By Lee Pfeiffer
The Warner Archive has reissued Paramount's long-out-of-circulation DVD of the 1968 Victorian era spy spoof The Assassination Bureau. Oliver Reed plays a British aristocrat who heads the titular organization which is comprised of well-heeled men who take it upon themselves to arrange for the assassination of prominent figures in politics and society. The Bureau is paid handsome sums by third parties to "off" these people but they pride themselves on a key rule of the organization: each victim must be deemed to be inherently evil enough to justify being murdered. Reed has inherited the Bureau from his late father and fears that the group has been lax on enforcing its own code of ethics by putting profit above the good of society. A young woman who is attempting to become England's first female newspaper journalist (Diana Rigg) approaches Reed with the promise of a large sum of money- but the caveat is that the victim is to be himself (for reasons too long to explain here). Reed surprises her by accepting the challenge and telling his colleagues that either they will succeed in killing him or he will kill them all one by one. In this way he hopes to eliminate the current bureau, which he feels is comprised of incompetent, greedy men. The film is primarily a zany farce directed by the ever-capable Basil Dearden, who had recently won praise for his direction of Khartoum (talk about diversity in a filmmaker's work!). The action is often cleverly staged but rarely generates much genuine laughter, with only some moderate amusement arising out of the off-beat premise. Instead, it's primary pleasures come from the wonderful cast that includes future Bond alumni Telly Savalas (who would team with Rigg later in the year for On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Curt Jurgens and Vernon Dobtcheff (The Spy Who Loved Me), not to mention notable character actors like Kenneth Griffith, Beryl Reid, Philippe Noiret and Clive Revill. The production design is particularly impressive but the farcical elements occasionally make Casino Royale (1967) look like an exercise in comedic restraint. Still, this is an enjoyable romp that any 60s spy movie fan will want in their DVD collection. The disc contains no extras.
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