*** Welcome to piglix ***

Charles Vine

Licensed to Kill
Licensed.jpg
original British film poster
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Produced by James Ward
Alistair Films
Written by Lindsay Shonteff
Howard Griffiths
Starring Tom Adams
Karel Stepanek
Veronica Hurst
Peter Bull
John Arnatt
Music by Herbert Chappell
Cinematography Terry Maher
Edited by Ron Pope
Distributed by Embassy Pictures
Release date
July 1965
Running time
96 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office $1.2 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)

Licensed to Kill is an Eastmancolor 1965 superspy imitation James Bond film starring Tom Adams as British secret agent Charles Vine. It was directed and co-written by Lindsay Shonteff. Producer Joseph E. Levine picked it up for American and worldwide distribution and reedited it under the title The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World.

The theme song for the American version, composed by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and performed by Sammy Davis, Jr., is used in the 2011 film drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Facing numerous assassination attempts, a Swedish scientist who has invented an anti-gravity device and his daughter seek to provide the invention to the United Kingdom. With James Bond unavailable, H.M. Government provides Agent Charles Vine (Tom Adams), a former mathematician, as a bodyguard and exterminator.

Based on the success of the film, Columbia Pictures offered director Shonteff a five-picture contract, but they disagreed over conditions.

Welsh Trinity College Oxford graduate and former RAF Intelligence Howard Griffiths emigrated to Australia where he wrote extensively for Australian television series such as the spy series Hunter (1967), and police shows Division 4, Homicide, and Blue Heelers.


...
Wikipedia

...