The Nude Bomb (1980) | aka, The Return of Maxwell Smart

Maxwell Smart (Adams), the dimwitted super-spy from the hit Mel Brooks/Buck Henry-created TV series from the 1960s, “Get Smart” returned in 1980 for a brand new, racier adventure.  Entitled The Nude Bomb, it has lost that title over the years in favor of the more TV-programming friendly The Return of Maxwell Smart (ironic trivia: the original shooting title was “The Return of Maxwell Smart”, changed to “The Nude Bomb” because they thought it would make a more marketable movie). 

The origin of the film goes all the way back to 1966, when “Get Smart”‘s executive producer, Leonard Stern, wrote a script for a feature film version of the TV show to be shot while on hiatus between the first and second season. It never did get released due to financing and disagreements in the scheduling between Stern and Columbia Pictures, brought about somewhat due to Don Adams having a prior commitment to appear in Atlantic City and, not someone who flies, meant that figuring out when he might be available was up in the air.  Stern would try shopping to another studio, bringing in famed b-movie director William Castle to direct for Paramount Pictures, but Paramount decided against it after observing the lackluster returns of other TV-to-film attempts like Munster Go Home and 1966’s Batman. It ended up getting broken down into parts, retooled, and made into a three-episode run on the TV show with the title of, “A Man Called Smart” in April of 1967.

The show would still continue until its fifth and final season in 1970 (four seasons on NBC and its last at CBS), whereafter if it would become a hit in syndication, not only in the United States but other markets around the world. In late 1977, Frank Price, who was in charge of Universal Television, decided to do a reunion of the show and commissioned Stern to come up with another screenplay to make a TV movie they could sell to those world markets. If it proved successful, it would essentially be used as a pilot for a return of the series to American television. Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 on the TV show, would unfortunately either did not agree to appear or was never invited, depending on who you ask. Stern claimed when he brought up the idea of a TV movie to Feldon very early on, she seemed uninterested in returning, feeling like it had run its course and she didn’t want to be only associated with the show, wanting to move beyond it to other things. Without Feldon, Universal pushed the scheduled shoot further into 1979 due to necessary rewrites to give Max a new female partner. Stern, who served as executive producer, brought in the talents of fellow writers for Steve Allen, Bill Dana and Arne Sultan (who wrote many episodes of “Get Smart”, as well as served as an executive producer for the last three seasons), with whom he was also working on a TV pilot for a comedy series based on the movie Car Wash, to give it a fresh comedy sheen. Veteran novelist-playwright-humorist Max Shulman was also hired to do some script revisions to give the dialogue more polish.

An unexpected thing happened, though, when the script was completed and sent to Universal’s foreign sales division for review.  They loved it, enough to pass along to Jennings Lang on the notion they should make it into a feature film instead, upping the budget from its initial $2.5 to over $6 million, They told the screenwriters to revise their script a bit, telling them to “think big” and come up with ways to make their story more cinematic and to take advantage of those things they couldn’t show on television, namely, some saltier language, adult situations, and PG-rated levels of nudity.  The original audience for the TV show were now in college, and the thinking is they would love to see a more adult adventure from these characters they enjoyed as younger kids.

For the record, Feldon denied that they ever asked her to be in the feature film, just the made-for-TV pilot film that might lead to a possible new TV show. While it may have been as simple as thinking she was uninterested and didn’t come back for a movie because she didn’t want to reprise in on television, the producers were keen on the opportunity to start over again given that there wasn’t any place to go with Smart being a husband and father. Feldon surmised that they passed on her so that Maxwell Smart could be free and single and willing to mingle with younger actresses (Feldon was 46 at the time). Even if it were as simple as a misunderstanding. they were too far into the major revisions now to go back and bring back Agent 99, given they wanted a spicier and younger approach to revamp the television show for a potential new franchise. Feldon went on record to say that she wouldn’t have done the movie if she had been asked given the wrongheaded direction it was going, and she did feel some pleasure at knowing they were not successful after the fact.

Universal agreed to the bigger changes, raising the budget to $8 million on the condition that the film appeal to a modern era, including the world of fashion in its plot and injecting disco in the soundtrack.  The original script had the bad guy using his clothing to dress the world after getting all people on Earth under his control, but the execs at Universal wanted bigger and bolder, having the heavy destroy all other forms of fabric other than his own special blend so that they would have to come to him to get their clothing. Thus, the “nude bomb” was born. They would additionally spice things up with some adult language and brought in some titillation factor (without losing their PG rating) in a way the writers were becoming incensed by (especially the uptick in nudity and sexuality), raising their concerns in a very heated way. Stern would end up getting banned from the set, despite being an executive producer and originally tagged to direct, and the studio brought in producer Jennings Lang to oversee the revisions they wanted to be made. One major component was to incorporate some advertising for the Universal Studios Tour as well as other properties they might have going at the time (the Cylon Warriors of “Battlestar Galactica” get a good dose of screen time). At this point, the Lang and the studio felt like they could reimagine the TV show into something that would compete with the bigger franchises out there – to our-Bond the Bond films. They knew that the hardcore audience would come no matter what, but to recoup their investment, they decided they would have to lure in the more modern audiences that expect big set pieces, gorgeous women, and state-of-the-art special effects.

After British director Clive Donner was hired to take control, more things changed. The show was a hit in many parts of the world, but England wasn’t one of its most successful inroads. Donner claimed it was the ‘canned laughter’ of the show that turned them off to it, stating that the few American comedies that did well in the UK had a live audience. As such, he was largely unfamiliar with the TV show and wanted the scope widened from its original Cold War spy spoof concept to becoming a satire on the more modern 007 franchise, with a sense of humor derived from the Pink Panther series, toward which he was much more familiar. This would require more stunts, gadgets, and large sets to be utilized, and some action pieces, including skydiving, car chases, and skiing sequences.

Over 100 stuntmen were employed for the various scenes, many more gadgets (including a motorized desk that could actually be driven at 40 mph), and several dozen effects shots were commissioned to give the film some eye candy. For scoring duties, the production lured in Lalo Schifrin, who also composed the themes song sung by Merry Clayton called “You’re Always There When I Need You”, which features lyrics by Don Black, who co-wrote the theme songs to the James Bond films Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, and The Man with the Golden Gun. By the time it was completed, the budget would end up at a substantial (for its time) $15 million, and whatever the original script had that kept it in continuity with the television show was squeezed out by the studio looking to make its money back on their investment.

According to Don Adams, the script went through eighteen different revisions, and the first full cut of the film ran 3 hours and 40 minutes. Their goal was to make it around 90 minutes, which meant two hours of cuts were necessary. The more they tinkered, the less he liked he felt like the original show and regretted not backing out of the deal earlier, but his wife was pregnant with their seventh child and needed the money. He felt like the best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor, especially what he felt gave the entire story social commentary. Adams and Stern also felt that British director Clive Donner was wrong for the project, not being someone familiar with the original concept, and unaccustomed to doing big and broad films.

The gist of the film is that an agent from the super-terrorist organization, KAOS, is threatening to rid the world of all clothing if demands aren’t met, using a bomb capable of destroying all forms of fabric.  It’s up to Agent 86 of CONTROL (mysteriously changing its acronym to PITS – Provisional Intelligence Tactical Service), Maxwell Smart, to put an end to these nefarious plans, although wherever he turns, trouble seems to follow.  He suspects there may be a double agent trying to put a wrench in the works, but who?

Don Adams returns to his most famous role, one in which he took home Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series three seasons straight, from 1967-69. He’s joined by Robert Karvelas, who plays Larrabee, as the only member of the show to return (although Joey Forman, who plays Agent 13, did appear on a couple of episodes as the Charlie Chan-Esque, Harry Hoo).  Not mention of Smart’s partner in crime-fighting, Agent 99 (who Smart married in the fourth season), and the Chief is now played by Dana Elcar. Edward Platt, the TV version of the Chief, died several years before filming. Eugene Roche was the first choice and shot a couple of scenes but fell out of the project due to illness (though it is said Roche wasn’t quite clicking and the claim of illness was for insurance purposes), requiring Elcar to come in during the production and scenes with Roche needed to be reshot (Alan Spencer reveals on the Kino Lorber disc a few shots where Roche is still visible in the final film).

Veteran Italian actor Vittorio Gassman plays the heavy, Nino Salvatori Sebastiani (and Saint Sauvage). The actor recently returning to do Hollywood films after two decades doing Italian films and performing in classical theater productions.  Gassman had grown discontent with acting in American films after being typecast through his contract with MGM into roles he felt were limiting in films he considered mostly bad. He received terrible press during his tempestuous two-year marriage with actress Shelley Winters that made the pastures of Italy seem all the greener.

Meanwhile, Smart has three potential love interests to choose from in the sultry Agent 36 (played by Pamela Hensley, who had just appeared as Princess Ardala in the first season of NBC/Universal’s “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”), the sexy Agent 34 (soft-core porn siren Sylvia Kristel), and goodie-two-shoes Agent 22 (Andrea Howard). The numbers of the Agents constitute the desireable measurements of women in this era, which forms a joke as Max introduces 36 to 22, and 22 to 36. Comedian Bill Dana, who originally appeared on a couple of episodes of the “Get Smart” TV show as different characters, gets not only script credit (his only feature film work as a writer) but also appears in a brief but memorable role as fashion designer Jonathan Levinson Seigle.

Having been a fan of “Get Smart” when it played on TV in re-runs as a kid, I’ve also caught The Nude Bomb several times on cable, not because I like it that much, but because I tend to forget the fact that it isn’t good.  Perhaps the biggest reason for the drop-off in quality is that the original TV show had some very good writers and creators attached — Mel Brooks, Buck Henry, and even star Don Adams had his hand in writing and directing his share.  The creators of this film get the basic premise right, and to some extent, the characterizations.  They even retain all of the famous catchphrases “…and loving it”, “would you believe…”, “missed it by that much”, etc.), although they seem forced in for fan recognition more so than in making for credible jokes on their own. 

While most of the TV show’s funniest moments came from the dialogue and satire of popular spy flicks, The Nude Bomb isn’t graced with such crisp writing.  Rather, the funnier moments occur during some relatively inspired moments of slapstick, such as a car chase between the bad guy and Smart controlling a souped-up desk, a chase through Universal Studios, and a melee involving a dozen clones of Agent 86 duking it out with the clones of Norman Saint Sauvage (Gassman).  Also, Maxwell Smart isn’t as likable here as he is in the TV series.  He’s more vulgar and smarmy and has a rather distasteful sexual side that wasn’t evidenced much in the small screen predecessor. 

Then again, the same could be said about the movie as a whole, which failed to connect with the wider audience they were seeking, and turned off the series fans by straying too much from the formula they knew and loved. Nevertheless, it put up decent box office numbers in 1980, debuting at number two at the box office, just behind the slasher movie Friday the 13th. It remained in the top ten two additional weeks and had a lengthy run, earning about $14.5 million. It may not have turned a profit, but it was the studio’s fault for bloating the budget. To add insult to injury, the film would be nominated for “Worst Picture” in the very first Golden Raspberry Awards (aka, The Razzies). At least they benefited from the blatant advertisements for Universal and its studio tour as a consolation for overspending.

A more proper revival made-for-TV film would come out on ABC in 1989 called Get Smart Again!, which completely ignores this film and stays in the continuity of the TV show and returns Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. In 1995, a short-lived TV show (only seven episodes produced) on Fox featuring Adams and Feldon would also emerge, also called “Get Smart”, effectively rendering this as out of continuity with all of the other properties. As such, The Nude Bomb is probably only of appeal to “Get Smart” completists, as well as those who aren’t very particular about faithful recreations of beloved TV series.  Many fans of the TV show consider it non-canon due to its different tone, the lack of adherence to the TV show beyond trademark catchphrases and doohickeys, and the fact that Agent 99 is left out entirely. It still has its moments, but the hit-to-miss ratio is a little too heavily stacked in the negative to consider it worthwhile for most.  Phony backdrops, obvious stunt doubles, and silly-looking props only add to the already-considerable cheese factor.  I guess there’s a reason why the producers of this misfire lost CONTROL and gave us the PITS.

Qwipster’s rating: C+

MPAA Rated: PG for brief nudity and innuendo
Running time: 94 min.

Cast: Don Adams, Andrea Howard, Dana Elcar, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Lloyd, Sylvia Kristel, Rhonda Fleming, Pamela Hensley, Bill Dana, Gary Imhoff, Sarah Rush, George Lazenby (cameo)
Director: Clive Donner
Screenplay: Bill Dana, Leonard B. Stern, Arne Sultan