A still from "International Secret Police: The Key of Keys."

The original theatrical posters of "Barrel of Gunpowder" (left) and "The Key of Keys" (right).

“International Secret Police” was a series of spy-action films produced by Toho between 1963 and 1967. The series started just after “Dr. No,” the first James Bond film, was released in Japan to outstanding success. Despite being popular enough at the time to warrant five films in the series, “International Secret Police” was never released on home video, laserdisc, or DVD. Today, the series is mainly remembered because the third and fourth installment, “A Barrel of Gunpowder” and “The Key of Keys” was edited down and redubbed as “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” the first film to credit Woody Allen as director, although one could argue the real directors were Takashi Tsuboshima and Senkichi Taniguchi, who helmed the original films.

Currently, three of the films in the series are being shown for the first time in decades as part of the “Toho Action!” film series at Cinema Vera in Shibuya, so now is an opportune time to look back at the series, and the spy-action genre in general.

A still from "A Barrel of Gunpowder."

How “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” came to be released is an interesting story in itself. Woody Allen got his professional start as a teenager in the mid ’50s, writing gags for TV variety shows. The media that gave Allen his start also spelled doom for the movies, as Americans started to stay home to watch “I Love Lucy” rather than go out to the cinema. Two shrewd businessmen named James Nicholson and Sam Arkoff realized that one demographic would rather get out of the house: American teenagers. They founded American International Picture in 1956, and started realeasing cheaply produced but highly lucrative teen films, many directed by the legendary Roger Corman.  They often pre-sold films solely based on titles such as “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” and if they raised enough funds, would produce and the promised film in less than a week. When major Hollywood studios responded to the threat posed by television with lush Cinemascope gladiator films such as “Spartacus” and “Ben Hur,” AIP cheaply bought distribution rights of Italian sword and sandal films, and redubbed them. They didn’t bother to hire translators who could understand the source material, but rather wrote new lines that had no relation to the original plot, but fit the visuals on the screen. When Dr. No (1962) started global James Bond mania, AIP started importing Japanese spy pictures and dubbing them. When they quickly redubbed “International Secret Police: The Key of Keys” and released it in late night art houses in New York, they found that audience were laughing in the wrong places. AIP thought they should just make it a comedy, and hired Woody Allen, who was by then a headlining stand-up comedian. Allen teamed up with then-wife Louise Lasser and early collaborator Mickey Rose to redub the film, turning into an espionage caper based on a secret recipe for egg salad. Allen was part of a generation of filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicolson, Peter Fonda, and Bruce Dern who all got their start at AIP.

One of the enduring myths of “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” is that that Allen took a tense, action-packed Japanese spy film and deftly turned it into a madcap farce. However, by the time of “The Key of Keys,” the fourth film in the series from which most of “Tiger Lilly” was taken, “International Secret Police” had slipped into self-parody, with plenty of sexual innuendo and corny gags.

Tatsuya Mihashi, right, in Barrel of Gunpowder.

The series did start in a more serious tone. The first installment, “Directive Number 8,” starts with the the assassination of a high-ranking government official in Saigon. A member of the International Secret Police, Jiro Kitami, played by Tatsuya Mihashi who stared in every film in the series, goes to Vietnam to seek out the arms dealer who orchastrated the killing. At the time, Mihashi was known as “The Japanese Cary Grant,” which is interesting as Grant was the first choice to play James Bond. In the second film, “The Tiger’s Tooth,” Kitami is assigned bodyguard to an official from the fictious middle eastern country of Alabanda, who turns out to actually be a Japanese war profitier. While the tone is still rather serious, there are James Bond type gadgets, such as the villian’s cigarette lighter that sprays poisonous gas, and Kitami’s sunglasses, which contain tiny speakers linked to hidden microphones. The third film “A Barrel of Gunpowder,” entered the field of exploitation, with scene featuring villian masquerading as a priest strapping the heroine to a table saw. The villian of “The Key of Keys” operates a brothel, giving rising to scene of women running around in their underwear. Two actresses in the film, Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi were noticed by the producers of the Jamese Bond series, and appeared opposite Sean Connery in “You Only Live Twice.” The final film, “Stalemate,” further increased the campy feel with American actor Nick Adams, who also appeared in several Godzilla films.

Akiko Wakabayashi in The Key of Keys.

The “International Secret Police” films were clearly inspired by the enormous popularity of the earlier James Bond films, and the first film was quickly planned and filmed after Dr. No premiered in Japan. However, they can also be seen as a continuation of a tradition of Toho tough guy action films that date back to the mid 1950s. Toho did not have the budget for the helicopter aerial shots and explosions that characterized the James Bond series, the “International Secret Police” films do features lush art direction, beautiful color, dramatic use of camera angles, and jazz soundtracks. Hopefully the current film festival revival will help expose them to a large audience.