Rating: 
Summary: Just cool as Dino only could be
Review: Forget 007 he means nothing !!
If you really want to be someone else you don't need immagination any more, just look at Dino! He is cool, easy-going, polite, just perfect! And look the girls too, they are wonderful, sexy and never voulgar.
Big movie, big actors, big actress and naturally big big Dino !!
We want all the others Matt Helm movies on DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie, sucky studio
Review: I have purchased Austin Powers, James Bond, Derek Flint, and any other agent movies on DVD. I am happy to see my fellow reviewers here gave me a heads up on this DVD. I might have blundered into buying it for a price that is obviously outragious for the product. Anything priced like this should not only be completely whole and uncut, it should include great extras like commentary by director and cast, the making of it feature, original trailers, bios, photos, and more. Needless to say this not only doesn't have much in this regard they butchered the movie as well. Thanks again for letting me know Amazon reviewers!
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, sucky studio
Review: I love the Dean Martin tongue-in-cheek spie movies he made in the sixties. I recall he made at least two. I have purchased Austin Powers, James Bond, Derek Flint, and any other agent movies on DVD. I am happy to see my fellow reviewers here gave me a heads up on this DVD. I might have blundered into buying it for a price that is obviously outragious for the product. Anything priced like this should not only be completely whole and uncut, it should include great extras like commentary by director and cast, the making of it feature, original trailers, bios, photos, and more. Needless to say this not only doesn't have much in this regard they butchered the movie as well. Thanks again for letting me know Amazon reviewers!
Rating: 
Summary: Dear sir, this is The Silencers
Review: I saw this movie on local cable more than ten years ago, and in the wake of the successful Austin Powers films, this was and is one of the best spy spoofs of all time. Not just the wit of Dean Martin as Matt Helm, and the villany of Victor Buono as Tao, criminal mastermind of "Big O", but also the sexy women of the film like Stella Stevens as Gail Hendricks, Dalilah Lavi as Helm partner, and yes Cyd Charisse as the sultry singer-stripper Sarita. The only downfall I give this film is that during the remarkable opening title sequence, where you see Cyd Charisse and two other women, who should get the recognition for appearing in the film albeit of a few minutes, doing their little striptease routines, as an possible twist to the Bond title sequences where you only see the silouhette of their nude form. I hope in the DVD release, they show the making of the movieand of the title sequence. Also, here's another trivia question in the making: The character of Helm's secretary, Lovey Kravesit, was the basis for a fictitious secretary named Mona Luvsit in the episode "Our Man Bashir" of Star Trek: DS9. Anyway, it's a great film with a great cast. Hope you enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A word about the cropping
Review: I won't review the film as this has been done by others. However, I would like to add some thoughts about the "cropping" issue--
To many fans of DVD, a key selling point is seeing a film the way it was orginally presented in the theatre.
Most people are aware today that widescreen films shown on a full frame standard TV's are cropped-- that is, they are panned and scanned and you lose information (images). Pan & Scan changes the composition of the film.
With this in mind, people expect to see ALL of the composition when a film comes out on DVD and is viewed on a widescreen televison-- not less. However, there are exceptions:
In some circumstances, the director of a film will compose a shot with more information than is meant to be conveyed to the audience.
The "extra" information is never meant to be seen. When the film is "matted" for release, the additional info is covered up and you are left with the director's original conception of the shot.
Now here's the thing: when the film is shown on commercial television in a standard full screen format, the "matts" are opened up and the film subjected to pan and scan. In this case, you may now see parts of the shot that were covered up-- and also lose other parts that were originally shown.
The bottom line here is that this release of "The Silencers" shows the film in its "matted" form the way it was shown in theatre's. People who have seen the film on television all these years became accustomed to seeing the "open matt" pan & scan version. They have seen more information than was intended and now think that the released DVD version has been "cropped" because the afore mentioned images are now missing.
Here's a great example: (warning: spoilers below)
A previous reviewer makes mention that in a certain part of the film, actress Nancy Kovack is shot in the back and we her bare bottom. This reviewer then complains that in the DVD version, we don't see that far down. The conclusion that is drawn is that this scene is to riske' for the DVD version for some reason and has been cropped or edited out.
As explained above, this is simply not true.
In the pan & scan "open matt" scene, we see the actress wearing only a shirt and pantyhose. Dean Martin is holding her and we see Kovack from the back. As she is shot, Kovack arches up and we see her pantyhosed butt come out of the shirt.
This "nyloned butt" shot was never intended to be seen-- remember this was a film made in the mid 60's-- nudity simply wasn't going to make it in to a film that was rated the way this one was.
Further, there was also another bit of nudity just slightly earlier in the same scene that is in the "open matt" pan & scan version-- Kovack in shirt and pantyhose rushes up to Dino and we see both of the actors side by side.
As Kovack turns towards Martin, her short shirt lifts and parts slightly, and we see a glimpse of Kovacks "front" (for want of a more descriptive term).
Again, this was not meant to be seen and never would have made it past the censors during the original release.
So, in this instance, viewers have seen a more racy version of the film on televison than was ever shown in theatre's-- the complete opposite of what is expected with a DVD release-- hence the complaints.
Rating: 
Summary: Censorship and bad cropping give Helm hell!
Review: I've waited many years to see this fearsome foursome of cheese find a decent release in DVD. Sadly, thanks to bad cropping and seemingly random censorship, it still hasn't happened yet.The four films are, of course, The Silencers, Murderers' Row, The Ambushers, and The Wrecking Crew. (A fifth intallment was storeyboarded but never shot.) Letting the studio off the hook by saying things like "widescreen areas always crop full frame versions," is being much too gracious in the face of these money-grabbing studio weasels who also CUT entire parts of the film and never even gave you an original trailer. And I should know about the widescreen concept, since I am, after all, the chairman of the WWS - the Widescreen Watchers Society. (Yes, my organization has a movie site online, but an Amazon review is not the place to plug it by posting links to it.) Rather I just wanted to point out that it is instead within the "full frame" or "standard screen" format that all cropping takes place. The most dominant style is pan-and -scan, which is done by zooming in on whatever the TV film editor decides is the most important area on screen at any given moment. That's why you often end up with the ridiculous sight of one person chattering happily away to the air for long periods of time, since you can't see the other person he's talking to. And because of the zoom effect, naturally you also get a more blurred focus on the overall picture. But a presentation in widescreen, whether it be a regular rectangle (Vista-Vision style) or a more narrow rectangle (Panavison style), or somewhere in between, never crops and/or zooms in after the fact at any point - resulting in a vast difference of ultimate picture composition in crystal clarity, giving you the best total viewing experience possible - which is why the original director filmed it that way for its theatrical release in the first place! How today's studios stamping out inferior DVDs think the public will never notice such a huge difference is completely mind-boggling! And who buys most of the DVDs of older movies anyway? Film buffs who are very picky about such things to begin with! RECOMMENDATION: Wait until all four films are put out together in an improved deluxe edition - TRUE widescreen (non-cropped and non-censored), featuring behind the scenes featurettes (which they shot back in the '60s as long commercials for such films), surviving crew interviews, trailers, etc. Otherwise, forget it. Hey, Rat Pack fans - or just fans of Dean Martin in general - you know ol' Dino deserves far BETTER than this shoddy treatment! Mama mia!
Rating:
Summary: Please fire head Silencer
Review: Not only is the image cropped -- in one of the sexiest scenes, you can't even see below Daliah Lavi's waist (on the VHS, you can see her legs) -- but there are at least ten seconds actually *cut*! Yes, from the *DVD*! In the full print, when Stella Stevens has her dress torn off by Dino, she walks backwards around the furniture as he approaches her and she says (referring to her bra-covered chest) "You won't find anything in there -- nothing the government's interested in." In this DVD, they use the cut TV version, where that sequence is omitted (and why it is, even for TV, I'm not sure -- it's no "dirtier" than the rest of the movie). Here it looks like she doesn't even move from the original spot, as they excised the aforementioned scene -- or most likely used the wrong print. Combine the fake widescreen (widescreen's supposed to add, not subtract from the mass image; otherwise it's no less than fraud to advertise it as such) and you have a poorly prepared, overpriced DVD that's an insult to Ms. Stevens, Dino and everyone else involved in this classically risque spy-spoof. Was the "restorer" sleeping on the job? This one needs to be redone badly, and I'd be happy to be the consultant.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly cool, fun-- please release the other three.
Review: There are obvious similarities between Matt Helm and Austin Powers, only Dean Martin's own spoof of James Bond isn't British, and if he also isn't as hilarious as Mike Myers, at least he has "better teeth" (and no rug on his chest).
It goes without saying, Dino is The King of Cool.
What might have seemed like humor for middle aged people to the kids of the 1960s has become in recent years, to young and old alike, the epitome of politically incorrect camp and eternally stylish fun.
The movie starts with not just a parody of the James Bond opening credits, but the stunningly beautiful Cyd Charisse dancing and singing (or "singing") a tongue-and-cheek number that kicks things off with a true bang.
Then, a phone call later, we find Matt Helm dreaming (and how!) on a circular white bed in a bachelor pad that takes the ideal of the bachelor pad to an unmatched level. I leave it for you to discover for yourself-- but there is, in his morning dip, a Lovey Kravezit and a bar of soap (which holds another meaning to the word "bar").
Expect a relaxed journey through the Southwest desert in a dated station wagon, and beside Helm, Stella Stevens, looking and acting nothing like her blond innocent self in the movie with Dino's former partner (Jerry Lewis in "The Nutty Professor," to clarify).
The gadgets are fewer and not so inventive as those which Q gave to 007, but they do provide some laughs no doubt about it.
The outfits of Helm's female sidekicks aren't the only thin part of the film-- the plot (as I said) is relaxed, and at times just plain goofy. There is, however, a good car chase.
Yet the point of the whole thing is the smoothness and coolness of Dean Martin, poking fun at himself and the hyper-masculine fantasies of the era. I imagine some people might find the Matt Helm series to be stupid, offensive, or both.
Still, there must be countless fans of spy spoofs, of the Rat Pack, and of Dean Martin in particular, who are going absolutely nuts because Sony/Columbia hasn't released "Murderers' Row," "The Ambushers" and "The Wrecking Crew."
We many fans are crossing our fingers and hoping the other three Matt Helm movies will come out on DVD *real soon*.
Rating:
Summary: A word about The Silencers.
Review: This is a very nice transfer to DVD and only appears cropped to other reviewers because this is the way audiences saw it in the theater almost forty years ago. The 1.85:1 widescreen area is indeed cropping the full frame but the cropped area was never meant to be seen. Only television introduced the full frame area to viewers. To fully understand this one must discard his ignorance of projected film formats and do some research in this area. That way, a decent film to video transfer like this one won't receive such bad billing and we can all be happy!
Rating:
Summary: They didn't do the film justice!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Well, I have been a fan of this film ever since I saw it as a young teenager...lots of attractive women, guns firing backwards, Bond type driving a station wagon(a station Wagon????) And never for a moment does it take itself the least bit seriously!
So, I was glad to see this film come out on dvd finally, but they sure cropped the image, even though it is widescreen! How do I know this??? Well, the film just ran on cable last month, full screen version, and when Daliah Lavi shoots Nancy Kovack in the back, just before she was to stab our hero Matt, you see her behind as she jumps up(She is only wearing one of his shirts)....so...when the DVD comes out, and you get to this scene...it is cropped so you are not shown the offending buttocks!!!! A film from 1966 is too hot for DVD today??? Why??? I thought the big selling point for DVD was to be the chance to see films as they originally were shot and shown on the big screen...I guess not, but they still get your 20+ bucks. Who knows what else they cut/cropped from the film?????
The image quality is fine,(though the adventures of Robin Hood from 1938 still looks better) but no extras... and you know this is the only time it will be out on disc.....
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