The Late-Late-Late Show Project, which is a vain attempt to track down as much information on the very obscure European programmers whose shoddily produced trailers are featured in Something Weird's The Late-Late-Late Show tape, and extrapolate like mad when the information withers, dries up, and blows away carelessly.
No. 2: Danger in the Middle East, original French title Le Bal des Espions, which translates as The Ball of Spies, or maybe, The Dance of Spies. It's Italian title is Le Schiave Bianche, which translates as White Slave Girls, a decidedly more prurient title. It has more of a pedigree than our last Late Show entry, The Fury of the Apaches. Indeed, as the narrator of the trailer proclaims at the beginning: "A newcomer among great motion picture directors, Michel Clément, has created for you the most unusual and most exciting of the new French films!", which could signal it as part of the French New Wave. Whether or not Clément was associated with the New Wave, Clément did pay his dues, working as an assistant for New Wavers' favorite Robert Bresson on Pickpocket and A Man Escaped, but there seems to be very little of Bresson's cinematic austerity in Clément's film as exhibited in the trailer. There's plenty of action, sex, and some very brutal violence (a man is pinned against a wall by a very fast moving car, a man's neck is broken barehandedly, pistol whippings aplenty, and a lot of people shot in the back). Seemingly, none of Bresson's transcendental style is evident. Also the movie has Michel Piccoli, who starred in films by Godard and Buñuel, and the stunning Françoise Arnoul, who's worked with Renoir and Rosellini.
Once again I must submit a disclaimer that I haven't seen the full movie in question, just it's trailer, but it's safe to say that Danger in the Middle East may be little more than an average actioner. This was Clément's only directorial effort. He want back to assistant work soon after
I don't believe this movie is available anywhere in any format.