To me this film seems like a pitch perfect homage to Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest - it even has a tense version of the cropduster chase scene, but without using airplanes!
I agree with the other posters here: That Man from Rio has virtually nothing in common with the James Bond films, other than perhaps its overall combination of adventurous, dramatic, violent, and comedic themes.
A bit late but...
Actually it was ment as a sort of Tintin adventure. You can definitely see a connection between the movie and the comics. Especially "The Crystal Balls" and it's follower "Prisoners of the Sun".
I remember seeing a Tintin documentary some years ago and they interviewed Phillipe de Broca and he said that he was highly influenced by Herge's Tintin comics.
I think the Tintin adventure that inspired this most was "The Broken Ear" which has a somewhat similar plot and locations.
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5184666
I know it's not Tintin but it borrowed so heavily from Tintin it could be classed as a Tintin movie. Much better than Tintin and the Golden Fleece.
shareInterestingly, I just posted elsewhere that if you take NBN and strip out most of the convoluted espionage plot, you get TMFR.
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