Licensed to Love and Kill

Another random movie trailer and another Lindsay Shonteff film.  To be precise, this is the trailer for Licensed to Love and Kill, the 1978 sequel to 1977's No 1 of the Secret Service, whose trailer I featured last week.  Basically, it's the same mix as before, except with Gareth Hunt from the New Avengers replacing Nicky Henson as Charles Bind.  (Henson had received a better offer from the Royal Shakespeare Company).  Unlike No 1, where the most exotic location featured was a cross channel ferry, Licensed to Love and Kill featured US locations.  Except that they were filmed in the UK, most probably Surrey, by the look of them, (Shonteff also lived in that neck of the woods).  It also featured an international star in the form of Australian Nick Tate, of Space 1999 fame.

You might be wondering, by now, why I'm so fascinated by these kind of micro-budget seventies British exploitation movies.  Well, they are a reminder of a time when it was possible to knock out a movie cashing in on a current hit for a few hundred thousand pounds and actually get it into cinemas and make a profit.  Remember, these were the days before home video and DVDS - you either found a distributor or your movie didn't get seen.  One man bands like Shonteff were, incredibly, able to make a living doing this, although, as the seventies progressed, it became more and more difficult to get these films into cinemas.  Interestingly, we now seem to be back in a situation where UK film makers like Ben Wheatley are once more prepared to make movies on tint budgets in order to retain creative control and take advantage of new distribution methods such as the web.  The difference is that these days the films get critical acclaim rather than the disdain Shonteff faced. Frankly, he deserved better - he was at least a commercial director who actually managed to make movies in Britain during the seventies and even secured foreign distribution for his films.

That said, Licensed to Love and Kill wasn't quite as financially successful as its predecessor and Charles Bind, Agent Number One, wouldn't return to the screen until 1990...