The Unknown Man of Shandigor

Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Jacques Dufilho, et al.

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" and "DOCTOR WHO." The film stars a Who's Who of great Sixties character actors starting with the unforgettable Daniel Emilfork (THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE) 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. With Marie-France Boyer (Agnes Varda's LE BONHEUR).

• Format: Blu-ray
• Language: English
• UPC: 814456024356
• Release Date: January 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Deaf Crocodile
• Director: Jean-Louis Roy
• Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Jacques Dufilho, Daniel Emilfork, Serge Gainsbourg
• Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: ntsc
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.