Agent for H.A.R.M.: Gerd Oswald

There's only one thing that I believe is worthy of praise in Agent for H.A.R.M. I can't think of another Cold War spy movie in which the top secret military/political/scientific whatchamacallit at the center of the action was designed for biological warfare and not nuclear proliferation. The things secret agents and spies seem to fight over in these films are launch codes, missile blueprints, atomic formula, etc, etc. In Agent for H.A.R.M. the U.S. must protect a Soviet defector named Dr. Jan Steffanic who designed a gun that fired spores which eat away human skin.  The problem is that this admittedly fascinating idea is stuck in the middle of a terrible James Bond knock-off.  The "Bond" character in this film is Adam Chance, an agent for the bizarrely named American agency H.A.R.M. (Human Aetiological Relations Machine). Chance is ordered to protect Steffanic and his niece Ava Vestok as they try and find an antidote for the spores. It's a race against time as Steffanic reveals that the Soviets plan on using the spores to dust America's crops, thereby causing widespread famine. Of course, instead of doing the logical thing and sending Steffanic to a remote facility guarded by the military, they force him to work in a run-down shack on a beach. Did I mention that Chance lives with him in that shack? And that Ava is revealed to be a Communist spy? Well, I hardly think it matters seeing as Agent for H.A.R.M. is a dreary, lackluster, and altogether unimpressive spy film. Peter Mark Richman is a joke as Adam Chance. He is too old, too clumsy, and too rigid to be convincing as a secret agent. The few action scenes are a joke and usually end with Chance sneaking up on the bad guys and killing them like a coward. Agent for H.A.R.M. is a spy film For No Eyes Only.

4/10