INTERNATIONAL SECRET POLICE: A KEG OF POWDER

 

Another entry in Japan's Toho Studios series of 1960s spy adventures, parts of this feature were used and re-dubbed for Woody Allen's spoof WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? 

Tatsuya Mihashi once again plays the devil-may-care Agent Kitami of Interpol. This time he's tracking down a kidnapped scientist named Dr. Tatsuno (Jun Tazaki). The Doctor has been experimenting on what are called "Zeta Rays", hoping to be able to use them to destroy all nuclear weapons and supposedly bring peace to the world. Of course, Tatsuno's work would be catastrophic if it falls in the wrong hands, and it does. An organization called the World Unification Alliance wants to control the planet, and it's up to Kitami and an acerbic Metropolitan Police Inspector named Yagyu (Makoto Sato) to save the day. 

A KEG OF POWDER is a fairly entertaining movie, with some decently staged action sequences and a lighthearted vibe that prevents it from being an all-out hard-edged thriller. As one would expect, Dr. Tatsuno has a beautiful daughter (played by Yuriko Hoshi) who gets extra attention from both Kitami and Yagyu, but it is Kumi Mizuno who gets the better part as a seductive operative of the Alliance, known as #6. Mizuno literally has a kiss of death, and she spends almost an entire sequence of the film wearing nothing but a towel. She also winds up helping Kitami during the climax--the character of #6 gets to be more than just the typical femme fatale. It's a great role for Mizuno, who also appeared in two other entries of the International Secret Police series. 

Being that this is a Toho film, Kaiju fans will notice plenty of veterans from the company's many monster and sci-fi movies. Yuriko Hoshi appeared in MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, while Jun Tazaki had several dealings with Kaiju over his acting career, most notably in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Kumi Mizuno's Toho legacy is well known, and Akiko Wakabayashi (GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER) has a cameo as another of Agent Kitami's love interests. The screenwriter for A KEG OF POWDER, Shinichi Sekizawa, wrote a number of Toho's fantasy features. 

I happened to discover A KEG OF POWDER on the Internet Archive, and it was uncut, in widescreen, and available with English subtitles. I wish the International Secret Police series was much more widely available, and much better known among film geeks. I've now seen three of the films in the group, and they are all fine 007 influenced adventures that avoid excessive violence and lurid elements. They also are a big discovery for Kumi Mizuno fans--she certainly could have been the star of a spy franchise of her own.