Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs

'Dr. Goldfoot and the Girls Bombs' is a joint production between American International Pictures and Italian International Pictures and is the rare joint sequel, bringing together the villainous Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) from 'Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine' and the comedy team of Franco & Ciccio from 'Two Mafiosi Against Goldfinger', also known as 'The Amazing Dr. G'.

The opening credits give a recap of 'Bikini Machine', sparing those who don't want to suffer through it, yet offers no explanation of how Goldfoot survived the film's climactic action sequence. 'Girls Bombs' starts with a French general kissing a beautiful woman in gold bikini until she explodes. Then a Belgian general is killed by similar means at a hotel. Goldfoot has gone from using his robot-building skills to steal fortunes, to murder, which seems like quite a leap.

With Frankie Avalon unable to reprise his role because his wife was about to have a baby, Fabian was cast as Bill Dexter, agent of Secret Intelligent Command. Dexter knows Goldfoot is alive but no one will believe him. He tracks Goldfoot to a hotel and gets attacked by the doormen (Franco & Ciccio) for no real reason other than the opportunity to be silly, particularly with the cameras cranked up in speed. Silly is the sense of humor for most of the film's comedy and it rarely generated more than a smile from me, although I will give credit to Franco & Ciccio's clever introduction.

Goldfoot's plan is to rule the world in conjunction with the Chinese government. After killing many NATO generals, he poses as U.S. General Willis (Vincent Price in a dual role), in order to make it look like the United States is bombing the USSR in the hopes both countries will destroy each other.

The heroes chase after Goldfoot through the streets of Rome and an amusement park. After Goldfoot takes off in a plane, cartoon logic takes over. Franco plugs a small fan into the basket of a hot air balloon and catches the plane. Also, during a fight the cabin door opens with no ill effect.

Understandably, 'Girl Bombs' has its detractors, including Vincent Price, who was quoted as saying it was "the most dreadful movie I've ever been in," and it is a bad movie, but it's not much worse than 'Bikini Machine'. There were two versions of the movie made. The American version that is included here, which was alerted without the involvement of director Mario Bava, and an Italian version. It's too bad it's not included for comparison.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine' from Kino Lorber comes on a 25 GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a standard blue case. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements.

The video has been given a 1080p/AVC-MPEG-4 encoded transfer displayed at 1.85:1. The credits look very grainy, colors are a bit faded, and there's some black speckle, but then in the opening scene, the picture sharpens, and the colors improve with brighter hues.

Blacks are inky and contrast is pleasing. The image offers fine details as displayed in a material pattern in Goldfoot's red smoking jacket. There's also great depth as seen when the girls bombs are exercise in Goldfoot's lab.

The stock footage is filthy, with black marks appearing in the same places so there must have been an issue when originally inserted into the film. The image looks free from artifacting or edge enhancement.

The audio is available in DTS-HD Master Audio English 2.0. The dialogue is clear, although obviously all of it has been dubbed so it sounds canned and flat. Les Baxter created a wonderful jazz score that comes through with adequate fidelity. The effects sound better than what is heard on 'Bikini Machine', which makes for a more balanced mix, leading to an improved dynamic range. Bass is limited.

• Commentary – Film Historians David Del Valle & David DeCoteau return to talk about the sequel, which they look down upon, but since they raved about 'Bikini Machine', it's hard to take their opinion seriously. They do offer good information about the film's creation and what went on in creating both versions of the film.
  
• Animated Montage of Images (HD, 1 min) – Photo Gallery of poster and Publicity Stills
  
• Black Sabbath “Trailer from Hell” with Mick Garris (HD, 3 min) – This is a Mario Bava film, which explains its inclusion.
  
• Trailers (SD) – 'Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine' (3 min), 'Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs' (2 min), and 'House of the Long Shadows' (2 min)
  

While audiences would be better served if both films in the 'Dr. Goldfoot' series were goofed on, such as the Mystery Science Theater 3000 team, the Blu-ray for 'Girl Bombs' scores a little higher for better audio, due to the source, and an extra supplement. This is for fans only.