Deadlier Than the Male is a 1967 British crime and mystery film. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s, but is based on an already established detective fiction hero, Bulldog Drummond. Richard Johnson (director Terence Young's original preference to play James Bond) stars as 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 working title of the film was The Female of the Species. "Deadlier Than the Male", the song featured in the film's opening credit sequence, was performed by the Walker Brothers. Filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope, portions of the film were shot in Lerici, La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. A sequel, Some Girls Do, followed in 1969. Plot Glamorous assassin Irma Eckman (Elke Sommer), disguised as an air stewardess, kills oil tycoon Henry Keller (Dervis Ward) with a booby-trapped cigar aboard his private jet, parachuting away before the plane explodes. She is picked up by a speedboat driven by her partner in crime, the equally beautiful Penelope (Sylva Koscina). The villainous pair then murder David Wyngarde (John Stone), making it look like a spear fishing accident. Sir John Bledlow (Laurence Naismith), one of the directors of Phoenecian Oil, suspects that both deaths were the result of foul play; he had received an urgent message from Wyngarde that he needed to get in touch with Keller regarding a "matter of life and death". He asks Wyngarde's friend, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (Richard Johnson), to investigate. A representative of an unknown party had approached Phoenecian and offered to overcome Keller's opposition to a merger with Phoenician within six months for one million pounds. Irma shows up at a board meeting to collect. However, the board is divided – with Henry Bridgenorth (Leonard Rossiter) being the most vocal in opposition – and the vote is five to four against paying. That night, Irma and Penelope visit Bridgenorth at