Secret Agent 077 is an agent with the CIA.
Often referred to as simply Agent 077 or even more succinctly as just 077, this extremely well respected and exceptionally capable operative for the Central Intelligence Agency had all of his recorded adventures taking place in the mid 1960s. The first one which is partially earmarked as his work (I will explain) happened in 1964 and after 1968 his exploits were never documented again.
So who is Agent 077? Perhaps that question should be phrased who ARE Agent 077.
First, it is vital to remember that in 1965, James Bond was ... IT! Capital letters. It was box office gold all over the world and just as the blurbs were saying that "every man wanted to be him, every woman wanted to be with him" or variations to that theme, the codename of 007 was synonymous with action and adventure and anything/everything spy-ish. Dr. No ('62), From Russia With Love ('63), Goldfinger '64), and Thunderball ('65) - nothing more needs to be said.
That is what created the phenomenon now referred to as the EuroSpy industry. The desire (or was it obsession) to copy and more importantly capitalize on this spy craze drove the various movie studios on the Continent to rush onto celluloid any spy action drama they could film. Just make sure every reel had a beautiful woman being loved by the hero; said hero then duking it out with large numbers of bad guys. Car chases were usually called for, though boat pursuits were also pretty cool. And any nifty albeit often odd technological gadget was welcome.
But then the question would come up as to how to attach, however tenuously, this film spy or that one to the juggernaut that was the 007 franchise. If you tried using 007 yourself, well, that was a lawsuit ready to happen with you being certain to lose and there would go all your profits. But!! If you used a different code-number, well, no trademark theft meant no lawsuit. So, if instead of two 0's and one 7, how about you used one 0 and two 7's?
077 versus 007.
To the people on the street looking at the ever-present movie poster plastered on many a city building or wall, the huge numbers 077 would catch the eye and spark the desired interest and the audiences would come with lira or franc or mark or peseta or escudo or drachma or guider in hand. And if in the actual movie no one ever once used that 077 designation? Who cares! The audience was in their seats and the action was on!
But even better in that regard, since a movie was made by different people in different countries, the language they were originally made in would not likely be the language in which most of the people watched them. For example, an Italian film might be viewed by a lot of Italians but then there were the good numbers of French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Greek, English, Danish, Swedish, etc. who would watch it dubbed into their language. The same would hold true for Spanish films or French films, or ... you get the idea.
And since lip syncing did not have to be exact, just reasonably close, what a great opportunity to change a lead character's name and maybe, if the dubbing authorities were feeling frisky, toss in a 077 here or there where it never existed originally!
So, who is Secret Agent 077 actually?
Well, subject to readers sending me corrections, here is what I have deduced:
The first film to be marked as 077-ish is the French-Spanish film "La muerte silba un Blues" (Death Sings The Blues) with the main character being Alfred Pereira who was betrayed by a fellow crook, sent away for a lot of years, and now wants revenge. No 077 here until the movie was dubbed the next year into French and, voila, we have the title being "Agent 077 Operation Jamaique" as well as "Agent 077 Operation Sexy". Now you see why I 'earmarked' it above.
Next up are the trio of films most deserving of owning the code-number. Dick Malloy is that handsome operative and he kissed a lot of women and punched a lot of fellows in "Mission Bloody Mary", "From the Orient With Fury", and "Special Mission Lady Chaplin", each with their own multitude of translated titles. At least Malloy was an actual CIA agent - and a darn good one at that. I have watched two of these and never heard 077 mentioned in either but he definitely saw his posters blaring it.
The same year that he was starting out, so was a singleton by the name of George Farrell as he did his 077-thing in "Espionage in Lisbon". He did not return for any more missions but at least he got to save a small country in his one excursion.
And there was Marc Mato aka Mike Murphy aka Robert Logan aka Lemmy Logan (depending on country dubbing) who was busy in two different adventures, "Marc Mato, Agente S. 077" aka "Espionage in Tangier" followed up the next year with "Ypotron - Final Countdown". Like Malloy, Mato was a CIA agent and like him, his posters proudly designated him 077.
That brings us the last fellow who would more than once be poster-named 077, Bob Fleming aka Bob Dixon aka Fred Lester. Admitedly, the last two are not really but kinda are. Bob Fleming is name the fellow uses for "Secret Agent Fireball" and then the next year for "Killers Are Challenges", followed the same year with a different actor playing virtually the same chap in "Fury in Marrakesh" before the original actor came back with a different name in "Ring Around The World". All four movies were penned by the same screenwriter and really look like quadruplets to me.
Closing out our list of 077 operatives, in 1968 we bounce far over to Asia and the Indian sub-continent for an agent named Rakesh who is also anointed with the codename in "Golden Eyes Secret Agent 077".
It would be interesting to play a game asking the real Secret Agent 077 to stand up. Which of these fellows would rise?