The Nude Bomb (also known as
The Return of Maxwell Smart or
Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) is a
comedyComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. Also, films in this style typically have a happy ending . One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies...
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
based on the television series
Get SmartGet Smart is an American television comedy series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as Thaddeus, the chief of CONTROL, a secret American government...
. It starred
Don AdamsDon Adams was an American actor, comedian, game show panelist and occasional director, who in his five decades of television was best known for his role as Maxwell Smart in the TV situation comedy Get Smart , for which he also directed and wrote...
as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and was
directedA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
by
Clive DonnerClive Donner is a British film director who started his career in the mid-1950s after working as a film editor...
. It was retitled
The Return of Maxwell Smart for
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
so as to avoid any trouble with the
censorsCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
.
In the film, Smart is called back into service in order to stop a nefarious KAOS terrorist plan from exploding a bomb that destroys only clothing, so as to leave KAOS as the only supplier of clothes to the entire world.
Adams' cousin
Robert KarvelasRobert Karvelas was an American actor who was notable for his role as the Chief's dense assistant, Larrabee, on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart. He was Don Adams' cousin....
(Larrabee) is the only other cast member from the television series to return for this film.
The Nude Bomb (also known as
The Return of Maxwell Smart or
Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) is a
comedyComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. Also, films in this style typically have a happy ending . One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies...
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
based on the television series
Get SmartGet Smart is an American television comedy series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as Thaddeus, the chief of CONTROL, a secret American government...
. It starred
Don AdamsDon Adams was an American actor, comedian, game show panelist and occasional director, who in his five decades of television was best known for his role as Maxwell Smart in the TV situation comedy Get Smart , for which he also directed and wrote...
as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and was
directedA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
by
Clive DonnerClive Donner is a British film director who started his career in the mid-1950s after working as a film editor...
. It was retitled
The Return of Maxwell Smart for
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
so as to avoid any trouble with the
censorsCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
.
Overview
In the film, Smart is called back into service in order to stop a nefarious KAOS terrorist plan from exploding a bomb that destroys only clothing, so as to leave KAOS as the only supplier of clothes to the entire world.
Adams' cousin
Robert KarvelasRobert Karvelas was an American actor who was notable for his role as the Chief's dense assistant, Larrabee, on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart. He was Don Adams' cousin....
(Larrabee) is the only other cast member from the television series to return for this film.
Dana ElcarDana Elcar was an American television and movie character actor. Although he appeared in about 40 films, his most memorable role was on the 1980s and 1990s television series MacGyver as Peter Thornton, an administrator working for the Phoenix Foundation...
plays the Chief in this film (as
Edward PlattEdward Cuthbert Platt was an American character actor best known for his portrayal of "The Chief" in the 1965-70 NBC/CBS television series Get Smart. With his deep voice and mature countenance, he played an eclectic mix of characters over the span of his career.-Early life:Platt was born on St...
had died in 1974); no reference is made to
Barbara FeldonBarbara Feldon is an American former model and a prolific character actress of stage who is primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 on the popular 1960s sitcom, Get Smart.-Early life:Feldon was born in Pittsburgh's suburb of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania...
's character from the TV series, Agent 99, or even her marriage to Smart.
Sylvia KristelSylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle .- Early life :...
, at the time well-known for her appearances in the
EmmanuelleEmmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...
film series, makes a brief appearance as
Agent 34, with actress Andrea Howard playing as
Agent 22 (Agent 99-type role) and
Vittorio GassmanVittorio Gassman , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director...
playing the
BlofeldErnst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory. An evil genius, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE with...
-like villain.
Agent 13 was recast as
Joey FormanJoey Forman was an American comedian and comic actor. He first attracted attention in Las Vegas as the opening act for Mickey Rooney...
, who played Harry Hoo in the TV series.
Smart's agency, called
CONTROLControl is used in a variety of contexts to express "mastery" or "proficiency": e.g. "Music students attending a master class are expected to have full control of basic skills such as rhythm and pitch" and more generally an ability to purposefully direct change.Control may also refer to:-Film:* A...
in the TV series, was called
PITS in this film, an acronym standing for
Provisional Intelligence Tactical Service.
In spite of the title, the film was given a PG rating due to the fact that there was no frontal nudity in the film. There are five times in the film where the bomb is detonated, but in each case the actors cover up their private areas with strategically placed briefcases or guns (Buckingham palace guards) or are shown only from the waist up. In one case members of a football team are in a huddle when a bomb detonates, revealing bare behinds of some of the players. In the final scene, the three stars of the film are rendered nude by fallout from the destruction of all the bombs at the enemy headquarters, but are seen from the backsides from a distance, and then with a "the end" caption covering each of their backsides.
Reception
The film was a box office disappointment. Nearly a decade later another revival film was produced, this time for TV, on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
.
Get Smart, Again!Get Smart, Again! is a made-for-TV movie based on the 1965-1970 NBC/CBS television series, Get Smart!, which originally aired February 26, 1989 on ABC . It has subsequently been released twice on DVD by different publishers...
would feature most of the surviving original cast members and ignored the events that took place in
The Nude Bomb for
continuityIn fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer. It is of relevance to several media....
purposes.
In the
Freaks and GeeksFreaks and Geeks is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow, that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season...
episode "Tricks and Treats", Sam and his friends announce their plans to skip trick-or-treating on
HalloweenHalloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Gaelic pagan festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones...
in order to watch
The Nude Bomb at the local theater instead.
TV broadcast premiere
In 1982, the film aired on broadcast television for the first time (with the aforementioned new title). The network which aired the film was
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
, the original network on which the TV series had aired before going to
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
in its final season. Currently, both NBC and the film's producer,
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
, are owned by
NBC UniversalNBC Universal, Inc. is a media and entertainment company formed in May 2004 by the combination of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi Universal Entertainment, part of the French Media Group. The deal excluded the French Canal+ operations, which were retained by Vivendi. GE owns 80% of NBC Universal...
.
PITS (Provisional Intelligence Tactical Service)
- Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 - Don Adams
Don Adams was an American actor, comedian, game show panelist and occasional director, who in his five decades of television was best known for his role as Maxwell Smart in the TV situation comedy Get Smart , for which he also directed and wrote...
- The Chief - Dana Elcar
Dana Elcar was an American television and movie character actor. Although he appeared in about 40 films, his most memorable role was on the 1980s and 1990s television series MacGyver as Peter Thornton, an administrator working for the Phoenix Foundation...
- Larabee - Robert Karvelas
Robert Karvelas was an American actor who was notable for his role as the Chief's dense assistant, Larrabee, on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart. He was Don Adams' cousin....
- Carruthers - Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American veteran actor, producer and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd has appeared in over sixty films and television shows. Lloyd is married and resides in Los Angeles....
- Agent 36 - Pamela Hensley
Pamela Gail Hensley is an American actress. She is best known for playing Princess Ardala on the 1979-1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and C.J...
- Dr. Jerry Krovney - Gary Imhoff
Gary Imhoff is an American Actor. He Was a teacher at Milton Katselas' Beverly Hills Playhouse. He teaches The Professional Artists Workshop and The Musical Artists Workshop in Los Angeles...
- Dr. Pam Krovney - Sarah Rush
Sarah Rush is an American actress, best known in television for her work in the original Battlestar Galactica. She narrated and starred in the 2005 documentary The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania produced by Patricia Heaton and directed by David Hunt, which won the 2006 Heartland Film...
- Agent 22 - Andrea Howard
- Agent 13 - Joey Forman
Joey Forman was an American comedian and comic actor. He first attracted attention in Las Vegas as the opening act for Mickey Rooney...
- Agent 34 - Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle .- Early life :...
- Harrington - Robert Ball
KAOS
- Norman Saint Sauvage - Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director...
- Nino Salvatori Sebastiani - Vittorio Gassman
- Madame Rose
United Nations
- American Ambassador - Walter Brooke
Walter Brooke was an American actor. Brooke is best known for playing Mr. McGuire in The Graduate, where he said his famous line, "Plastics." He is also remembered for playing district attorney Frank Scanlon in the television series The Green Hornet.Walter died August 20, 1986....
- French Delegate - Patrick Gorman
- Jamaican Delegate - Earl Maynard
Earl Maynard is a bodybuilder and professional wrestler as well as a film actor, producer and director from Barbados.-Early life:At the age of 17, Earl was 5’ 10” tall and weighed only 130 pounds. Despite poor health, he had a happy childhood in Barbados. Maynard left the island when he was 18 and...
- Russian Delegate - Alex Rodine
- German Delegate - Richard Sanders
- Italian Delegate - Vito Scotti
Vito Scotti was a veteran character actor who played many roles, primarily from the late 1940s to the mid-1990s. He was known as a man of a thousand face, for his ability to assume so many divergent roles in more than 200 screen roles, in a nearly 50 year career. He was known for his resourceful...
- English Delegate - Byron Webster
Byron Clark Webster is an English footballer who plays for Doncaster Rovers as a defender.-Career:Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Webster made his debut for York City against Burton Albion in the Conference National on 29 December 2004. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–2 draw...
- Polish Delegate - Ross Evans
- Nigerian Delegate - Lawrie Osag
- Philippine Delegate - Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate . He was Senate President in 1963...
Others
- Jonathon Levinson Seigle - Bill Dana
- Dolly Francine Winston
- Edith Von Secondberg - Rhonda Fleming
Rhonda Fleming , is an American motion picture and television actress.She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day...
- President - Thomas Hill
Thomas Hill was an actor and director on stage for decades before starting in film in the mid 1960s and on television in the 1980s....
- Landlady - Ceil Cabot
- Doctor - David Adnopoz
Awards and nominations
- Golden Raspberry Awards
The Golden Raspberry Awards, frequently called the Razzies, were created by John Wilson in 1980 , intended to counterpoint the Academy Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer...
- Nominated: Worst Picture
The Razzie Award for Worst Picture is a penalty given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each film's distribution company and producer....