British intelligence asks a soldier of fortune, Charles Hood, to go to Portugal and help stop an international criminal mastermind called Hammerhead, who plans to steal a secret report on nuclear defence. Hood manages to board the yacht owned by Hammerhead, a collector of valuable erotic art. He is distracted along the way by model Sue Trenton and a pair of Hammerhead's mistresses, Ivory and Kit. Hammerhead intends to kidnap Britain's NATO delegate, Sir Richard Calvert, and replace him with a lookalike, Andreas, a master of disguise. He finds out Hood's identity and traps Sue and him inside a coffin, but they manage to escape. Kit and Andreas both are killed, while Ivory does away with Hammerhead personally, using a harpoon.
The film was based on a novel by James Mayo published in 1964. Film rights were bought by Irwin Allen, the producer. Allen had at one time been in partnership with Albert Broccoli, who wanted to make movies based on the James Bond books; Allen did not, the partnership ended, and Broccoli had a huge success with the Bond movies. Allen moved into espionage films himself with the Matt Helm series, and he bought the film rights to Hammerhead. In 1967 Allen said "at this stage I'm only interested in making money. I'm not interested in kudos or getting good reviews - I've had all that. I'm just concerned with getting the greatest number of people into theatres." In May 1967 Allen said the project was on a slate of seven movies he had with Columbia, others bring Cromwell, The Black Frontier, The Wrecking Crew and Savage Canary, The Pocket Venus and The Ambushers. In June Allen announced he had signed David Miller to a three picture deal, starting with Hammerhead, which he would make in London in September from a script by Jack Brierley and Herbert Baker. Allen wanted it to be the first in a series. After that month Allen announced he had also signed Vince Edwards to a three picture contract, starting with Hammerhead.. Edwards described his part as "like Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon." The original plan was to film in France but this was changed to Portugal. In August Allen announced Judy Geeson would co star. The production of the film was delayed because Columbia contract star Vince Edwards suffered a bone fracture during the filming in Portugal in 1967.
Reception
The Los Angeles Times called it "overfamiliar and mechanical, a jaded Bond". The film was a box office disappointment and there was no sequel. Quentin Tarantino said he was a "big fan" of the movie, but disliked Vince Edwards' performance, even though he generally enjoyed Edwards as an actor. He felt Robert Culp would be have been better casting.
