Deadlier Than the Male is a 1967 British crime and mystery film featuring the character of Bulldog Drummond. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s but based on an established detective fiction hero.
Richard Johnson (director Terence Young's original preference to play James Bond) stars as Bulldog Drummond, updated to a suave Korean War veteran, now an insurance investigator, trailing a pair of sexy assassins (Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina) who kill for sport and profit. Drummond's American nephew, Robert Drummond (Steve Carlson, then a Universal Pictures contract star), becomes involved in the intrigue when he comes to visit.
The title is a reference to the 1911 Rudyard Kipling poem "The Female of the Species," which includes the line, "The female of the species must be deadlier than the male", and also refers to Sapper's earlier Drummond book The Female of the Species.
The movie poster is slightly misleading; although three other female assassins are featured briefly in the finale, the brunette, Kitty Swan, has a smaller role but is as prominent as the two leads on poster.
The film was followed by a sequel, Some Girls Do, in 1969.
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