OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies constitutes the eighth installment in a long-running series of movies about OSS 117 (the government code name for Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath) - a French superspy and European equivalent of James Bond. The creation of author Jean Bruce, OSS eventually starred in over 265 novels and 7 cinematizations through 1970. The first seven film outings were sober and straight-faced; the eighth go-round (the first after a 38 year lapse) does a 180 to shamelessly poke fun of the rules established by the genre. A glib yet intelligent spoof, it joins the ranks of Our Man Flint (1965), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), and other international pictures that glibly satirize the subgenre made infamous to Americans by Bond.
