

Cast

Actor	Role
Dean Martin Dean Martin Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...	Matt Helm Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
Senta Berger Senta Berger Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...	Francesca Madeiros
Janice Rule Janice Rule -Early life and career:Born in Norwood, Ohio, her career included stage, screen and television work. Rule studied ballet and began dancing in Chicago nightclubs in her teens. She soon attracted attention in Hollywood and made her film debut in 1951...	Sheila Sommers
James Gregory James Gregory (actor) James Gregory was an American character actor noted for his deep, gravelly voice and playing brash roles such as McCarthy-like Senator John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate , the audacious General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and loudmouthed Inspector Luger in Barney Miller...	MacDonald
Albert Salmi Albert Salmi Albert Salmi was an American actor.-Biography:Albert Salmi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish immigrant parents, and following a stint in the Army, took up acting as a career, studying Method acting with Lee Strasberg. In 1955, Salmi starred in Bus Stop on Broadway...	Jose Ortega
Kurt Kasznar Kurt Kasznar -Early life:Kasznar was born in Vienna, Austria as Kurt Servischer. His father left when Kurt was very young, his mother married a Hungarian restaurateur named Ferdinand Kasznar, and Kurt assumed his surname. He emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930s for The Eternal Road in which he...	Quintana
Beverly Adams Beverly Adams Beverly Adams is a Canadian-born actress and author.-Early life and career:Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Adams moved to Burbank, California as a child. As a teen, she competed in and won beauty contests before becoming an actress. During her career, Adams appeared in various guest roles in television...	Lovey Kravezit
John Brascia John Brascia John Brascia is an American actor and dancer, noted for his dancing partnerships on film with Vera-Ellen in White Christmas and with Cyd Charisse and Liliane Montevecchi in Meet Me in Las Vegas . With dancer Tybee Arfa , the dance team known as Brascia and Tybee became - beginning in 1957 - a...	Rocco

External links

• original film trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrHlnT5nIQ&feature=related