The Unknown Man Of Shandigor

synopsis

Swiss director Jean-Louis Roy’s long-lost mid-1960s Cold War super-spy thriller is a marvelous and surreal hall of mirrors, part-DR. Strangelove, part-Alphaville, with sly nods to British TV shows like “The Avengers.” The film stars a Who’s Who of great Sixties character actors starting with the unforgettable Daniel Emilfork as crazed scientist Herbert Von Krantz, who’s invented a device to sterilize all nuclear weapons. A mad herd of rival spies are desperate to get their hands on the device, including legendary French singer Serge Gainsbourg as the leader of a sect of bald, turtleneck-wearing assassins, and Jess Franco vet Howard Vernon (The Awful Dr. Orlof). Gainsbourg’s deranged jazz-lounge song, “Bye Bye Mr. Spy” – performed by him on a funeral parlor organ, no less – is arguably the film’s high point. “An accomplished spy is at the same time psychologist, artist, funambulist, conjurer,” to quote one of the characters – and the same could be said of Roy’s exotic camera obscura of B&W Cold War paranoia.