Okay, like just about everybody else I'm all atwitter waiting for Friday's opening of the new Daniel Craig James Bond flick Quantum of Solace. Although I will admit to a certain disappointment that its theme song will not be sung by Amy Winehouse (a woman who I always assumed had been genetically bred to be the next Shirley Bassey) due to the fact that she was too f**ked up to go to the studio when the producers called. Sad, really.

In any case, I think we can all agree that no matter how Winehouse deficient or good QOS actually is, it will ultimately be found wanting when compared to the already extant Ultimate 60s Spy Flick. I refer, of course, to Paramount's 1966 production The Last of the Secret Agents.

In case you haven't seen it, it's the story of two American ex-pats in Paris (the much beloved of Ed Sullivan comedy team of Marty Allen & Steve Rossi) who are recruited by the obligatory UNCLE-like ultra-classified agency, in this case the GGI (Good Guys Institute). GGI needs them to thwart the plans of the obligatory evil crime and espionage organisation, in this case THEM (not an acronym, if memory serves) which is scheming to steal priceless international art treasures, most notably the Venus de Milo.

Here's the trailer, complete with to-die-for theme song sung by co-star Nancy Sinatra.

As you can see, the film also stars the great Brit actor and Hitchcock stalwart John Williams as the head of GGI. More important, it also features these two.

The Dr. Evil-ish guy above is the wonderful Theo Marcuse, perhaps best known for his turn as Korob on the classic Star Trek episode "Cat's Paw." Tragically, Marcuse died in a car crash a year after Secret Agents was filmed; he was only 47. The babe, on the other hand, is still with us. She's the remarkably monikered Carmen Dell'Orefice, born in 1931 and currently doing time as the oldest supermodel in the world.

A check over at Amazon has revealed that this deathless masterpiece is not currently available on DVD. Please join me in petitioning the good folks at the Criterion Collection to rectify this appalling situation; a two disc Blu-Ray restored version with commentary tracks (hello dere -- Marty Allen is still with us!) is clearly the way to go.