Connery, released in America as Operation Kid Brother, is a 1967 Italian Eurospy comedy film shot in Technicolor and Techniscope and directed by Alberto De Martino.
The spy-fi plot involves the brother of the British spy James Bond, played by Neil Connery (the actual brother of Sean Connery, star of the Eon Productions Bond films), who is obliged to take the lead in foiling a world-domination plot.
The film's cast included several actors from the Eon-produced James Bond film series: From Russia with Love's Daniela Bianchi, Thunderball's Adolfo Celi, Dr. No's Anthony Dawson, Bernard Lee (M), and Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny), as well as the producer's wife Agata Flori, Gina Lollobrigida's cousin Guido Lollobrigida, and Yasuko Yama (aka Yee-Wah Young[4] and Yee-Wah Yang, then in the publicity spotlight due to her relationship with James Mason;[5][6] she appeared as a bath girl in You Only Live Twice under the name Yee-Wah Yang[7]).
At an airfield in Monte Carlo, Ward Jones, a man with a package, lands his light aircraft, which is destroyed following a collision with a remote controlled full-sized car operated by Thayer, a member of the secret THANATOS organisation.
In a medical conference in Monte Carlo, aided by cosmetic surgeon Neil Connery, Jones' girlfriend Yachuko later escapes from Thayer's henchmen.
After being reminded that he killed one of Thayer's henchmen in a fight at the conference, Connery agrees to help in exchange for the police investigation being dropped.
Thayer's henchwoman Mildred has followed them to Malaga, but Connery hypnotizes her to reveal Yachuko's location, Krayendorf's castle.
Firing an arrow, Connery short-circuits the electric fence protecting the castle and destroys its defensive machine gun position.
Following up information revealed by Yachuko, Cunningham persuades Connery to travel to Tétouan, Morocco, where Thayer owns a rug factory staffed exclusively by blind men.
Disguised as a blind Moroccan weaver, Connery infiltrates the factory, where the workers are in contact with dangerous radioactive materials.
Connery and Maya meet Juan in Munich, where they are also joined by the Scottish members of a Monte Carlo archery club.
Using a Geiger counter to detect the radioactive rugs, Connery and Maya locate THANATOS's secret lair.
Sabatello met Connery at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh to recruit him to play the lead role in a Eurospy film.
[9] Experienced director Alberto De Martino, who had previously filmed Upperseven, the Man to Kill and Special Mission Lady Chaplin (both 1966), recalled his father Romolo de Martino doing Connery's extensive makeup and having problems with Connery's inexperience as an actor.
"[19] In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review noted that "though it's stylishly mounted, the result is a routine Italian spy romp.
"[20] In an interview in 1996, Lois Maxwell said that Sean Connery, when he learned that she would join the cast, got very angry and started screaming: "You have betrayed me!"
[22] In contrast, Andy Roberts from The Daily Telegraph and Tom Cole for Radio Times considered it to be one of the best.