Strategically airing two months before Moonraker was released in theaters, The Billion Dollar Threat (1979) is an Americanized version of James Bond that could be considered either an homage or a rip-off. It has the women and the innuendo, the lab and the gadgets, and a villain’s henchman with not metal teeth, but a metal arm. It might all be offensive if it weren’t so darned entertaining.
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If you’re wondering why I’m featuring it in “TV Terror Guide,” The Billion Dollar Threat was written by Hammer Films legend, Jimmy Sangster (The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, and The Mummy), to name only three of his many contributions to classic horror. This came during a post-Hammer period in which he was writing episodes of American television series and TV movies. (We previously discussed Good Against Evil, 1977).
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Director Barry Shear was a prolific television director who also made a handful of theatrical films, including Wild in the Streets (1968.) He directed The Billion Dollar Threat with an energetic touch late in his career, just two TV movies prior to his untimely death at the age of 56. Producer Jay Daniel may also have contributed to the tone; he produced Moonlighting, the hit series with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd that ran from 1985-1989.
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There’s a strong supporting cast with Ralph Bellamy as Mike Larson, the head of whatever agency it is that employs Robert Sands (Dale Robinette.) Keenan Wynn plays Ely, the grizzled old man that becomes a temporary sidekick for Sands and gives the story some heart. Patrick Macnee plays Horatio Black, the villain of the piece. The moment you see him, you know he’s the bad guy (if his mere name in the credits didn’t inform you.)
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The weak link, at least on paper, is Dale Robinette. I had never heard of him. In fact, there’s not even a picture of him on his IMDb profile. He’s still with us, but was apparently an actor mostly in the early part of his career, the mid-to-late 1970s. Then he became a prolific still photographer on almost 150 films, including this year’s hit, Barbie. In the last two films in which he acted, he portrayed… a photographer.
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Robinette is all right as Robert Sands, but not nearly as dynamic as the James Bond-lite character could be. He also seems out of place among the better-known cast of Bellamy, Wynn, and Macnee. Don’t get me wrong; he’s not horrible. I just can’t help but think a different actor could have elevated the result and turned The Billion Dollar Threat into something bigger. I can’t confirm it, but it has all the earmarks of a failed television pilot.
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It opens strong with Sands dressing after an evening with a woman in Hong Kong as bad guys storm the hotel. He scoots out, hangs from the bottom of an elevator as it rises, swings off, then waits for it to come back down so he can hop on top and drop a canister into the elevator car. This gives him the opportunity to say, “Gentlemen, it’s been a gas.” Then, he has plenty of time to return to his woman.
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Back in the States, his boss asks him what he thinks of UFOs. He’s sending him to Utah to investigate reports of lights in the sky and to meet with another agent, codenamed, “Martian.” We then see “Martian” in Utah at his campsite. He sees a light in the sky, screams, “No,” and falls to the ground. That’s all intriguing and demonstrates a hint of sci-fi, which, of course, is not what’s really happening.
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After a visit to Marcia Buttercup’s (Ronnie Carol) lab, Sands obtains cigarette lasers, elasticized dental floss, and a shotgun that shoots rockets from the right barrel. We later see him use these devices during his adventure. However, the pace slows as The Billion Dollar Threat proceeds, before speeding toward its ridiculously fun conclusion. It’s not perfect; I’ve seen better and worse spy escapades. It is, though, a lot of fun.
The Billion Dollar Threat is available at rarefilmm.com. Visit the TV Terror Guide: 70's TV Movies playlist at ClassicHorrors.Club TV on YouTube to watch other great movies from this series.
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