Le spie vengono dal semifreddo—Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
Neither version of the movie can be synchronized to the script for more than four pages at a stretch; scenes from the middle or end are relocated near the beginning, and sometimes not used at all, and the scripted dia- logue was seldom followed verbatim by the actors. Everything that could go wrong with the picture, short of the money running out, apparently did. The resulting movie is almost al-
ways described as the nadir of Mario Bava’s career, but this observation is
most often made by people unaware that two distinct versions exist, and that the more familiar version—Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs—hardly qualifies as “A Mario Bava Film” at all. Though Bava is credited as the film’s director, this version was wholly assembled in Los Angeles by AIP staff editor Ronald Sinclair, without Bava’s input or participation. As Deke Heyward recollected, “It was brought back here [to America] and put to- gether out of sheer desperation.” It is
highly unlikely that Bava ever saw, or had any interest in seeing, the American version.
The Italian and American versions may share the same cast, some of the same scenes, and the same basic story, yet they are as different to one another as I tre volti della paura is unlike Black Sabbath. As with those films, the de- finitive version “exists” somewhere in- between, in the viewer’s own imagina- tion. Neither version of this comedy is ideal, as both omit outstanding scenes
TEEN IDOL Fabian is clearly outnumbered by the female cast members.
to flatter their respective agendas. The Italian version is more noticeably Bava’s creation; it contains its own share of faults, but despite them, it satisfies its intended audience far better than the American version does. The following synopsis represents Le spie vengono dal semifreddo, 4 only version supervised by Bava.
