Attack of the Robots (Cartas boca arriba)

Jesús Franco directed the spy film Attack of the Robots (Spanish title Cartas boca arriba, "cards face up"; in France Cartes sur table) in 1966 as a Spanish-French co-production. Running about 92 minutes, it mixes crime, comedy and science fiction. Eddie Constantine stars, with Françoise Brion, Fernando Rey and Sophie Hardy.

Constantine plays Al Pereira, a spy called back from retirement to unravel a string of murders committed by a robot-like army of people in black-framed glasses, their skin oddly darkened. The script plays on Constantine's familiar screen image by turning his hero into a clumsier agent.

Madrid-based Hesperia Film and Paris-based Cine Alliance and Spéva Films produced it, the same group that had financed The Diabolical Dr. Z. Franco joined when the project had already been sold around the world as a Constantine spy story. The screenplay is by Jean-Claude Carrière, and it was his last collaboration with Franco. Released in France and Spain in 1966, it opened ninth at the Paris box office for 27 April to 3 May. Film historians Francesco Cesari and Roberto Curti call it a good commercial success in Spain. The papers ABC and El Mundo Deportivo were generally positive; the magazines Film Ideal and Image et son were not.