FBI agent Mark Adams (John Gabriel) goes undercover to stop a ring of counterfeiters. Their leader (Kent Taylor) is using the profits from the funny money to fund his Neo-Nazi organization. Adams teams up with a sexy agent (Vicki Volante) to infiltrate the hate group and bring them down.
The opening credits sequence is done in the James Bond rip-off tradition and features a not-bad faux-Bond tune, as well as some Schoolhouse Rock-style animation. There’s also a great bit where a jailbait Lolita wannabe (Anne Randall) tries to hop in the sack with Gabriel. After this surprising bit of risqué tomfoolery, the film quickly turns into the cinematic equivalent of watching paint dry.
When you get bored (and trust me, you will), you can stave off sleep by keeping tabs on the stock company of Al Adamson players as they pop in and out of the narrative. There’s Scott Brady, Kent Taylor, John Carradine, John “Bud” Cardos, and Greydon Clark, just to name a few. I also enjoyed seeing The Girl in Gold Boots herself, Leslie McCrea, looking quite fetching as Gabriel’s boss’s eye candy.
The best part though is the WTF cameo by none other than Colonel Sanders. It’s easily the most memorable thing about this boring ass movie. The funniest thing about it is that it occurs during a romantic montage sequence where our hero takes his date to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I mean Bond at least sprung for some caviar and champagne to get the chicks into bed. This guy can barely afford an eight-piece original recipe meal.
As most of Adamson’s early work proves, his crime pictures were easily the weakest of his output. Smashing the Crime Syndicate is no exception. Even though it kicks off in the Bond tradition, it quickly pivots into what feels like a very long and cheap TV pilot. Like a lot of Adamson’s features from this time, it sat on the shelf for a while until the footage could be reworked into another movie. It was only when Adamson, spurned by the success of his Satan’s Sadists, added a biker subplot, would the film see release, under the title, Hell’s Bloody Devils.
AKA: Operation M. AKA: The Fakers. AKA: Nightmare in Blood. AKA: Swastika Savages. AKA: Hell’s Bloody Devils.
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