Death Is a Woman
1966 film directed by Frederic Goode

Death Is a Woman (also known as Sex Is a Woman, CIA an Malta: Diese Frau ist gefährlich, Love Is a Woman) is a 1966 British mystery film directed by Frederic Goode and starring Mark Burns, Shaun Curry, William Dexter, Wanda Ventham, Terence De Marney and Patsy Ann Noble. It was written by Wally Bosco.
Plot
British undercover agent Dennis Parbury is sent to an island in the Mediterranean to identify how a heroin-smuggling operation is distributing their product.
Cast
Mark Burns as Dennis Parbury
Shaun Curry as Joe
William Dexter as Malo
Wanda Ventham as Priscilla Blunstone-Smythe
Terence De Marney as Jacomini
Patsy Ann Noble as Francesca
Mark Singleton as Costello, Head of the Police
Michael Brennan as Bonelli
Anita Harris as singer at casino
Blake Butler as lift operator
Dulcie Bowman as old lady
Tony Watham as himself
Garth Adams as himself
Caron Gardner as Mary
Production
Filming took place in Malta and in the Pathe Studios of London.
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Drug traffic, gambling, murder mystery, unscrupulous femme fatale, and a couple of songs, here brought together against a colourful Mediterranean background. But the mixture fails to coalesce, and the naiveté of the script is only emphasised by some distinctly substandard acting. Still, there are several underwater sequences for those who like to watch them."
Kine Weekly wrote: "Mysterious without ever being very exciting, this is a rather muddled story lacking any distinction. Mediocre support. ... The story starts quite promisingly with a man being beaten up and then brutally shot, but interest and excitement is then dissipated in too many directions, some of the characters being introduced for no apparent reason and other events being left unexplained.
The public source identifies “Death Is a Woman” as 1966 film directed by Frederic Goode. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Death, Woman and film.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Death Is a Woman”, the useful work is to connect “1966 film directed by Frederic Goode” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5247153. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Death Is a Woman”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Death Is a Woman primary sources, Death Is a Woman archive and Death research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Death Is a Woman”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Death Is a Woman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.