Please note: original posting had the wrong date. 

On Friday, May 17, Turner Classic Movies (North America) will run numerous 1960s spy movies back-to-back. Things kick off at 7:45 A.M. (EST) with the Man from U.N.C.L.E. feature film "One of Our Spies is Missing" starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, followed by "Where the Spies Are" (David Niven); "The Prize" (Paul Newman, Elke Sommer), "The Venetian Affair" (Robert Vaughn, Elke Sommer), the U.N.C.L.E. feature film "How to Steal the World" and finally the WWII espionage flick "36 Hours" (James Garner, Eva Marie Saint.) 

By Hank Reineke

Technically speaking, OSS 117 secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath is not a James Bond knock off. The creation of wildly prolific French author Jean Bruce, the first literary adventure of the spy arrived in 1949 with the publication of Tu parles d'une ingénue (Ici OSS 117). This would pre-date the April 1953 publication of the first Ian Fleming James Bond novel, Casino Royale, by nearly four years. In the years following the publication of that first 007 thriller to his last in 1965, Fleming would deliver an impressive thirteen James Bond novels and nine short stories.

In contrast, Jean Bruce would publish no fewer (and possibly more) than eighty-eight to ninety OSS 117 pulp-adventures between 1949 and March of 1963, the month and year of his passing. It’s difficult to determine how many of Bruce’s novels were of his composition alone. His widow, Josette – and later a teaming of the Bruce’s son and daughter – would continue the pulp series into the early 1990s. So determined bibliophiles will have their work cut out for them if they wish to track down all of the 250+ published OSS 117 novels.

If OSS 117 beat James Bond to the stalls of book-sellers, he also managed to beat him to the cinema screen. Two OSS 117 films were released throughout Western Europe and foreign markets in 1957 and 1960: OSS 117 n'est pas mort (OSS 117 is not Dead) and Le bal des espions (Danger in the Middle East). The latter title, interestingly, does not feature “Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath.” Though based on one of Bruce’s OSS 117 novels, a messy rights-issue prevented the filmmakers to use the central character’s moniker. These earliest films, produced as routine crime dramas by differing production companies (and featuring different actors in the title role), came and went without attention nor fanfare.

But in 1963 Bruce’s OSS 117 character was resurrected as a cinematic property following the success of Terence’s Young’s Dr. No, the first James Bond screen adventure. The spy pictures comprising Kino Lorber’s OSS 117 Five Film Collection are tailored as pastiches of the popular James Bond adventures of the 1960s. This new Blu ray set features the entirety of OSS 117 film thrillers produced 1963 through 1968 during the height of Bondmania. And, just as the Eon series offered a trio of actors to portray James Bond (1962-1973), the OSS series would likewise present three in the role of Colonel Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath. Each actor would bring some aspect of their own personalities to their characterizations.

Of course, the name Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath is a bit of a Franco-linguistic mouthful to market successfully overseas. So, throughout the five films the character usually assumes an Anglo-friendly alias which helps move things along a bit more smoothly: he alternately assumes – among others - such covert surnames as Landon, Barton, Delcroix, Wilson and Mulligan. It certainly makes his character’s many “personal” on-screen introductions easier for all involved.

The Kino set starts off chronologically with 1963’s OSS 117 is Unleashed (original title OSS 117 se déchaîne). Like the four films to follow, the series were all Franco-Italia co-productions and distributed by Gaumont Films. Unlike those four, OSS 117 is Unleashed is filmed in black-and-white. The monochrome photography is not really an issue. But cinemagoers were certainly cheated of enjoying the beautiful beaches and Cliffside scenery of the village of Bonifacio (off the Corsican strait) in vibrant color.

In OSS 117 is Unleashed our hero (American actor Kerwin Mathews, best known to American audiences for his roles in Ray Harryhausen’s special-effect laden epics The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), is sent to Corsica to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow agent. We’re told, suspiciously, there’s been, “lots of accidents among agents near Bonifacio.” A preamble to the film, culled mostly of cold war era newsreel footage, alerts that an unspecified enemy is working towards “neutralizing” free-world atomic submarine movements in the area. With conspirators tagged with such names as “Sacha” and “Boris,” we can reasonably assume its east-of-the-Iron Curtain intelligence agents behind the plot.

Initially posing as a relative of the recently targeted and now deceased CIA frogman (and later as a Lloyds of London insurance adjustor), Mathews must dispatch and/or fend off a series of enemy agents and perhaps a duplicitous woman. In due course, he survives a poisoning, several (well-choreographed) hand-to-hand combat sequences and even a submerged spear-gun and knifing frogman attack. The latter occurs while he’s search of a mysterious submerged subterranean grotto. The base is outfitted (as one might expect) with high-tech equipment and a detection system designed to bring about “the end of atomic submarines.” The secreted grotto is also equipped with a built-in self-destruct button… always handy, just in case. This is all definitely Bond-on-a budget style filmmaking. Of course, the idea of covertly tracking atomic submarines movements brings to mind the storyline of the far-more-lavishly staged The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

As far as I can determine, OSS 117 is Unleashed was never released theatrically in the U.S. But Mathews’ second (and final) outing as OSS 117, Panic in Bangkok (Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117) (1964) would have a belated release in the U.S. (as Shadow of Evil) in December of 1966. Regardless, Shadow of Evil was not exhibited as a primary attraction in the U.S. market. It most often appeared as the under bill to Christopher Lee in The Brides of Fu Manchu or (more sensibly) to Montgomery Clift’s political suspense-thriller The Defector.

By Hank Reineke

As a monster-movie loving kid growing up in the shadow of Manhattan, most of my Saturday night plans in the late 1960s and early 1970s were solidly set. That night was reserved for watching old horror and sci-fi flicks on New York City’s Chiller (WPIX-TV) or Creature Features (WNEW-TV). I don’t recall the latter program surviving past 1980 – and even then there had been an interruption of some six years in the scheduling of Creature Features. Though the program would return to the airwaves in 1979, the 8 PM broadcasts were now a thing of the past. The revived telecasts had moved to midnight and well into the early hours of Sunday morning. It hardly mattered, really. I no longer watched Creature Features with the same fervor of 1969 through 1973. I was age nineteen in 1979 and found other (if not necessarily better) things to do on Saturday nights.

This absence from Creature Features caused me to miss out on a number of obscure, aging films broadcast 1979-1980. Among this mix of occasional cinematic gems with near-misses was a mostly forgotten mystery programmer of 1944 titled The Man in Half Moon Street. I was particularly sorry to have missed this one: if my research is correct, I believe the film was broadcast only once – just shy of 2 A.M. - on March 29, 1980. Though one New York area newspaper listing dismissed the film as little more than a “Moody and marginally interesting tale of eternal youth through murder,” such lukewarm praise actually piqued my interest. This seemed my kind of movie. And for some forty-three years I’ve lamented having missing that broadcast.

It has been a tough film to get ahold of: though I’m guessing gray-market copies could have been found at conventions or through those “specialty” dealers of vintage VHS tapes from the ‘80s onward. But as far as I can tell (and, please, feel free correct me if you know better), The Man in Half Moon Street has never been officially available on any home video format: not Laser Disc, VHS, DVD or Blu Ray. Well, that is until now, as we near the eightieth year of the film’s original cinematic release. We have Australia’s Imprint Films to thank for finally issuing this superlative, region-free coded Blu-ray release.

As in the case of many Hollywood pictures of the day, The Man in Half Moon Street was not an original invention of the filmmakers: the scenario was actually based on the British stage drama of playwright Barré Lyndon. Lyndon’s play, published in 1939 by London’s Hamish Hamilton Publishing House, had first toured Bournemouth, Oxford, Manchester and Brighton on a two-week testing-sortie in February of ’39. The play would formally open at the New Theatre in London’s West End on 22 March 1939.

Lyndon’s main antagonist in the stage drama, chemist John Thackeray (Leslie Banks), is a ninety-year old man. One wouldn’t notice the dotage as Thackeray appears decades younger. This is due to the chemist having discovered that by combining radium and periodically replacing his aging super-renal glands with fresh specimens he can retain both youth and immortality. Of course the collection of fresh glands requires innocent others to lose their lives to Thackeray’s ghoulish harvesting.

Over a fifty-year period eight bank cashiers – those with access to large sums of money - have fallen prey to Thackeray’s criminal doings. Dissolving their bodies in acid baths, the chemist then steals the cash reserves his victims had been minding in their bank-telling guardianship. Thackeray requires the large sums so he can pay a confidant: in this case an ethically-challenged surgeon friend, to perform the necessary life-sustaining gland grafts. But Scotland Yard takes up the case just as the chemist readies to take the life of a targeted ninth victim for his evil ends.

Interestingly, playwright Lyndon would go on to write screenplays for Hollywood studios by the mid-1940s, including such moody mystery-noirs as John Brahm’s The Lodger (1944) and Hangover Square (1945). But in late January of 1940, it was announced that Don Hartman, a dependable scenarist for Paramount, was scheduled to begin work on adapting Lyndon’s stage play to the big screen. Hartman was, at present, in New York, trying to finish up his co-write (with Clifford Goldsmith) of The Further Adventures of Henry Aldrich.

That May of 1940, Paramount optimistically announced there would be no production delays on their twenty-five million dollar film schedule budget for the upcoming year. This declaration was made “despite war conditions in Europe which continue to threaten returns” in both national and international film markets. One of the films on the Paramount schedule was The Man in Half Moon Street. Early reports suggested that Basil Rathbone was to take on the leading role. The actor was available to assume the role of Thackeray as he had only recently completed work on Paramount’s A Date with Destiny (soon retitled The Mad Doctor).

Rathbone had played the villainous role in The Mad Doctor which, despite the intriguing title, was not a horror film, but a mystery crime-drama. The Los Angeles Citizen-News would report in June of 1940 that while Half Moon too was not of “bogeyman classification,” it on the “fantastic side” with its lurid sci-fi angle. In any case, the film project fell temporarily to the wayside, first due to scripting issues and afterward to the cranking out of patriotic films necessitated by America’s entry into WWII following the attack at Pearl Harbor.

But by early winter of 1943, the long dormant Half Moon project was showing signs of revival. On March 2, 1943 it was announced in the Hollywood trades that Lester Fuller, recently arrived in Los Angeles from New York, had been offered the director’s chair for The Man in Half Moon Street. In spring of 1943, Albert Dekker, a Hollywood “heavie” who recently scared audiences as Universal’s Dr. Cyclops (1940), was announced to assume the leading role.

But on June 15, 1943, Variety reported that Fuller was out of the Half Moon project. Ralph Murphy was now chosen to direct. Technically, the pair’s previously assigned directorial spots were merely traded-off. Murphy had initially been chosen to helm Paramount’s production of Marseilles, but former stage director Fuller was now tasked to assume responsibility on that particular film. Murphy was to move over to direct Fuller’s Half Moon project.

Murphy’s first assignment was a formidable one: he was “to order a complete rewrite job on the script.” There was also a report that such rewriting would likely require a recasting of principal characters. Though Swedish film star Nils Asther had been the latest actor announced to assume the film’s leading role, his participation in the project was now suggested as being “off” - for the time being, at least. The film’s producer Walter MacEwan wanted to weigh casting options “until further developments” in the scripting of Half Moon were resolved.

The re-writing of Half Moon would eventually fall to scenarists Charles Kenyon and Garrett Fort. The final screenplay credit would ultimately go to Kenyon alone who, like Fort, was a veteran of old Hollywood: their work in the industry could be traced to silent cinema’s earliest days. Fort’s resume for this sort of film was particularly impressive: he had written or co-written such totemic pre-code Golden Age Horrors for Universal as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula’s Daughter (1936). But Fort’s credit on Half Moon only noted his role in adapting Lyndon’s play for the screen.

The final screenplay drafted would, peculiarly, expunge most of the ghoulish and murderous elements of Lyndon’s stage play – perhaps America’s real-life wartime experiences were horrific enough. There are no murders of bankers. The Thackeray character (renamed Dr. Julian Karell in the film) appears to be already a man of means, an accomplished portrait artist and scientist. He attends black-tie, high society, posh parties and conducts his experiments at an upscale London row house. The film curiously offers no scenes of on (or off) screen physical violence.

There are no gruesome acid baths in which the bodies of victims are disposed. The film’s lone “action” scene captures a moment when Karell “rescues” a despondent medical student (Morton Lowry) from a watery suicide attempt near the Thames Embankment. Most scenes of this dialogue-heavy script are set in parlors and sitting rooms – which, to be honest, really proves a drag on the film’s ninety-two minute running time. One begins to welcome even the briefest scenes when Karell ventures out into the shrouded night and pea-soup fog of the London Streets. Not that much happens during these interludes, but such moments provide a measure of moodiness to this otherwise slowly paced non-mystery.

Truth be told, The Man in Half Moon Street is no detective nor mystery film; we know almost from the beginning what’s going on. We learn the handsome and youthful Karell is actually more than one hundred years old in age. But through a century of experimentation – and with the assistance of the aging Dr. Kurt Van Bruecken, the “world’s greatest living surgeon and necrologist” (Reinhold Schünzel), Karell has managed to stay young through his drinking of a luminous serum and periodically undergoing fresh glandular transplants at ten year intervals.

There are problems ahead. Following a stroke, the shaky hands of the elderly Van Bruecken are no longer trustworthy to perform the necessary surgeries. Besides, Van Bruecken has undergone a change of heart: he fears that Karell is no longer working in the interest of science and humanity in staving off the aging process. He fears (rightfully) Karell is now consumed only by his burning desire for the lovely Eve Brandon (Helen Walker) and selfish self-interest in maintaining a “fraudulent youth.”

“No man can break the law of God,” Van Bruecken cautions, but Karell is confident if anyone can do it, he can. Even if that means farming the glands of the suicidal medical student he’s imprisoned upstairs. The other more pressing problem facing Karell is that his mysterious activities have finally brought him to the attention of an ethical surgeon (Paul Cavanagh), a cabal of fine art appraisers and Scotland Yard.

With Paramount now holding what they believed an acceptable – and mostly non-horrific - script in place, the casting of the film proceeded in earnest. In May of 1943 it was suggested that young actress Susan Hayward would play a “featured role” in Half Moon, though the report cautioned Paramount was still “having a time of it procuring someone to play the sinister male lead.” The earlier front-running names of Rathbone and Dekker were both out, and rumors of Alan Ladd’s casting were squelched when the actor chose instead to sign up for military service.

That same month producer MacEwan confirmed Nils Asther would in fact play the role of Dr. Julian Karell as earlier rumored. The trades suggested that it was Asther who, in fact, first suggested that Paramount pick up the rights to Lyndon’s play and cast him in the lead role. There was some mild press controversy regarding Asther’s casting. Some Hollywood gossips dismissed the actor as “Yesterday’s Star” (born in 1897, Asther had appeared in silent films with Greta Garbo). Though his character was scripted as someone thirty-five years of age, Asther was in reality 46 years old at the time of production. Still, there was an acknowledgement that the dashingly tall, slender, handsome (and rumored bi-sexual) actor “still has a big following.”

Though the actor was to star opposite the sultry Hayward, the role of Karell’s paramour Eve Brandon was ultimately given to Helen Walker. There would be some delay before she could join the production: the actress, currently on a wartime U.S.O. tour, was expected to report to the set near September’s end. Truthfully, Walker doesn’t have a lot to do in the film. She certainly photographs well as Karell’s doting and perhaps too protective and morally-blind girlfriend. Even though Karell’s work is secretive – so much so that it causes him to disappear for weeks or months at a time – Eve chooses to accept her lover’s “general mysteriousness” as a byproduct of his genius. I personally found Brandon less likable and sympathetic as the film progresses. When it’s finally revealed to her that Karell’s experimentations have brought harm to innocents, she’s so in love with him she dismisses his guilt, choosing instead to reflexively defend the “grandeur” of his ambitions.

If the main characters in this picture aren’t always likable, there’s still a lot to admire about the film. Miklos Rozsa’s moody musical score is certainly worthy of praise. Henry Sharp’s fog-bound “exterior” photography is similarly moody, but unfortunately not up on the screen much. In the final minutes of the film when Karell dramatically reverts to his actual age, long-time make-up man Wally Westmore – of Hollywood’s make-up family dynasty – does his best on the effects. But the camera cheats the audience of a full on-screen transformation ala Westmore’s make-up on Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) – which remains the “gold standard” of Golden Age horror transformations. Ralph Murphy’s direction is competent but workmanlike in execution. He creates very little visual tension until the film’s final scenes and, by then, it’s simply too late. Following the completion of Half Moon, Murphy was planning to move back to New York City to direct the Broadway stage production of Sleep It Off.

Of course World War II was still on-going, interrupting, ruining and/or ending the lives of countless innocents globally. In such an atmosphere Hollywood was not immune to war-time production delays and release date restrictions. Paramount alone had accumulated an unprecedented backlog of thirty-one completed films awaiting release in early summer of 1944. There was some confidence that the tide was turning in favor of the Allies, studios cooperating in the war effort by rolling out whatever patriotic war films they were sitting on. There was a consensus it was time to empty the vault of such films. It was believed that movie audiences would weary of war films following the cessation of fighting overseas.

There was, at long last, a belated screening of The Man in Half Moon Street held at a Hollywood tradeshow on October 16, 1944. Variety thought the script was a “compact and interesting,” the Kenyon/Fort scenario displaying a “few new twists from the formularized style of long-life mystery tales to keep interest at consistent level.” But the reviewer acknowledged, not unreasonably, that the film would best serve as “strong support” to a superior attraction. Other critics likewise suggested Half Moon was too weak to see top-billing on a double-attraction.

Indeed, The Man in Half Moon Street (already in U.S. regional release as early as December 1944 although the film’s copyright is listed as 1945 on the sleeve of the snap case) was featured as the undercard of a double-bill. (On his commentary, Tim Lucas reveals the film actually had its world-wide premiere in Australia in early November of 1944). On its U.S. run, the film was usually topped by director Fritz Lang’s cinematic take of novelist Graham Greene’s Nazi espionage tale Ministry of Fear. This double feature actually did reasonably well, the trades citing solid - if not necessarily boffo - returns as the package was rolled out across U.S. markets and into 1945. Newspaper columnists tended to give the Lang film the lion’s share of its critical attention, though both films were generally branded as little more than decent programmers of primary interest only to devotees of suspense and mystery films.

By Cai Ross

To TV fans of a certain age, the acronym ITC instantly invokes memories of spies, guns, girls, espionage, memorable theme tunes, lush sideburns, flared trousers, almost continuous smoking, purple flock wallpaper and grand, globe-trotting adventures.

Actually, the wide-ranging TV shows made by Lord Lew Grade’s pioneering company have fans of all ages, with shows like The Saint, The Champions, The Persuaders! and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (US. My Partner The Ghost) still appearing in television schedules to this day, nearly 70 years after Grade scored his first hit in 1955 with The Adventures of Robin Hood.

And so it’s everyone from grandparents to grandkids who have been tuning in in their droves to hear ITC Entertains The World, a podcast that celebrates all things ITC. Fronted by devotees Jaz Wiseman, Al “Smudge” Samujh and Rodney Marshall, the podcast casts an eye at the output of this much-loved stable, from whole-series overviews to individual episodes. They also look at the movies made under the ITC banner (films like Blake Edwards’s The Tamarind Seed and Peter Sellers’s career-reviving The Return of The Pink Panther).

I spoke to Rodney Marshall about the podcast and his love of all things 1960s, starting with the genesis of the podcast.‘Like a lot of podcasts, ours started in lockdown. Jaz approached me and suggested that we did one based on the little-known ITC show Gideon’s Way, which I hadn’t actually seen. I watched them all and thought it was fantastic. You have all those great 1960s guest actors, the Anton Rodgerses, Peter Bowleses and Annette Andres. I thought the podcast would be very niche but it proved surprisingly popular.

‘I’ve known Jaz for a long time through my late father. Jaz interviewed him for lots of DVD commentaries when The Avengers came out.’ Rodney’s father just happens to be Roger Marshall, a very familiar name to fans of vintage espionage television shows. The creator of popular UK dramas like Travelling Man, Zodiac and Floodtide, Marshall Sr also co-created the highly regarded and influential private detective show Public Eye in 1965, starring Alfred Burke as down-at-heel gumshoe Frank Marker.

He was also a regular contributor of scripts for the likes of The Avengers, writing 15 episodes of the iconic 1960s series.

After the success of the Gideon’s Way podcast, they were encouraged to broaden their scope and cover the entire range of ITC shows, but to do that they needed a new recruit. ‘We thought that in terms of voices, three is better than two. Jaz got in touch with his old friend Smudge, who is very much into the history of Elstree studios, into Hammer films and of course, ITC shows. I think all three of us bring something different to the podcast. Jaz is into things like music and titles, Smudge is very into things like directors and direction, talking about fish-eye lenses and the like. I’m more into the scripts, probably because of dad.

‘It was a learning curve for me because these two guys are ITC-mad. They probably have huge tardis-sized rooms full of all things ITC. If I said to one of them, “Do you have a copy of the scripts for The Persuaders! that my dad wrote for?” and they’d probably have three different copies of it.’

We bemoaned the fact that following the sad demise of the distribution company Network, it now seems unlikely that long-running shows like The Saint will receive the BluRay treatment and be discovered anew in pristine condition. It’s a huge shame since the likes of The Prisoner and Man in a Suitcase have enjoyed BluRay remastering and look breathtakingly fresh and vibrant as a result.

(L to R: Rodney Marshall, Jaz Wiseman and Al Samujh.)

'Man in a Suitcase is very much a shared love. I discovered it in the early nineties when BBC started showing it again during the school holidays. In my early misguided smoking days, I used to copy McGill’s habit of standing my cigarette up on the table between puffs. Naturally, I wasn’t able to pull it off with the same je ne sais quoi as Richard Bradford.

Marshall is very much an admirer of the US actor. ‘Bradford’s performance is astonishing. When you put him up against someone like Colin Blakely or Jacqueline Pearce, Bradford is dynamite. He has an incredibly magnetic presence. A lot is made of the fact that there was a lot of tension between him and the actors and stuntmen, but the main directors on the show absolutely loved him. Peter Duffell who was one of the main directors was our next door neighbour and one of dad’s mates, and he raved about Bradford.

‘He may have overdone the Marlon Brando thing; he would race around the set four or five times in order to look breathless before a take, but he really invested himself in his performances. Like Patrick McGoohan, he was a lead actor who wouldn’t take bullshit. If an actor came along and just wanted a quick cheque, they wouldn’t put up with it. Bernard Lee turned up drunk for an episode of Man in a Suitcase, and Bradford walked up to him and said, ‘I’m not putting up with this crap.’ Bernard Lee immediately switched onto acting-mode and suddenly there were no problems.’

Marshall’s other great ITC love is one of its earlier hits, Danger Man (or Secret Agent in the States), a popular and innovative pre-Bond spy series that made a global star out of Patrick McGoohan. ’I think what kept McGoohan engaged with Danger Man for so long is the fact that he’s undercover in so many different roles. One week he might be playing a roaring drunk, the next week he’s a timid school-teacher in glasses, sending someone into a nervous breakdown by stalking them! That variety made him feel like he was back in his old rep company in Sheffield.’

Danger Man was one of several ITC shows that, like ABC’s The Avengers, made the shift from black and white to colour in the mid sixties, when the US networks made it mandatory. Marshall however, believes that something was lost after the transition.‘I still think that The Prisoner, Man in a Suitcase and the amazing Strange Report aside, the best ITC series are from earlier in the decade like Gideon’s Way, Danger Man and The Saint, which I much prefer in black and white.

‘I always felt that when a show went from black and white to colour, you lost a lot of the subtlety. Take an episode of The Saint like ‘Scorpion’ with Dudley Sutton, who rides around on a motorbike bumping people off and even tries strangling his girlfriend. Perhaps its something to do with the shadows, but you can pull off a kind of darkness in a monochrome episode which doesn’t quite work in colour. Jaz recorded a DVD commentary for the Avengers episode ‘Town of No Return’ with Brian Clemens and director Roy Ward Baker, and they both said, ‘you know, black and white is more…real.’

The podcast casts its net wide to cover not just the big, popular hits but some of the ITC gems that may have faded from the public consciousness. ‘Man of The World from 1962 is very interesting, with Craig Stevens from Peter Gunn playing a photo journalist travelling the world getting himself into scrapes. It actually started in colour then went back to black and white after its budget was slashed.’

Intriguingly, The Sentimental Agent starring Carlos Thompson started off as an episode of Man of The World. The powers that be were so impressed with Thompson that they span it out into a whole series. Marshall explains, ‘Carlos was like a continental Roger Moore, very good looking, very charming, very flirty. But suddenly he fell ill, and they had to make the rest of the series with this humourless guy who was none of the above.’

The podcast, like the work it celebrates, is a labour of love and it’s benefitted from some Lew Grade-style serendipity that brought exactly the right three people together to extol the many virtues of a series of entertainments that are still adored by millions.

‘We’re lucky,’ concludes Marshall,‘because Jaz has access to a library of things like the music and a lot of interviews and DVD commentaries that he’s done with the likes of Richard Bradford and Sir Roger Moore, who was hilarious. On the commentary for The Saint, they debunked the theory that Patrick McGoohan turned down the role. He was interviewed for it, but producer Bob Baker thought he was unsuitable for the role as he refused to do any romantic scenes. They said to Roger, ‘we knew that kissing ladies on screen wouldn’t be a problem for you,’ and he replied in that most Roger Moore way, ‘Indeed not!’

(ITC Entertains The World is available to listen to across all streaming platforms.)

Here's the original trailer for one of the greatest espionage movies of all time: director Martin Ritt's acclaimed 1965 screen adaptation of John LeCarre's international bestseller "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". At the height of the James Bond-inspired spy craze, Ritt's film presented the dark, ugly and non-glamorous side of espionage. Richard Burton received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his brilliant performance as the weary, cynical spy who is disgusted by his profession but finds he can't leave it. 

Click here to order Criterion Blu-ray special edition.

By Lee Pfeiffer

In the wake of their success co-starring in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers realized they had captured lightning in a bottle with the teaming of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. The studio quickly paired the two character actors again in the Bogart films Casablanca and Passage to Marseilles. In 1944, Warners decided to give Greenstreet and Lorre what amounted to starring roles in the thriller The Mask of Dimitrios, based on the Eric Ambler novel and set in pre-WWII Europe. (Lorre received fourth billing in the film behind Greenstreet, Zachary Scott and Faye Emerson, but in terms of screen time, he is the star of the movie.) Lorre plays Cornelius Leyden, a mild mannered crime novelist who is visiting Istanbul, where he becomes intrigued by the murder of a man named Dimitrios, who was a local legend in terms of his criminal activities. Dimitrios's body has washed ashore, as shows evidence that he has been stabbed to death. Sensing a good story in the murder, Leyden pursues the man's background and finds out he was known throughout Europe for his audacious crimes. Leyden decides to track down those who interacted with Dimitrios, including jilted partner and abandoned girlfriends. All agree that he was a charismatic cad who worked his way up from petty crimes in Istanbul to being an integral part of Europe's pre-war espionage activities. Leyden is followed in his footsteps by Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), an affable man of mystery who is also obsessed with tracking down Dimitrios's acquaintances and activities leading up to the man's death. After a rocky introduction at the point of Peters' gun, the two men forge an alliance and travel through Turkey, Yuguoslavia and finally Paris in their quest. Along the way, they determine that Dimitrios is very much alive and well, having used another man's murder as an opportunity to fake his own death. Peters is determined to use that information to blackmail Dimitrios and thus ensure acquiring enough money to afford a comfortable retirement. 

Much of the story is told in flashbacks as various individuals relate their experiences with Dimitrios to Leyden and Peters. As played by Zachary Scott, Dimitrios lives up to his legend as handsome womanizer and persuasive businessman, though each of his friends and partners ends up being abruptly jilted in some manner, as Dimitrios moves on to his next scam. (Jack Warner had high hopes for Scott becoming the studio's next great leading man, but his interest in promoting Scott seemed to wane and the actor never really acquired the stardom that his role in this film would seem to have assured.) Leyden and Peters also meet Irana, an entertainer in a squalid Istanbul cafe, who relates how Dimitrios became her lover and ensured that her fortunes improved. However, when she loaned him her savings, he abandoned her, never to be heard from again. Although nursing a broken heart and bearing resentment for the man on one level, she admits she still carries a torch and his abandonment of her left her in a depressed state of mind that still continues. (Apparently, once you've experienced Dimitrios, no other man comes to close as a lover.) As Leyden and Peters close in on their prey, the stakes become higher - and they realize their lives are very much at risk.

The Mask of Dimitrios, ably directed by Jean Negulesco, is a joy to watch. It doesn't have the artistic pretensions of The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, but it is a thoroughly entertaining movie. Lorre and Greenstreet's "Mutt and Jeff" act continues to present them as essentially the same character in film after film, but that doesn't in any way compromise the delight of watching these two eccentric actors at the peak of their careers. The supporting performances are also equally delightful and the film bares all the rich artistic hallmarks of a WB release from the era. 

The Warner Archive has released the film on DVD. The transfer is excellent. An original trailer is included that features specially-filmed footage of Greenstreet and Lorre addressing the audience. The DVD is region free but it's time for a Blu-ray release! 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE

By Lee Pfeiffer

The James Bond-inspired spy movie boom of the 1960s resulted in the films of this genre generally fitting into one of two distinct categories: tongue-in-cheek spoofs played largely for laughs (the Flint and Matt Helm series) and gritty, realistic depictions of espionage that stripped away any glamour from the spy trade ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Deadly Affair", "The Venetian Affair", "The Ipcress File" and countless others.) Straddling the line between the two genres was writer/director Val Guest's 1966 film "Where the Spies Are" starring David Niven, who seemed impeccably suited to capitalize on the movie craze. The film was based on the novel "Passport to Oblivion" by James Leasor, a straight-up thriller set in Beirut, Lebanon when it was a thriving holiday destination for wealthy Europeans to the extent it was known as "The Paris of the Middle East". The movie opens with the abduction and murder of an MI6 agent, Rossiter (Cyril Cusack) in Beirut. He's been investigating a Soviet-inspired plot to murder the head of state and install a puppet government. The British are especially concerned because they depend upon the friendly government of Lebanon to provide Great Britain with substantial amounts of oil (some things never change.) When Rossiter goes silent, MI6 boss MacGillivray (John Le Mesurier) needs to send an agent to Beirut to investigate his disappearance. He decides he needs a non-professional who has no trace to the agency to act as an operative. He recalls using the services of Jason Love (David Niven) twenty years earlier in the war. It seems that Love proved to be reliable in successfully pulling off a dangerous mission. Love is now a well-off physician living a happy bachelor lifestyle with a posh house and a vintage, valuable roadster that he takes pleasure in driving through the country lanes. MacGillivray uses Love's sense of patriotism (and a bribe to buy him an even more valuable and rare roadster) as an incentive for him to agree to visit Lebanon, ostensibly to attend an international medical conference. It's supposed to be an easy job with Love simply nosing around and trying to find some clues as to Rossiter's fate, but you know how things usually turn out in missions of this type. 

When Love disembarks from his plane in Rome to await a connecting flight to Beirut, there is quite a stir in the terminal because world famous fashion model known simply as Vikki (Francoise Dorleac) is being photographed for a fashion spread in a major magazine. They meet cute and Love is understandably distracted by her beauty. After turning on the charm, she confides in Love that she is actually one of the MI6 contacts he will meet on his mission. Love is so shocked that he is too late to catch his flight- and lucky for him that he didn't because minutes after takeoff, the plane explodes, killing everyone on board. (Inexplicably, the incident directly over the airport doesn't seem to generate much reaction from the people at the airport.) Love attributes the disaster to a mechanical flaw and arrives at his hotel in Lebanon- the same one that Rossiter had a room at. He's pleased to find that Vikki is there, too, and is as enthused about getting under the covers as he is. Their romantic fling is later disturbed by an assassination attempt and Vikki informs Love that the destruction of the airplane might have been a plot to kill him. He soon meets Parkington (Nigel Davenport), another MI6 contact- a career agent who is depressed and cynical about intelligence work. He copes by hitting the bottle hard but he proves to be a valuable ally to Love in tracing Rossiter's fate. Ultimately, Love finds himself in further peril and having to resort to his own defense mechanisms (and a couple of spy gadgets, of course) in order to survive. The finale finds him trying to thwart the assassination as well as escape Soviet kidnappers who bundle him aboard a plane bound for Russia.

"Where the Spies Are" starts off with the implication that it will be a comedy in the Flint/Helm mode with Niven playing a comic fish-out-of-water character embroiled in a larger-than-life adventure. However, the laughs are few and far between once he sets off on his mission. The film still offers some witticisms and subdued laughs, but it turns primarily into a thriller including a larger-than-life action scene atop ancient ruins. The movie was directed and co-written by Val Guest, a reliable old hand at making highly enjoyable mid-range films that weren't designed to be blockbusters or win awards. He keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, accompanied by a lively score by Mario Nasciembene. Niven is perfectly cast and delivers his usual charismatic and charming performance. Dorleac is given some mod fashion wear to show off and makes for a suitable love interest. She was set to follow her sister Catherine Deneuve as the next "it girl" in films but tragically died in 1967 in a car crash shortly after completing her final film, the spy thriller "Billion Dollar Brain". The film benefits from some exotic on-location scenes in Lebanon, with interiors shot at the old MGM Studios at Boreham Wood, England. However, it suffers from some crude special effects and the all-too-obvious use of miniatures and rear screen projection. Similarly, Niven's stunt double doesn't pass muster, as he doesn't resemble the actor in the slightest even from afar.

The film features any number of people associated with James Bond films. Niven, of course, would go on to star as Sir James Bond in the 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale" which was co-written and co-directed by Val Guest. Wolf Mankiewicz, who had been an uncredited contributor to the script of "Dr. No", co-wrote the screenplay for "Where the Spies Are" as well as "Casino Royale". The titles were designed by Robert Brownjohn who also created the classic titles for "Goldfinger" and "From Russia with Love". Among the actors who were associated with at least one Bond movie include Eric Pohlmann (who provided the voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early Bond movies), Paul Stassino "("Thunderball"), John Le Mesurier ("Casino Royale" as "M"'s chauffeur), George Pravda ("From Russia with Love"), Bill Nagy ("Goldfinger") and Geoffrey Bayldon ("Casino Royale"). Also, former Bond star George Lazenby starred as Jason Love in an audio book adaptation of "Passport to Oblivion" available on Amazon Kindle. "U.N.C.L.E."  fans will also enjoy seeing "Girl from U.N.C.L.E." star Noel Harrison as an MI6 agent and will get a laugh out of one of the passwords used in the film, "Love from Uncle", which could not have been a coincidence since it was an MGM production.

Val Guest had obtained the screen rights to "Passport to Oblivion" and several literary sequels in the hopes that a series of Jason Love films would go into production. However, the film didn't elicit much excitement from moviegoers or critics and, thus, a series never went into production. Not helping matters was MGM's decision to recut Guest's final version of the film without his permission, which supposedly infuriated him. Nevertheless, if you have a soft spot for spy movies of the 1960s, you'll probably find the film as enjoyable as I did. 

The region-free Warner Archive DVD proves that this title is in dire need of a Blu-ray upgrade. The color quality is all over the place, ranging from satisfactory to wild deviations to various garish tints, giving it a Frankenstein-like quality in that it seemed to have been cobbled together with bits from several prints. That probably wasn't the case, but it is nevertheless the effect. The Archive is doing some great work upgrading even "B" titles so let's hope "Where the Spies Are" is on their list for future Blu-ray release. The only bonus feature is the original trailer which is narrated for some reason by a guy who sounds like an extra from an old WB gangster movie.

Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store

Retro-Active: From the Cinema Retro Archives

By Lee Pfeiffer

For those of us who are hopelessly addicted to spy movies of the 1960s, the Warner Archive provides a gift: the first DVD release of "The Scorpio Letters", one of the more obscure 007-inspired espionage films of the era. Produced by MGM, the movie was shown on American TV in early 1967 before enjoying a theatrical release in Europe. It seems the studio was trying to emulate the strategy that it was employing at the time for its phenomenally popular "Man From U.N.C.L.E." TV series. That show had proven to be such a hit with international audiences that MGM strung together two-part episodes and released them theatrically. (Three films were released in America but a total of eight were shown in international markets.) As "The Scorpio Letters" was produced with a theatrical run in mind, it has a bit more gloss than the average TV movie, which was then a genre in its infancy. Nevertheless, it still has all the earmarks of a production with a limited budget. Although set in London and France, you'd have to be pretty naive to believe any of the cast and crew ever got out of southern California. Grainy stock footage is used to simulate those locations and there is ample use of the very distinctive MGM back lot, which at times makes the film resemble an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." What the movie does provide is some nice chemistry between its two lead actors, Alex Cord, who had recently acquitted himself quite well in the underrated 1966 big screen remake of John Ford's "Stagecoach" and Shirley Eaton, then still riding the wave of popularity she enjoyed as the iconic "golden girl" from the Bond blockbuster "Goldfinger". The two play rival spies in London, both working for different British intelligence agencies, though whether it is MI5 or MI6 is never made clear. 

The film is based on a novel by Victor Caning that had been adapted for the screen by the ironically named Adrian Spies, who had a long career working primarily in television. (Curiously, his one credited feature film was for the superb 1968 adventure "Dark of the Sun" (aka "The Mercenaries".) There is nothing remarkable about his work on "The Scorpio Letters". In fact, Spies provides a rather confusing plot. The film opens on a jarring note with a man taking a suicidal plunge from his apartment window in London. Turns out he was a British intelligence agent and the reasons for his suicide are of great interest to the higher ups in the spy business. Alex Cord plays Joe Christopher, an American ex-cop who now does work for one of the intelligence agencies run by Burr (the ever-reliable Laurence Naismith). Burr orders him to get to the bottom of the suicide case and in doing so, Joe gains access to the dead man's apartment just in time to encounter a mysterious man stealing a letter addressed to the dead agent. A foot chase ensues that ends with both men getting struck by a London double decker bus (yes, MGM had one of those laying around the back lot.) Still, Joe manages to steal back the letter the man had swiped and finds it is obviously a blackmail attempt made against the dead agent by a mystery person who goes by the name of Scorpio. From there the plot gets rather confusing and becomes one of those thrillers that is best enjoyed if you stop trying to figure out who is who and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Joe flirts with Phoebe Stewart (Shirley Eaton), who works in another intelligence agency. It appears her boss and Joe's boss are constantly trying to undermine each other in the attempt to solve major cases. Phoebe makes an attempt to seduce Joe, but he correctly suspects that she is trying to compromise him for information he knows about the case. Inevitably, a real romance blossoms but the love scenes are pretty mild, perhaps due to the fact that this film was made with a television broadcast in mind. (The plot invokes the old joke of having the would-be lovers get interrupted every time they attempt to get it on.)  

Joe gets a lead that takes him to Paris where he discovers that Scorpio is the man behind a shadowy spy network that uses agents employed as waiters in an upscale restaurant. I imagine the reason for this is explained somewhere along the line but it's just one more confusing element to the script. Joe infiltrates the spies/waiters gang in the hopes of finding out who Scorpio is. Meanwhile, in the film's best scene, he is exposed, captured and tortured. There is even a modicum of suspense as there appears to be no logical way he will get out of this particular death trap. Refreshingly, Joe is no 007. He makes miscalculations, gets bruised and beaten and often has to rely on the intervention of others to save him. (In the film's climax, finding himself outmanned and outgunned, he actually does the logical thing and asks someone to call the local police for help.) Ultimately, Scorpio is revealed to be one of those standard, aristocratic spy villains of Sixties cinema. In this case he is played by the very able Oscar Beregi Jr. If you don't know the name, you'll know his face, as he excelled in playing urbane bad guys in countless TV shows and feature films of the era. There are numerous kidnappings, shootouts, double crosses and red herrings and one bizarre sequence that is ostensibly set in a French ski resort in which the ski lift is inexplicably in operation even though it's summer. Additionally, the California mountains look as much like France as Jersey City does.

Despite all of the gripes, I enjoyed watching "The Scorpio Letters". It's an entertaining, fast-moving diversion, directed with unremarkable efficiency by Richard Thorpe (his second-to-last film). Cord makes for a very capable leading man, tossing off the requisite wisecracks even while undergoing torture. Eaton possesses the kind of old world glamour you rarely see on screen nowadays. Together, they make an otherwise mediocre movie play out better than it probably should. (A minor trivia note: this represents the first film score of composer Dave Grusin, who would go on to become an Oscar winner.)

The Warner Archive DVD transfer is very impressive and the film contains an original trailer, which presumably was used in non-U.S. markets.

Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store

By Lee Pfeiffer

The 1969 action flick "The File of the Golden Goose" stars Yul Brynner in a crime thriller that plays more like an espionage movie. Brynner portrays American Treasury agent Peter Novak, who is sent to London to infiltrate and bust a major ring that specializes in spreading counterfeit U.S. currency. Novak is assigned a young Scotland Yard detective, Arthur Thompson (a very effective Edward Woodward) and the two men enact a scenario where they are ultimately taken in as part of the gang by mobster front man George Leeds (always-reliable character actor Walter Gotell). The film is unremarkable on most levels, but the script is intelligently written and there is some genuine suspense when Novak begins to suspect that Thompson is adapting to the mobster lifestyle for real. Brynner makes for one of the most inimitable leading men of his era, constantly bringing a sense of dignity and gravitas to what otherwise might be considered to be a B movie.

There is also a very wry performance by Charles Gray, playing an out-of-the-closet queen who dabbles in counterfeit bills in between hosting orgies. The film was helmed by actor/director Sam Wanamaker, who makes the most of the extensive London locations. However, the movie's climactic shootout sequence involving a helicopter is a bit of a dud and suffers from poor editing. Nevertheless, any Brynner film deserves attention and The File of the Golden Goose is a more than satisfying thriller, though it must be said my opinion is in the minority. The movie was a critical and boxoffice failure but if you share my sometimes irrational love of even low-grade spy movies of this era, you'll find it enjoyable. 

The film is available on Blu-ray through Kino Lorber in a welcome upgrade to MGM's previous DVD release. The only bonus extra is a trailer. 

Click here to order from Amazon

By Lee Pfeiffer

Quite a few years ago, my Cinema Retro publishing partner Dave Worrall, a fellow enthusiast of 1960s spy flicks, warned me to avoid "Danger Route", a 1967 espionage concoction that he deemed to be "awful". Worrall had seen a TV broadcast of the film on British TV.  Complying with his advice wasn't a problem since the film has never been released on home video in America. However, I noticed it was streaming through the Screenpix app, which is available through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV for a paltry $2.99 additional charge per month. I decided to ignore my esteemed colleague's advice and take the plunge largely because of the impressive cast in "Danger Route": Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Harry Andrews, Sylvia Sims, Diana Dors, Sam Wanamaker, Gordon Jackson and the "go-to" girl for low-budget Sixties spy movies, Barbara Bouchet.  

The film was a rare non-horror production for Amicus, the company that was the main rival to the legendary Hammer Films. The movie was based on Andrew York's well-received novel "The Eliminator" and adapted for the screen by Meade Roberts, who had some estimable credits before and after this film. There were two types of spy movies during this period: those that spoofed or imitated the James Bond films and those that sought to provide a more realistic depiction of espionage work, seemingly inspired by the success of director Martin Ritt's brilliant screen version of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". "Danger Route" is squarely in the latter camp. Richard Johnson plays Jonas Wilde, a top assassin for British Intelligence, who dispenses his victims through a couple of well-placed karate chops. He is partnered with fellow agent Brian Stern (Gordon Jackson) and the two travel widely through Europe to carry out missions on the guise of being yachtsmen. When we first meet Jonas, he's exhausted from having carried out a recent mission on the continent. He comes back to his girlfriend Jocelyn (Carol Lynley in a small but pivotal role that bookends the story). She's a hipster who associates with the mod crowd, clearly to Jonas's dismay. He tells her that even though he is only 37 years-old, he wants to retire and get out of the spy game. They make plans to travel the world living off their wits and working odd jobs. However, reality comes calling when Jonas's boss Canning (Harry Andrews) browbeats him into accepting one more mission- and we all know what happens when the protagonist decides to take on one more mission. Canning informs Jonas that the Americans have a Soviet scientist in their possession who has defected. MI6 thinks he's a Soviet double agent but the Americans don't agree. Thus, they want Jonas to kill him before he is transported to the U.S. It's at this point that the main plot becomes almost incidental, as quirky characters of dubious allegiances interact with our hero, all to the detriment of of a coherent story.

Richard Johnson told this writer that he took himself out of the running to be the screen's first James Bond because he didn't see the potential in the series. Ironically, like every other working actor of the 1960s, he would find himself playing the role of Bond imitators in several low-budget espionage flicks. Johnson gives a very fine performance and makes Jonas an interesting and complex character: a man with a conscience working as a paid assassin. He's a also a vulnerable hero. Though quick on his feet to extract himself from jams without the aid of gadgets, he makes miscalculations in terms of who to trust, with important consequences. Jonas has another vulnerability: he's a borderline alcoholic who is always pouring from a bottle. He finds himself in bizarre situations and death traps, captured by enemy agents and even the C.I.A. There is an extended scene played for some comical effect in which Jonas uses a ditzy, sex-starved housekeeper as a pawn to gain entrance into a mansion house where the bad guys convene. The object of his deceit is winningly played by Diana Dors and she affords the film the few brief moments of humor seen onscreen. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when Canning disappears, Jonas teams for a while with his glamorous wife played by Sylvia Sims. 

The film is ably directed by Seth Holt, but he is guilty of bungling a couple of shots. In one scene, Jonas has his hands bound behind his back by heavy rope. He gains access to a small razor and - presto!- he is free in a matter of seconds, when, in fact, such a feat would take hours to accomplish even if it were possible. In a climactic scene aboard a yacht that is in the midst of a dangerous pea soup-like fog near some dangerous reefs, Jonas simply dives overboard with no explanation as to how he survived and made it back to some finely-tailored clothing. A bit more judicious editing would have helped in these scenes.

The plot of "Danger Route" becomes almost incomprehensible and the film, which was largely shot at Shepperton Studios, didn't ignite much interest and was a casualty of the spy movie tidal wave of the era. Thus, a planned sequel never materialized. However, with all due respect to Dave Worrall, I found the film to be enjoyable fun largely due to the inspired cast, especially since I can't resist any movie featuring Harry Andrews.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The 1970 film adaptation John Le Carre's 1965 Cold War novel The Looking Glass War is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. The movie has been largely forgotten and relatively unseen since its release, which is odd given the consistent interest in all things Le Carre. Christopher Jones plays Leiser, a twenty-something Polish illegal immigrant in London who has the goal of being able to live there with his pregnant girlfriend, Susan (Susan George.) Although prone to bad habits and unpredictable behavior, Leiser is intent on taking his future role as a father seriously. He is arrested for immigration violations, however, and an MI6 boss LeClerc (Ralph Richardson) concocts an audacious plan to manipulate Leiser into spying for the West. Using a legal immigration status as a carrot, LeClerc gets Leiser to reluctantly agree to the scheme. The young man is given a crash course in spying by another MI6 agent, Avery (Anthony Hopkins). He proves an adept enough student when it comes to handling the physical requirements of the job. (The film's best sequence finds the two men engaged in a knock-down, extended brawl when a training exercise gets out of hand when their personal animosities take over.) However, Leiser sneaks away for a brief romantic interlude with Susan but he is emotionally distraught when she tells him she has aborted their baby. Although having lost the main goal of his life- fatherhood- Leiser agrees to go on a secret mission into East Germany to search for evidence of a deadly new class of missiles that MI6 feels could tilt the Cold War in the direction of the Soviets.

Director/screenwriter Frank Pierson took considerable liberties with the source novel, but it still retains LeCarre's trademarks: a highly complex plot peppered with all sorts of extraneous characters who epitomize the author's cynical view that, when it came to espionage, there was little moral difference between East and West. Still, the film is far less confusing than the over-rated 2011 big screen version of LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which won international acclaim although seemingly no one I have discussed the film with can begin to explain what it's all about. One of the main problems is that Leiser is an unsympathetic protagonist. As played by Jones, fully in his James Dean/Marlon Brando mumbling mode, he is a fairly unlikable character, routinely lying, breaking his word and abusing those around him, including Susan, who he physically assaults. It's pretty hard to consider him one of the good guys. Nevertheless, Jones, who was always underrated as a screen presence, uses his good looks and charisma to full advantage so you can't help but hope he survives his seemingly suicidal mission in the most intrusive and paranoid society the world has ever seen. The film does pick  up steam once Leiser makes it under a barbed wire fence and is forced to reluctantly kill an East German border guard. The scene is quite suspenseful, as is another fine sequence in which the desperate and wounded Leiser accepts a ride from a predatory farmer who unexpectedly tries to goad him into performing a homosexual sex act- with tragic results. Leiser also picks up a hitchhiker himself, but- this being a 1960s spy movie- she's a drop-dead gorgeous blonde (played by flash-in-the-pan starlet Pia Degermark), who later reemerges in the story in a not-too-convincing plot twist that is designed to provide an obligatory sex scene. The first coincidental meeting between them takes place on a country road where she is traveling with a young boy who she introduces as her friend. Their relationship is never explained and the kid is never seen again when she has an ridiculously improbable reunion with Leiser in a nightclub. There's also a humdinger of ludicrous plot point in the first scene of the movie. Here, an MI6 agent in a foreign country obtains a roll of secret film that has proof positive of the missile system. He is handed the film by his contact. The agent gripes that his departmental budget is so small that they didn't give him cab fare. Thus, after obtaining this all-important evidence, he is left to trudge along a desolate road in the dead of night in the freezing cold. He is struck by a car and the film is lost. MI6 calculates this as murder and assume the Reds now have the film, which Leiser must retrieve. Really? We're all for financial restraint but the idea that the lack of taxi fare would endanger such important evidence is beyond crazy. It's just one of the improbable elements of Pierson's screenplay.

The film boasts a hip jazz score by Wally Stott, that nevertheless seems out of place in this dark espionage tale and the cinematography by Austin Dempster finds beauty in the East German countryside that contrasts with the "Show your papers" demands made by the secret police he encounters along the way. The performances among the supporting actors are all first rate, with Hopkins particularly impressive in an early screen role. The Looking Glass War is by no means the best of the LeCarre film adaptations (nothing has really equaled The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. ) However, it is an intelligent thriller (a few absurdities aside) with exotic locations and an impressive cast. Retro spy movie lovers will certainly enjoy it.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actors and directors have a long tradition of trying to pass off exotic vacations as legitimate film making. Sometimes the cynical gambit pays unexpected dividends such as the Rat Pack's decision to shoot Oceans Eleven in between their nightly gigs on stage in the Sands hotel and casino in Las Vegas. They somehow turned out a good movie in between all the drinking, screwing and gambling. John Ford rounded up his stock company and headed to Hawaii for Donovan's Reef, but even with John Wayne on board, Paramount balked at the reed-thin script and old Pappy ended up having to front some of the production costs himself. In 1990, director Michael Winner teamed two of the wittiest and most likable stars- Michael Caine and Roger Moore- for what would appear to be a "no lose" proposition: casting them in an espionage comedy. Winner was well past his sell date as a director by then and ended up reinventing himself as a grouchy political pundit and much-feared restaurant critic. Still, how could he lose by teaming Harry Palmer and James Bond? It's a rhetorical question because the resulting film, Bullseye, was considered almost unreleasable. It's one of the least-seen movies of Caine and Moore's careers and with good reason. The ridiculous plot finds the two charismatic actors cast as two low-grade London con men who become embroiled in a plot to impersonate two renegade nuclear scientists who plan to sell top secrets to dangerous foreign powers. The silliest aspect of the film is that the scientists just happen to be physically identical to the con men. Moore and Caine are subjected to a series of increasingly weird scenarios that see them running about like the Keystone Cops as any shred of sensibility in the script is tossed out the window. They are joined by B movie mainstay of the era Sally Kirkland and Moore's daughter Deborah (billed here as "Deborah Barrymore") but not even the resurrection of Marilyn Monroe's sex appeal could salvage this cinematic train wreck. Winner seems to be directing as an afterthought as he indulges in some gorgeous locations in Scotland where the on-screen antics become so confusing that you literally have no idea whether you are observing the con men or the scientists. Winner films the final scene in an exotic island location which is quite obviously an indication of his ability to actually fly everyone there simply to shoot a few seconds of inconsequential footage. Winner wrote the non-screenplay with another otherwise talented person, the great lyricist and songwriter Leslie Bricusse. The only consolation they must have had is that they had a hell of a time on location and no one saw the movie anyway.

Personal observation: In 2017, following the death of Sir Roger Moore, a suitably opulent memorial service was held for him at Pinewood Studios, arranged by his friend, personal assistant and frequent co-author, Cinema Retro's own Gareth Owen. The service reflected the man himself: it was sentimental and funny as hell. Following the memorial, there was a champagne reception in the fabled gardens area. I found myself sipping bubbly next to Sir Michael Caine. In the parlance of the Brits, he and Roger had been best mates for decades. I mentioned to him that it was a shame that the only time they had teamed on screen was for "Bullseye". Sir Michael grinned and said he and Roger referred to the film as "Our "Ishtar", a reference to the notorious flop comedy from 1987. He said they had figured out very quickly that Michael Winner wasn't interested in the film. That was evidenced by the fact that every night he would whisk his stars away for dinner at another opulent restaurant and bill the entire meal to the studio. A great time was had by all. Consequently, he said that he and Roger agreed on two things: "Bullseye" was the worst film of their careers and, paradoxically, it was the most fun they ever had on a film set. 

(The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.)

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES 

In honor of the esteemed actor Nehemiah Persoff, who recently passed away at age 102, we are running this interview originally conducted with Mr. Persoff in 2010 by the late writer Herb Shadrak. 

Nehemiah Persoff: From Jerusalem to Hollywood and Beyond

By Herb Shadrak

Born in Jerusalem in 1919, Nehemiah Persoff went on to become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood. His face is familiar to millions of boomers across North America from his numerous guest appearances on just about every TV series that aired from the 1950s through the 1990s. Persoff’s name may have been unfamiliar to many of these TV viewers, but his face was instantly recognizable. Filmspot.com describes Persoff as a short, dark and stocky-framed actor who specialized in playing ethnic-type villains, although he frequently essayed sympathetic roles as well. (Witness his heartbreaking moments with Maria Schell in Voyage of the Damned.) Yet he excelled as gangland figures like Johnny Torrio, mentor to Al Capone in the 1959 biopic, or mobster Jake Greasy Thumbs Guzik, a recurring role on The Untouchables.

Persoff's childhood was poverty-stricken, but there was constant singing, dancing and music in his home. He was a very creative and imaginative youngster, who always visited the circus when it came to the Holy City. "There was a large field in Jerusalem where the circus used to set up", Persoff recalls. "It was a very small one-ring circus, but I loved it. Outside the circus was an Arab with a box on a stand with peepholes in it, and he had a small monkey on a chain with a hat. This was enough to make me stand there for hours watching. One day, the Arab let me look through the peepholes. There I saw a funny man with a derby and cane. He had a funny walk. It was Charlie Chaplin! Little did I know that 20 years later I would meet that man face-to-face!"

Persoff found himself drawn to the cinema at an early age. "Two outdoor movie houses were opened on Zion Square: one was called Eden", he said. "It had a circle of bulbs that would light up one after the other. I used to walk down there barefoot and watch the cinema from a post on the street. From that height I could see the top of the screen for free. I think the other outdoor movie house was called Aviv. For its grand opening they showed Ben-Hur with Ramon Novarro. There were pennants hung all over! I guess that was our version of a Hollywood opening.I find that at age 88 my mind goes back to my early childhood more and more. Jerusalem in the late twenties was a place like no other. I cannot imagine a 10-year-old more attached to his birthplace than I was. I was keenly aware of the love that people had for each other, the feeling that we were all tied to the same cause. The pioneers came with nothing but enthusiasm and a love for life and our native land. Their attitude was "to hell with worldly goods, that's not what's important in our lives."

And yet Persoff's father, a silversmith and painter, felt he had no career prospects in Palestine. So the young Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929, just in time for the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. Persoff spent several years working as an electrician on the New York subway system, gradually taking an interest in acting in the 1940's.

"When I started acting, I was working in the subway and there was a rule that subway workers were not allowed to have any other job" Persoff remembers. "So on the program of the play, I used the name Nick Perry. My reviews were great but no one knew it was me, so I got none of the glory. After that I always used ˜Nehemiah Persoff".

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Persoff started seriously pursuing an acting career in the New York theatre. In 1947, Persoffs big break came along, one that would lead to steady work in films and television for the next 52 years.

"My friend (actor) Lou Gilbert told me that if I wanted to audition for the Actors Studio, he would arrange it. I jumped at the chance. Elia Kazan was one of the busiest directors around, and to study with him and be in his pool of actors was every actor's dream. I was in summer stock playing the lead role in George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple. I knew that Kazan was with the Group Theatre along with writer Clifford Odets. I thought of doing something from an Odets play but then reasoned that perhaps a more classic approach might work better for me, so I did a monologue from Shaw. Two weeks later, I received an invitation to come to the first meeting of the Actors Studio. I took my seat on a bench and slowly looked around. There were John Garfield, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Montgomery Clift, Kim Hunter and Maureen Stapleton, among others. Kazan began to speak and told us his aim was to create a group of actors who work as he does, who speak his language, and that the people assembled in this room were the cream of the talent available. This was heady stuff for a nearly starving young actor. I studied with Lee Strasberg. He was brilliant and helped me find myself as an actor… I owe him much. Among other scenes, I did a Noel Coward piece with Kim Stanley"

After the Actors Studio, Persoff never looked back. His film credits include Kazan's On the Waterfront, The Harder They Fall (Humphrey Bogart's last film), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, Never Steal Anything Small (with James Cagney), Rene Clement's This Angry Age (shot in Thailand), Green Mansions (with Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins), The Hook (with Kirk Douglas), A Global Affair (with Bob Hope), Ray Danton's frightfest Psychic Killer, Barbra Streisand's Yentl and Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

Persoff also guest starred on about 400 TV shows, including The Twilight Zone (playing a Nazi U-Boat captain in the classic episode "Judgment Night"!), Route 66, Ben Casey, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Mr. Novak, Burke's Law, Honey West, Dan August, The High Chapparal, The Big Valley, The Legend of Jesse James, The Wild Wild West, Gilligan's Island, Hawaii Five-O, Tarzan, It Takes a Thief, Land of the Giants and The Time Tunnel.

In the mid-1980s, Persoff began to pursue painting. Now retired from acting, he devotes full time to this avocation he has always loved.

Cinema Retro spoke to Persoff from his home in Cambria, California. (Continue to next page for interview)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"The Deadly Affair", directed by Sidney Lumet, is the 1967 film based on John Le Carre's 1961 novel "Call for the Dead". Le Carre was riding high during the Bond-inspired Bond phenomenon of the 1960s. Unlike the surrealistic world of 007, Le Carre's books formed the basis for gritty and gloomy espionage stories that were steeped in realism and cynicism. The film adaptation of Le Carre's "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" had been released the previous year to great acclaim. Lumet, who made "The Deadly Affair" for his own production company, rounded up top flight British talent including screenwriter Paul Dehn, who had written the film adaptation of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and  co-wrote the screenplay for "Goldfinger".

As with all Le Carre film adaptations, the plot is complex to the point of being confusing. There are many intriguing characters of dubious allegiance to one another, a scarcity of violence in favor of people talking in back alleys and living rooms and a desire to paint the world of Cold War espionage as a tawdry environment in which the good guys are indistinguishable from the bad guys. James Mason plays Charles Dobbs, a veteran British Intelligence agent who takes a leisurely walk through St. James Park with a civil servant, Fennan (Robert Flemyng),who is aspiring to get a promotion to the Foreign Office. Dobbs informs him that there is a bit of concern about his security clearance because an anonymous person has tipped off MI6 through a letter that states Fennan's may have a dual allegiance to the communists. Dobbs considers the matter somewhat trivial and tries to assure Fennan that his name will probably be cleared. The men part on seemingly upbeat terms but the next day Dobbs is told by his superiors that Fennan has committed suicide. Dobbs is flabbergasted and insists the man showed no signs of instability. Nevertheless, Dobbs feels he is being made to be the fall guy for failing to see obvious weaknesses in Fennan's personality. That's not his only problem. Domestically, his young wife Ann (Harriett Andersson) is causing him great distress by taking on numerous lovers under his very nose. (Dobbs is even instructed to phone her before he comes home in case she has a bed mate in their house.) Dobbs is humiliated at playing the role of cuckold but can't bring himself to divorce Ann- even when it is revealed that his old friend Dieter (Maximilian Schell), a German Intelligence agent who is visiting London, has also been seduced by her.

Dobbs smells a rat at MI6 and doubts Fennan committed suicide. He starts his own investigation into who killed him and why. An interview with Fennan's widow (Simone Signoret) only makes matters more complex when he begins to suspect she might be a Soviet agent. Dobbs enlists the only two colleagues he can trust: agent Bill Appleby (Kenneth Haigh) and the semi-retired agent Mendel (Harry Andrews). The trio find that as they get closer to the truth, the trail is getting more dangerous with numerous murders occurring and their own lives in danger.

To bring Le Carre's novel to the screen, certain recurring characters from his books, such as legendary spy George Smiley, had to have their names changed because Paramount had the rights to "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the characters appeared in the novel and screen version. Paul Dehn's screenplay is confusing but never boring and by the end you can pretty much figure out what is going on even if some of the peripheral characters' significance remains a bit vague. Sidney Lumet was the ultimate "actor's director" and could always be counted on to get top-rate performances from his cast. "The Deadly Game" is no exception, with James Mason in fine form as a man who has been disgraced professionally and personally but who still has enough pride to attempt to clear his name. Lumet hired two fine actors who appeared in his 1965 masterwork "The Hill"- Harry Andrews and Roy Kinnear- to reunite for this production and they have a great scene together. (Andrews must be one of the most under-rated actors of all time.) Maximilian Schell only appears sporadically but his role is pivotal and he is typically impressive, as is Simone Signoret as a woman of doubtful allegiance. Harriett Andersson, whose proficiency in English was limited, is occasionally difficult to understand (she was reportedly partially dubbed because of this). She accepted the role at the last minute when Candice Bergen had to back out of the film. She is suitably sultry and her character is quite interesting, professing to love her husband even as she revels in submitting him to sexual humiliation. The only humor in the film is provided by a very amusing Lynn Redgrave in a small role as Virgin Bumpus (!), an inept set designer for a Shakespearean theater production. Quincy Jones provides a fine jazz score that fits in well with the lounge music craze of the era and Freddie Young's cinematography depicts London as an ominous, rain-spattered place that adds to the chilling atmosphere of any Le Carre story. Adding to the impressive roster of talents involved with the film are Quincy Jones, who provides a fine jazzy score and cinematographer Freddie Young. Sidney Lumet wanted to film the production in B&W but the studio insisted on color. Thus, the ever-inventive Young created a process to intentionally make the scenes look drab and dubbed it "colorless color."

Although John Le Carre was not overly-impressed with the film, he did joke that he was beguiled by Harriet Andersson's nude scene. Le Carre's opinion aside, "The Deadly Affair" was highly acclaimed in Britain, having been nominated for five BAFTA awards but it was largely overlooked amidst the tidal wave of other spy movies from the time period. It's a first-rate thriller and Indicator have done it justice with an equally excellent Blu-ray special edition, which is happily region-free and features a high definition remaster. In addition, the Blu-ray contains the following special edition features:

• Original mono audio sound
• An excellent commentary track by film historians Michael Brooke and Johnny Mains
• "The Guardian Lecture with Sidney Lumet", a wonderful audio recording of a 1983 interview at the National Film Theatre conducted by Derek Malcolm, who gets the low-key director to discuss his own movies and the general state of cinema. Interestingly, even in 1983, Lumet predicted the short attention span (or perceived short attention span) of audiences would alter the way movies were made. He griped that in several recent films he had seen, no shot lasted for more than seven seconds without a cut being made.
  
• "A Different Kind of Spy: Paul Dehn's Deadly Affair", a featurette in which writer David Kipen discusses the life and career of the esteemed screenwriter. Kipen is loquacious and interesting, providing background of Dehn's fascinating background. He was an instructor at a spy school while in the British military in WWII and among his students were Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. He later engaged in undercover activities himself. After the war, Dehn became a screenwriter and Kipen laments the fact that many of the economically-made, but expertly scripted films he worked on in post-war Britain remain largely unseen by international audiences. Kipen also informs us that Dehn was a gay man living in Britain when homosexuality was still a crime and how his closeted life and long-time lover affair with film composer James Bernard may have influenced his work.
  
• "Lumet's London" is a short featurette that shows "then-and-now" footage and photos of the various locations seen in the film.
• "Take One and Move On" is a short but interesting interview with camera operator Brian West, who recalls the inventive way cinematographer Freddie Young planned some innovative shots.
  
• "The National Film Theatre Lecture with James Mason" is a rare gem from 1967. Mason didn't give an abundance of interviews and wasn't a common presence on chat shows. This marvelous interview before an enthusiastic audience is worth the price of the Blu-ray alone. Mason is, as you might expect, urbane, charismatic and very witty as he relates stories of his life and career including some tidbits about the pleasures and stresses of working with Hitchcock and Kubrick.
  

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

BY LEE PFEIFFER

One of the few remaining Steve McQueen films not available on home video finally comes to DVD with Warner Archive's release of the 1961 military comedy The Honeymoon Machine. Sadly, the film can only be recommended to McQueen fans who feel obliged to buy the DVD in order to keep their collections complete. The movie is an embarrassing fiasco that might have been excusable had it been produced by a low-rent film studio. However, MGM backed this turkey and it must have seemed pretty stale even during its release back in the JFK administration. It's worth contemplating that America's obsession at the time with showing respect for any aspect of the military extended to many films that was neutered for fear of offending Pentagon brass. Sure, screenwriters could denote some highschool-like upstarts in the Army or Navy, and the top brass might be seen as  humorless stiffs, but studios rarely wanted to tweak the  powers-that-be, lest they not get cooperation from the military for their war movies. In fact, it wasn't until The Americanization of Emily in 1964 that the glass ceiling was truly broken and the U.S. military could be the object of outright satire and cynicism. From there, the floodgate opened and by the late 1960s and early 1970s, films like Kelly's Heroes and M*A*S*H went to the opposite extreme and portrayed the American military as primarily comprised of dolts.

The Honeymoon Machine was made during the era when servicemen were portrayed as overgrown  kids whose most dangerous exploits were acting like the kind of towel-snapping wiseguys you encounter in locker rooms. In this ill-advised opus, McQueen- in one of his first starring roles- is a Navy lieutenant who teams with civilian scientist Jim Hutton to come up with a scientific method of predicting how roulette wheels can be manipulated. When the fleet pulls into Venice, the theory is tested at the local casino, where McQueen and Hutton break the bank. Unfortunately, through a convoluted sub-plot, their shenanighans are mistaken for espionage activities and a Cold War crisis ensues.

BY TIM MCGLYNN

Mill Creek Entertainment has released a Blu-ray edition of Universal Pictures’ Safe House from 2012. This spy thriller features a first-rate cast including Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Ruben Blades and Sam Shepard.

Directed by Sweden’s Daniel Espinoza, the story concerns the capture and escape of a former CIA operative who possesses damning evidence that his superiors are spilling secrets to anyone with a large bank account. The script is by David Guggenheim and may remind viewers of Matt Damon’s Bourne films.

Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a young CIA agent stuck on housekeeping duty at an empty safe house in Capetown, South Africa. He's restless and eager for a more important post in a less isolated location. The house doesn't see much action, nor does Weston apart from conjugal visits from his gorgeous girlfriend played by Nora Arnezeder. That is, until the CIA brings in Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), a rogue agent wanted for selling state secrets to the highest bidder.

Right off the bat we learn that Frost is highly skilled at manipulating those around him as his captors are intimidated by his history with the agency. He is calm and recognizes that the agents escorting him to the safe house are following all the standard procedures. In one tense scene Frost is tortured by waterboarding as the agents need to know what information he has shared with the enemy.

It soon becomes apparent that Frost’s contacts on the other side are not too happy with him either as a squad of assassins arrives at the supposedly secure location. Weston and Frost manage to escape before the gunmen swarm the building. It's now Weston's responsibility to bring his charge back to the American embassy in one piece. Not an easy task for a rookie, considering Frost's attempts to ditch his captor and their pursuers' attempts to kill them before they reach safety.

The remainder of the film is one gigantic chase throughout Capetown as it revealed there is a mole within the agency feeding details to the other side. Car chases, gun battles and hand-to-hand fights abound as Weston begins to doubt Frost’s guilt. At one point, Frost tries to confuse his captor by saying “They’re going to put their arm around you and tell you things like ‘You did a decent job, son. We’ll take it from here.’ That’s when you know you’re screwed.” After hearing that line you know one of the bosses will actually say it.

The double agent within the CIA is soon revealed and a smashing fight scene along with a couple of surprising plot twists bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

Denzel Washington demonstrates why he is a two-time Academy Award winner with his performance in this film. He’s cagey and understated in his portrayal of Frost and viewers are never quite sure if he’s a traitor or not. With this role and his appearances in the two Equalizer movies, Washington is fast becoming another action star in the manner of Keanu Reeves’ assassin in the John Wick adventures.

Ryan Reynolds takes a straight-laced approach as Weston, the bored safe house monitor suddenly thrust into the center of an international espionage incident. He relies on his training and instructions from his handler played by Brendan Gleeson. Weston begins to question his superiors as Frost gets inside his head sowing doubts.

Sam Shepard and Vera Farmiga are serviceable as CIA leaders back at Quantico Headquarters although there is not enough development to make them truly interesting characters. Ruben Blades has a small, but memorable role as a document forger that Frost contacts in an attempt to leave South Africa. Nora Arnezeder is criminally underutilized as Weston’s physician girlfriend. Her role requires her to be annoyed most of the time.

The thugs chasing Tobin are stereotypical Middle Eastern villains who are highly skilled at killing several hapless CIA agents. The script focuses on Frost and Weston and their mano y mano encounters as both adversaries and allies. This is the crux of the story and director Espinoza keeps it moving at a breakneck pace. The violence is bone crushing, but not overly bloody.

Editor Richard Pearson deserves much credit for keeping the action at a warp speed level throughout the entire film. Most of the time I find these quick cut thrillers annoying and hard to watch. Michael Bay’s frenetic movies come to mind when everything looks a trailer for a second rate action flick. Pearce keeps the pace without giving viewers a migraine, and he is helped by cinematographer Oliver Wood who doesn’t allow the individual cuts to go all shaky cam on us. Wood also uses tight framing to provide a feeling of desolation in many of the location shots even though the story is mostly set in a major city.

Composer Ramin Djawadi provides a wonderful score for the film that utilizes styles and instrumentation reflecting the film’s setting in South Africa. Music is sometimes not noticed in action and chase scenes until those brief moments when there are no sound effects from the cars and guns. There would be awkward breaks without the music to fill in the blanks.

Safe House is a terrific film for the stunts and shootout sequences which more than compensate for the lack of character development. You may not always know what is going on, but your interest is definitely captured by the cat and mouse game between the two main characters. The bigger the screen and the louder the sound, the more you will enjoy this movie.

The Blu-ray disc issued by Mill Creek Entertainment deserves kudos for the presentation of the film. The video quality is terrific with just enough of a gritty quality to put an edge on all scenes. The 5.1 sound mix is loud and heavy on the bass. Explosions will jump out at those viewers using higher end surround systems. Fans of Blu-ray extras will be disappointed, however, as there are none with the exception of optional English subtitles. However, the film itself looks fantastic and, as drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs might say, things blow up real good.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The Warner Archive has released director Lewis Gilbert's excellent WWII espionage thriller Operation Daybreak.The 1975 film is largely unknown despite the fact that it's one of Gilbert's most ambitious and artistically successful movies. The story is based on fact. Allied Intelligence convinced three Czechs serving in the British army to parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Reinhold Heydrich, one of Hitler's most trusted commanders and the man he cynically appointed "protector" of the conquered nations of Europe. Heydrich was considered even more brutal than Hitler and the Allies feared the worst if a scenario came about in which he would have been appointed fuerhrer. As Reinhold was heavily guarded at all times, the commandos were left to their own devices to concoct the assassination plan. After an initial attempt went awry, they opted to boldly approach his car in the middle of the street and spray it with machine gun fire. It will not spoil the film to relate the historical fact that the plan ultimately succeeded, but Operation Daybreak is as much about the aftermath of the incident as it is about the mission itself. 

Incredibly, the principal assassins and their network of partisans survived, at least initially. However, on the verge of rescue, elements of betrayal and carelessness led to tragedy. In reprisal for the assassinatin, Hitler ordered that the entire village of Lidice be razed to the ground and every citizen murdered or sent to concentration camps. Gilbert shot the film on location in (then) communist Czechoslovakia. The locales add immeasurably to the sense of authenticity. The film also boasts a sizable budget and there are impressive sequences featuring large numbers of German soldiers parading in the streets - a sight that must have been chilling for residences who lived through the actual occupation. Ronald Harwood's screenplay, based on the novel Seven Men at Daybreak by Alan Burgess, is consistently gripping- and the final battle between the conspirators and a large force of German troops takes place inside a magnificent church. Gilbert ensures this sequence is superbly staged on every level. 

If there is a weak link in the film it is the casting of Timothy Bottoms in the lead role. Bottoms is competent enough, but makes for a bland and colorless hero. He is out-shown by fellow cast members Anthony Andrews, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland and Anton Diffring, who makes a coldly majestic Heydrich. Curiously, the film contains many extended sequences involving Heydrich in which German is spoken without the benefit of sub-titles. Whether this was the case in the original film, I can't say, but it does make for some irritation on the DVD version. Also, the Czech characters all speak English, but as they are portrayed by American and British actors without any attempt to form a common accent, it gives the film's dialogue a Tower of Babel effect. Nevertheless, Operation Daybreak is a memorable movie about real-life heroes that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Hopefully, the Warner Archive release will achieve just that. 

(The late Lewis Gilbert discussed Operation Daybreak and his other war movies in an exclusive interview with Matthew Field in issue #18 of Cinema Retro) 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE

Retro-Active: The Best from the Cinema Retro Archives.

By Harvey Chartrand

Neville Heath was an English killer responsible for the murders of two young women. He was executed by hanging in London in 1946 (aged 29). Heath was a handsome and well-spoken sociopath who could easily lure women to their doom.

In 1967, Alfred Hitchcock was trying to rebound from the failure of the Cold War espionage thriller Torn Curtain with an original screenplay entitled Frenzy (and later Kaleidoscope). The unproduced project was to have been based on the crimes of serial rapist-killer Heath, although the story would be set in the present day in and around New York City. The original story would be told completely from the point of view of a murderer who is both attractive and vulnerable.

Screenwriter Benn Levy wrote in a letter to Hitchcock in January 1967: “It's got to be (based on) Heath, not (John George) Haigh (the acid bath murderer). Told forwards, the Heath story is a gift from heaven. You'd start with a ‘straight’ romantic meeting, handsome young man, pretty girl. Maybe he rescues her from the wild molestations of a drunken escort. ‘I can't stand men who paw every girl they meet.’ Get us rooting for them both. He perhaps unhappily married and therefore a model of screen-hero restraint. She begins to find him irresistibly ‘just a little boy who can't cope with life’ -- least of all with domestic problems such as he has described. She's sexually maternal with him, she'd give him anything -- and we're delighted. Presently a few of us get tiny stirrings of disquiet at the physical love-scenes but don't quite know why. By the time we see the climax of his love in action and her murder, then even the slowest of us get it! But we shouldn't know till then.”

Rare trade ad for a film that was never made.

Frenzy would also be a stylistic departure for Hitchcock. After watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Hitchcock felt he had fallen behind the Italians in technique. Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan writes: “Watching one Antonioni, he sat up straight at the sight of a man all in white in a white room. ‘White on white!’ he exclaimed to (his personal assistant and script supervisor) Peggy Robertson. ‘There, you see! It can be done!’”

Hitchcock was also impressed by the camerawork improvisation of maverick American director John Cassavetes (Shadows). He asked the novelist Howard Fast (Spartacus, Cheyenne Autumn) to sketch a treatment about a gay, deformed serial killer. Pleased with the results, Hitchcock composed a shot list with over 450 camera positions and shot an hour’s worth of experimental color tests, using unknown actors in various states of undress. This footage was filmed in New York City, and gives a tantalizing glimpse of what Hitchcock had in mind, of how revolutionary Frenzy/Kaleidoscope would have been in his body of work – a Psycho for the more liberated counterculture era. Unfortunately, MCA/Universal were disgusted by the script and test footage and immediately canceled the project, reducing Hitchcock to tears. Hitchcock was coerced into directing Topaz, Leon Uris’ behind-the-scenes account of the breakup of a Soviet spy ring at the highest levels of the French government during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Topaz was another in a string of artistic and commercial failures for Hitchcock as he approached age 70.

Japanese poster for the 1972 film Frenzy which was entirely different from the previous project Hitchcock had intended to use the title for.

What would have been Hitchcock's most daring and controversial work was thwarted: an avant-garde film using hand-held camerawork, a first-person viewpoint and natural lighting (à la Blair Witch Project, filmed 32 years later), detailing the exploits of a gay bodybuilder who dabbles in murder, rape and possibly necrophilia. It was conceived in 1964 as a prequel to Hitchcock’s 1942 film Shadow of a Doubt and was initially titled Frenzy, not to be confused with his eventual 1972 movie of the same name, from which certain plot elements of the original Frenzy were recycled.

Hitchcock’s interest in Neville Heath first manifested itself in 1959 in his unproduced project No Bail for the Judge, which would have starred Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Harvey and John Williams. A respected judge is blamed for the murder of a prostitute, and his barrister daughter searches for the real killer in London’s criminal demi-monde. Hepburn, who desperately wanted to work with Hitchcock, suddenly withdrew from the project because of a scene in which her character is brutally raped in Hyde Park by a good-looking London pimp named Edward “Neddy-Boy” Devlin, who dominates Hepburn by slowly strangling her with a necktie.

Audrey Hepburn never did work with Hitchcock, but Laurence Harvey got along with the Master of Suspense and starred in Arthur (1959), a grisly episode of the long-running TV anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in which a beautiful woman (Hazel Court) meets with a terrible fate.

Neville Heath

The rape scene in No Bail for the Judge obviously was one that Hitchcock wanted to realize, in one form or another. It is quite similar to the scene of Mark’s rape of the frigid Marnie on their honeymoon cruise. The unproduced script of No Bail for the Judge also looks forward to the unproduced Frenzy/Kaleidoscope and to Hitchcock’s serial killer masterpiece Frenzy (1972), with its sexually impotent necktie strangler Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) loose in London, eager to pin the murders of several attractive women on his best friend. The unproduced Frenzy contains a sequence in New York’s Central Park where the killer, Willie Cooper, takes a young woman into the bushes and murders her. And while Bob Rusk may have more victims to his credit than Neville Heath and Willie Cooper, it is clear that Edward “Neddy-Boy” Devlin was Hitchcock’s first “necktie strangler”.

So, as Hitchcock matured as an artist, his impulse to film violent misogynistic scenes intensified – scenes which would finally be free from censorship in the freewheeling “anything goes” atmosphere of Hollywood in the sixties and seventies.

BY FRED BLOSSER

“Rosebud” (1975), Otto Preminger’s next-to-last film, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in a 2K Blu-ray restoration. In the political thriller, a terrorist cell kidnaps five teenaged girls from a luxury yacht, the “Rosebud” of the title. The kidnappers are members of Black September, an extremist Palestinian faction -- a reference that would have been better known by audiences then than now. Their reasons for seizing the young women become clearer as they open communications with the girls’ parents, an international power elite of politicians, industrialists, and financiers. Sending along a film of the five young women on the deck of the commandeered yacht, nude and shivering, the terrorists dictate that it be televised as a prelude to a series of demands that will demean Israel and it allies on the global stage. If the demands aren’t met as each is put on the table, the girls will be killed one by one.

Fargeau (Claude Dauphin), the grandfather of one of the hostages, engages Larry Martin (Peter O’Toole), a Newsweek correspondent, to advise on the negotiations. It seems to be an open secret that Martin’s press badge is only a subterfuge. He’s actually a CIA operative. Playfully, Martin neither confirms nor denies involvement with U.S. intelligence as he holds down his desk at Newsweek’s Paris bureau. It’s a little like the movies where James Bond’s cover story as a salesman for Universal Export never fools anyone. Helped by an Israeli Mossad agent, Yafet (Cliff Gorman), and calling on his friends in West German intelligence, Martin begins multi-tasking several challenges at once. It’s a daunting checklist but he takes it in stride, much as the rest of us would balance our weekly chores: Find the teenage hostages, who are being held in an undisclosed bunker. Design and execute a rescue plan. In the meantime, counsel the parents on strategies to buy time as various political hurdles arise. And locate and neutralize the elusive mastermind of the kidnapping, Sloat (Richard Attenborough), a wealthy, radicalized convert to Islam. Because the girls are being held in one-far flung location and Sloat is hiding somewhere else, the job becomes even more complicated.

Critics were primed to savage “Rosebud” when it opened on March 24, 1975, after months of behind-the-scenes cast changes, script revisions, and other production difficulties. They didn’t disappoint. “Incoherent plotting,” “ineptitude,” “Idiotic,” and “flaccid” were some of their kinder comments. Preminger’s stunt casting of former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay came in for particular derision. As a U.S. Senator whose daughter (Kim Cattrall, in her movie debut) is one of the kidnapped girls, Lindsay’s “manner of looking worried is to look elegant,” Vincent Canby joked in his New York Times review. Never mind it’s a relatively small role that required Lindsay to do little more than look elegantly worried anyway. Besides, where would Hollywood be without stunt casting?

Robert Mitchum was originally set to play Larry Martin, but he quit (or was sent packing) after he and Preminger clashed. Enter Peter O’Toole. Probably anticipating that fussy viewers would wonder why a CIA operative looks and sounds British, the script pointedly calls Martin a “mercenary.” The implication is that he’s a freelancer on retainer, not technically a CIA employee of U.S. citizenship.

Rumpled and unruffled, O’Toole delivers a sharp performance that’s nicely counterbalanced by Attenborough’s icy turn as the fanatical Sloat and Gorman’s as the intense Israeli agent. The cover of the KL Studio Classics Blu-ray reproduces the original poster artwork of assault rifles, machine guns, and nudity. The collage promises a strong dose of exploitative action, but the script by Erik Lee Preminger and Marjorie Kellogg is primarily a meticulous, gather-the-clues espionage drama. It’s more John Le Carre than “Die Hard.” Martin and his associates are too busy sifting through aerial photographs, geologic charts, and eyewitness statements to provoke any premature shootouts with their adversaries. Once they have the evidence they need, they decide that their objectives -- rescuing the kidnapped girls and apprehending the mastermind -- are better accomplished using subtlety, not large-scale confrontation. The critics called it boring, but the scenes move at a nice pace, and fans who favor movie brains over brawn will be pleased.

There’s also less nudity than the art suggests, at least in the U.S. version offered in the KL Studio Classics print, where the girls are briefly shown from the back as they’re herded on deck to be filmed. Reportedly, an alternative print for other markets depicted full-frontal nudity. It isn’t likely that, today, in the #MeToo era, filmmakers would enact a similar scenario about victimized young women, nudity or not. Sadly, other things haven’t changed in the past 46 years, except for the worse, as Middle Eastern conflicts continue to take a dreadful human toll.

The handsome Kino Lorber disc of “Rosebud” may inspire home video enthusiasts to visit Preminger’s late-career film and reappraise its virtues and shortcomings for themselves. Special features include the theatrical trailer and a full, informative audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Daniel Kremer.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)

They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Apparently, that adage also applies to the espionage trade as well. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that James Bond will be inducted into Spectre by his arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the forthcoming comic book series "James Bond: Agent of Spectre", which will be released by Dynamite Entertainment in March. The series will be written by Marvel writer Christos Gage and illustrated by Luca Casalanguida, with covers created by Steve Epting. For more, click here.

BY DOUG OSWALD

A French soldier and spy is sent on a mission to discover the location of a secret German U-Boat base in “Assignment in Brittany,” released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection. Jean-Pierre Aumont plays Captain Pierre Metard, a member of the Free French army serving in Great Britain. He has an uncanny resemblance to a French farmer and soldier, Corporal Bertrand Corlay, a man with Nazi ties who ends up in a British hospital. The British devise a scheme where Pierre impersonates Bertrand and returns home to search out the U-Boat base. He spends weeks studying and memorizing everything known about Bertrand before being flown to and dropped by parachute in to Brittany and makes his way on foot to Bertrand’s family farm.

He runs in to two British soldiers who escaped from a prison camp and are making their way back to England. Pierre/Bertrand sends them to his intended rendezvous point where, when his mission is over, a French Underground member will transport them across the English Channel to safety. Pierre makes it to the farm where everyone is surprised to see him. Not only was he a traitor, but a bit of a cad and not too kind to his mother either.

Bertrand’s mother (Margaret Wycherly) figures out Pierre is not her son because he is more thoughtful and kind than her cold hearted and self-centered offspring. Pierre also meets his/Bertrand’s fiancé, the beautiful Anne Pinot (Susan Peters). It turns out, like Bertrand’s mother, she’s not happy to see him either. Bertrand’s mistress and fellow Nazi collaborator Elise (Signe Hasso) is happy to see him return and is the reason for Anne’s rejection.

Pierre is betrayed by Elise and another collaborator. He’s captured and tortured until he escapes with the help of people in the village while under the cover of a local festival. He quickly recovers and reconciles with Anne, who knows his true identity. With the help of a local villager, he discovers the location of the U-Boat pens and radios the location to the British who soon arrive with torpedo boats and a commando force. The movie comes to a satisfying conclusion with all on the escape boat singing the French national anthem

The film was directed by Jack Conway with a screenplay by Anthony Veiller, William H. Wright and Howard Emmett Rogers, based on a popular espionage thriller by Helen MacInnes. Known as The Queen of International Espionage Fiction, she wrote 21 suspense novels including three others which were adapted into movies; “Above Suspicion” (1943), “The Venetian Affair” (1966) and “The Salzburg Connection” (1972).

Jean-Pierre Aumont gives a very good performance as soldier and spy Pierre/Bertrand. The movie also features George Coulouris as Nazi Captain Hans Holtz and John Emery as Nazi Captain Deichgraber. Both give terrific performances as evil Nazis. Signe Hasso is equally sinister as the Nazi collaborator Elise. A few familiar character actors make appearances in the movie. Reginald Owen is British Colonel Trane, who sends Pierre on his mission. Alan Napier as Sam Wells, is probably most known for his role as Alfred the butler in the 1960s television series “Batman.” Richard Whorf is a villager suspicious of Bertrand’s return, Jean Kerenor. William Edmunds (Mr. Martini from “It’s a Wonderful Life”) is the local French Resistance radio operator Plehec.

Leading lady Susan Peters had a short-lived Hollywood career which came to a sad and tragic end. She was under contract to MGM when, out duck hunting with friends and her husband, actor Richard Quinn, on New Years Day 1945, arifle she picked up accidently discharged and the shot hit her spine, paralyzing her from the waste down. She and Quinn adopted a son in 1946, but they divorced in 1948. Peters continued to work in radio and helped develop a television series which featured her in the lead as a disabled woman in a wheelchair titled “Miss Susan” which broadcast for a single season in1951. The series was ahead of its time in depicting a disabled main character played by a disabled actor. Peters died in 1952 of chronic kidney failure and starvation. It is believed she suffered from anorexia nervosa. Her funeral was attended by many well known actors who were also under contract while she was at MGM.

The film was released by MGM in March 1943 at a time when WWII was still waging in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. The outcome of WWII was still uncertain and the D-Day invasion of Normandy France was very much a Top Secret and over a year away. The movie is clearly designed to show France and the French people as allies in the war to free Europe from Nazi German tyranny. Filmed in Hollywood, good use is made of light and shadows, which works effectively in this espionage thriller.

This 2019 region-free DVD fromthe Warner Archive Collectionlooks okay, but has plenty of  artifacts. Nevertheless, it's probably as good as we’ll ever see it. The disc contains no extras other than the trailer. The movie is a fun action thriller and well worth a viewing.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY NICK ANEZ

Universal released The Groundstar Conspiracy starring George Peppard in 1972 and it died a swift death at the box-office. It is based on the 1968 novel The Alien by L. P. Davies, a British author whose novels were known for merging the various genres of horror, science fiction, mystery, adventure and fantasy. The Alien combines mystery and science fiction for an intriguing plot that takes place in England fifty years in the future and involves unidentified flying objects, an amnesiac patient who may be from another planet, espionage, murder and regenerative surgery. The Groundstar Conspiracy retains the basic premise of the novel but changes virtually everything else. The screenplay by Mathew Howard (a pseudonym for Douglas Heyes) transfers the setting to 1972 California, focuses primarily on the espionage storyline and eliminates the novel’s plot of a possible invasion from another planet. (In the novel, the UFO landing and alien visitors are eventually revealed to be fraudulent.)

The film begins with a series of explosions at Groundstar, a top-secret research government laboratory. Six people are killed but one man survives, though his face is burned beyond recognition. Despite his suffering, the severely wounded man finds his way to a nearby cottage occupied by Nicole Devon who immediately calls authorities. The man’s security card identifies him as computer technician John Welles. Additional material in his possession indicates that he set the explosions to conceal his theft of classified documents. Further investigation reveals that his credentials were forged and his identity fabricated. All evidence implicates Welles as a saboteur and murderer. However, he will require medical treatment including extensive plastic surgery before he can be interrogated.

Tuxan, who is known only by his surname, is Groundstar’s chief security officer and his primary objective ostensibly is to force John Welles to reveal the name of the traitors who paid him to commit the crimes and the location of their spy ring. When his bandages are taken off, Welles stares in shock at his scarred, unfamiliar face and claims to have amnesia. He is devastated when Tuxan accuses him of murder and treason. Tuxan asserts that he is faking his amnesia and subjects him to a series of brutal methods of coercion, including excruciating shock therapy, to discover the truth. When these methods fail, Tuxan condemns Welles to a secret prison until he confesses. However, following an accident, Welles escapes and sets out to recover his memory. His only clue is Nicole Devon whom Tuxan suspects of being part of the conspiracy. Though Nicole is emotionally fragile due to recent personal traumas, Tuxan treats her as another collaborator. The fact that Welles and Nicole become romantically involved may seem clichéd but there is the suggestion that, in addition to mutual attraction, they gratify their passion because they both despise Tuxan. They don’t realize that they are mere pawns of Tuxan’s strategy which includes secretly filming everything they do – yes, everything.

The Groundstar Conspiracy is an ingenious thriller with surprising twists and turns. Due to the film’s intricate narrative, what appears to be obvious may not be what is actual. Also, Tuxan may be more deceitful than the suspects that he interrogates. Furthermore, the abuse that John Welles suffers may be the result of his own actions, of which he may be totally unaware. If this sounds byzantine, it is intended to be. The film contains an extremely convoluted plot that is quite clever as well as challenging. It also raises some troubling questions, including the recurrent one of whether the good guys have to be more unscrupulous than the bad guys to achieve victory. In view of Tuxan’s accomplishment, this movie suggests that the answer is a definite affirmative. However, one of the movie’s many assets is that the exposure of the principal traitor is only a prelude to the solution of the story’s central mystery, which is the identity of the man known as John Welles.

One indisputable fact is that Tuxan is a ruthless piece of work. He is tenacious about his mission and uses any means, legal or illegal, to preserve national security. He treats all personnel connected to Groundstar as suspects, including scientists, military personnel and politicians. He manipulates people like puppets on a string and equates Welles with cheese used to trap rats. He torments Welles physically and mentally regardless of his possible innocence. He believes that the end justifies the means and the end for him is the disclosure of the spy ring. The fact that he does uncover the traitors validates for him his brutal treatment of the innocent people that had the misfortune to fall under his suspicion. Yes, he is a genuine bastard but the key to his personality is that he is quite proud of this designation.

Lamont Johnson’s confident direction alternates the swift pace of the action and interrogation scenes with the more serene interludes of the developing relationship between Welles and Nicole. Johnson exercises restraint in the torture scenes and doesn’t exploit the grisly activities. In contrast, he accentuates the suffering of both Welles and Nicole which suggests sympathy for the lovers. Johnson filmed the entire movie in the vicinity of Vancouver, British Columbia. With the aid of Michael Reed’s splendid Panavision and Technicolor cinematography, he highlights British Columbia’s marvelous coastal locations that substitute for California’s Pacific Coast; the modernist Groundstar complex is actually Simon Fraser University. Johnson only directed a dozen theatrical films during his 45-year career and worked mostly in television, for which he received several Emmy and DGA (Directors Guild of America) nominations and awards. But this film, along with 1970’s The Mackenzie Break clearly shows that he excelled in both arenas, especially when he worked with skillful actors.

George Peppard’s forceful performance as Tuxan is particularly impressive because he doesn’t try to make his character even faintly likeable. Due to Tuxan’s consistent nastiness and persistence, Peppard must necessarily give a one-note portrayal. But he does it with admirable proficiency. His interpretation of Tuxan doesn’t convey a trace of suppressed softness beneath his merciless surface. He doesn’t suggest even a smidgen of compassion for the amnesiac which makes his character especially loathsome in view of the climactic revelation. Even more despicable, the actor suggests a hint of satisfaction during the torture sequences because of the message his action is sending to the enemy, whomever they may be. At the finale, when Tuxan is flushed with success, Peppard still doesn’t allow his character to display any warmth toward his primary victim. Indeed, he proudly exhibits additional egotism. It is an audacious performance because it is designed to deliberately alienate audiences. Nevertheless, Peppard’s innate appeal makes Tuxan fascinating and persuades those same audiences that people like him are necessary.

BY HANK REINEKE

Val Guest’s The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) is one of the better science-fiction films to come out of the Cold War decades of the 1950’s and 1960s. While it’s no metaphorical masterpiece as Don Siegel’s more celebrated Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the screenplay for this British production was co-penned by Guest and the novelist/playwright/screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz. The two would collaborate on other projects as well, but it’s the thoughtful, literate script co-written for The Day the Earth Caught Fire that would justifiably garner them the award for the Best British Screenplay from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. This superb new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber is absolutely beautiful, having been digitally re-mastered from a print held in the National Archive of British Film Institute in association with StudioCanal.

Partly inspired by the worldwide early anti-nuclear weapon sentiments and protests of the late ‘50s/early 60s – and in particular by the demonstrations of England’s annual Easter Aldermaston Marches (partly commemorated here via actual newsreel footage) – the foreboding screenplay warns of the cost-to-be -paid due to the escalating tension and muscle-flexing of the world’s two superpowers. The film’s critics on the right would dismiss the 1961 production as an example of sobbing leftist propaganda. Interestingly - and almost a half-century following the film’s release - London’s Guardian newspaper was among many British journals giving this charge some measure of credence. It was reported in August 2010, upon the recent declassification of security documents, that Mankowitz – who passed in 1998 – had once been suspected by members of MI5 to be a possible agent of the Soviet Union. This was a delicious bit of ironic tattle since Mankowitz had long been celebrated as the figure that brought Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman together to produce the films of the world’s favorite “imperialist thug” spy, James Bond.

If not a bona fide, card-carrying Marxist – and there’s no proof that I know of that he was, nor would such a personal political leaning been criminal unless engaged in espionage - Mankowitz was, at the very least, a gifted seer. The advertising for the film promised a “picture that gives you a front seat to the most jolting events of tomorrow!” When news of the real-life Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in October 1962, cinemagoers who caught The Day the Earth Caught Fire on its release in the late autumn of 1961 through the spring of 1962, were no doubt understandably chilled by the catastrophic preview they’d already witnessed. The film depicts, in uncompromising seriousness and sobriety, the dire consequences of unbridled nuclear weapons testing by the world’s two reigning super-powers. This is a science-fiction film where the monster created was completely of human design. Unless one wishes to extrapolate on the possible symbolism of film’s final image and audio, director Guest stubbornly refused to guarantee the requisite happy ending.

The film is a very much a science-fiction movie for thinking adults. The original British censor card tacked onto the film’s front end informs that no one under the age of sixteen would be permitted admission. I imagine only the most worldly and erudite middle and early high school age teens would have even cared about such disbarment, as there’s no space-age “monster” to be found in this sci-fi classic. Instead the film crackles with reasonable, thoughtful, snappy dialogue and thinly-disguised homilies on the subject of cold war insanities.

It’s interesting that the film’s attention relies not on the cataclysmic events accidentally wrought by the United States and the Soviet Union. It dwells almost entirely on the fallout of such a disaster. In brief, the Soviets and the Americans have conducted – unbeknownst to one another - almost simultaneous thermo-nuclear tests at the Earth’s poles in Siberia and Antarctica, respectively. The resulting explosions are described by one journalist at London’s Daily Express newspaper as “the biggest jolt the earth has sustained since the ice age.” One result of these simultaneous explosions is a seismological shift, one that unleashes a succession of worldwide environmental disasters.

Things quickly go from bad to worse. Sunspots are initially blamed for causing all sorts of electrical interference in aero and navigational systems. This is soon followed by an unexplained early solar eclipse appearing in the sky above, and suddenly countries of the world are fighting off such ravaging natural disasters as tsunamis, floods, fires, and droughts. Temperatures reach as high as one hundred and forty-five degrees Fahrenheit in Texas and Mexico. In London, where most of this story plays out, a pea-soup thick mist rises from the Channel and blankets the city with a blinding fog reaching four stories high.

The story primarily unfolds - and twists - in the offices of London’s Daily Express newspaper where coverage is assigned to reporter Peter Stenning (Edward Judd). Stenning, on one level, is the usual cynical, jaded and hard-drinking journalist. He has been made so as the result of a failed marriage and an estranged relationship with his own son, whom he adores. He is soon smitten by pool secretary Jeannie (Janet Munro) and the two squabble as they try to get beyond the official and feeble government responses regarding the crisis. Something more dramatic and threatening is going on, and the reporter is determined to cobble together the story of what is actually happening. Both Judd and Munro are wonderful in their respective roles, as is Leo McKern’s “Bill Maguire,” a veteran reporter who remains Stenning’s one true friend throughout. The lovely Munro, who had only graduated from dopey, dream-teen roles in a trio of mid-1950s Disney productions to being menaced by The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye), is finally given a role with some gravitas. It’s one she handles skillfully, imbuing her character with professional nuance.

The screenplay pulls no punches, practically ensuring that unless a lasting détente between the two superpowers is worked out, a nuclear crisis will surely occur the future. Things actually get more desperate as the film spools on, the reporters learning that the duo nuclear-blast has caused a nutation – that is, a warbling of the earth’s poles. The earth’s axis has shifted a full eleven degrees – and this has caused the planet to hurtle into a doomsday trajectory towards the sun. Scientists estimate that the planet has four months to survive until everything and everyone on earth faces incineration. (Interestingly, this premise of the earth hurtling disastrously toward the sun was simultaneously featured in Rod Serling’s teleplay “The Midnight Sun,” an episode of The Twilight Zone, broadcast November 1961).

As The Day the Earth Caught Fire is as much a “disaster” flick as a science-fiction film, the production expenses to lens such catastrophes would have ballooned the budget to an unmanageable level. Guest wisely saves on the production budget by relying almost entirely on actual newsreel footage to document the onslaught of such natural disasters. Such newsreel realism contrasts somewhat with the film’s opening sequences, the frames artificially tinted in yellow to suggest the presence of the searing heat beating down upon London. Though Guest must rely on an unconvincing matte painting of a dry river bed that was once the mighty Thames, Harry Waxman’s photography of the eerily deserted thoroughfares surrounding Piccadilly Circus and Fleet Street more than make up for this image.

In 2020, the threat of nuclear annihilation is not as prevalent on one’s mind as it once had been during the unfortunate chessboard that was the cold war era. That doesn’t mean Guest’s film is not as relevant today. His film documents the sad - and not unexpected - doomsday mentalities of those who plan on irresponsibly partying and acting uncivilly to their own demise. In this age of Covid-19 and the viruses exposing of the existence of a legion of scientific naysayers, it’s easy to understand the mournful observation of one Daily Express reporter in the film who sighs, “People don’t care about the news until it becomes personal.”

This Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Day the Earth Caught Fire is presented here in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and 1920x1080p with a monaural DTS sound and removable English sub-titles. The set also includes a generous set of bonus features which includes not one but two separate audio commentaries: one by the film’s original Co-Writer/Producer/Director Val Guest, the second by film historian Richard Harland Smith. The set also features no fewer than four original television spots and four radio spots originally used in promotion as well as the film’s theatrical trailer. Additional trailers include those for The Quatermass Xperiment and The Earth Dies Screaming.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

By Hank Reineke

There are times I wish my failing memory could serve me better, and here’s one example. I have a vague memory of staying up one night – circa 1980, I guess - to catch Roger Moore on one of those late night talk-shows. I was a huge James Bond fan and, as such, always desperate to mine any news, no matter how trivial, on any upcoming oo7 adventure. This was, of course, in the pre-internet era when insider information was relatively scarce outside of a morsel or two shared in fanzine or with a subscription to Variety. (As an aside, today I often wish there was less information available when a film is still in still production). In any event, don’t recall if Moore shared any information that night on the next scheduled Bond opus For Your Eyes Only (1981). I do clearly recall him discussing Andrew V. McLaglen’s ffolkes (better known in the United Kingdom, where the film was originally released, as North Sea Hijack).

In this new suspense-thriller Moore shared he would co-star with actors James Mason and Anthony Perkins. That night Moore attempted a small joke, first noting – factually - that the film was based on a Jack Davies novel titled Esther, Ruth and Jennifer. He explained that Universal had – perhaps understandably - balked on putting the film out under that title. This original title was, to be fair, a film publicist’s nightmare. The former Saint reasoned (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Could anyone imagine the promotional posters and newspaper advertisements: “Roger Moore, James Mason and Anthony Perkins in Esther, Ruth and Jennifer?” Well, Moore’s joke got a laugh that night, anyway. Decades later Moore would recall in his memoir that Universal actually balked as they thought the original Davies title sounded “too biblical.” Moore, never one to waste a punchline, would recall in his memoir, “I’ve yet to come across a Jennifer in the Bible.”

Whether you prefer the title ffolkes or North Sea Hijack, the story was, as discussed, based on the Davies’ novel Esther, Ruth and Jennifer (W.H. Allen, 1979, UK). Davies was actually somewhat new to novel writing, though his earlier novel involving terrorism, Paper Tiger (W.H. Allen, 1974, UK) was subsequently turned into a film in 1975 film starring David Niven and Toshiro Mifune. Davies seems to have turned to the craft of writing novels in the latter years of his life, though he had been steadily employed as a writer during most of his 80 years. He had churned out dozens upon dozens of screenplays from the mid-1930s through the very end of the 1960s and even a bit beyond that. As a child I was already familiar with two of the slapstick comedies he co-penned, though I certainly wasn’t aware of his contributions at the time. But we of a certain age will certainly recall with fondness Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965) (for which Davies and co-writer Ken Annakin would receive Academy Award nominations) and Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies (1969).

Brought onto the project to direct the ffolkes project was Andrew V. McLaglen who too boasted an impressive resume of directorial duties (having already steered a dizzying amount of television westerns and contributing to such touchstone dramas as Perry Mason). He had grown up immersed in the ways of Hollywood’s film industry. His father, Victor McLaglen, was a celebrated feature film actor, having long been a favorite casting choice for the great John Ford. Indeed, McLaglen, the elder, would go on to win the “Best Actor in a Leading Role” Oscar for Ford’s 1935 film The Informer. McLaglen, the son, would learn nearly every aspect of the trade from an early age, starting out as an actor but finding himself more comfortable on the other side of the camera - often working as a director’s assistant or principal director. Though he had been especially involved in television work in the 1950s through 1965, he decided to try his hand at feature filmmaking. He did so for a decade or more with mostly modest to mixed success.

He returned to television work in the mid-1970s until 1977 when he signed on to direct a number of internationally financed features which would include the three films for which he is probably best remembered, at least among devotees of action films: The Wild Geese (1978), ffolkes (1980) and The Sea Wolves (1980). This trio of old-school filmmaking would, not coincidentally, feature a number of aging Hollywood stars. These were the actors who were no longer the hottest of commodities at the box office but were still well-respected and loved by generations of filmgoers: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Stewart Granger, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, and Gregory Peck to name a few. The connecting thread to all three of these films was, of course, Roger Moore whose big-screen career had re-blossomed since the 1972 announcement of his being cast as the new James Bond.

Moore’s Rufus Excalibur ffolkes was the antithesis to the womanizing character he was usually tasked to play. An ex-Navy man, the often pompous – and bearded - ffolkes resided in a small castle just off the coast of Scotland, (Ireland, in reality). It was there he would exhaustively train a small hand-chosen band of elite commandos – dubbed “ffolkes fusiliers” – in the art of counter-terrorism. The hard scotch whiskey-drinking ffolkes professed a distinct chauvinistic distaste for woman (there’s an offhanded reference such animosity was the result of a failed marriage). He only expressed warmth, kindness and tenderness to his pet cats to whom he was doting and devoted. He also puzzled several colleagues – as it’s so out of character – when he would, on occasion, pull out a needlework canvas that he allowed he’d been working on for some “seventeen years.” When questioned about his unusual hobby, he coldly responded in his usual misanthropic manner, “It helps me to think… providing people don’t talk to me.”

His services are reluctantly activated when the British government are informed that a band of terrorists, disguised as members of the international press, have taken control of the Esther, a Norwegian supply ship charged with ferrying parts to two deep-sea ports-of-call: the drilling rig Ruth, and the production platform Jennifer, the latter platform of which sits in the North Sea and produces 300,000 barrels of oil for the UK per year. When the Esther reaches its destinations, the terrorists subsequently send in a stealth scuba team to plant limpet mines on the bases of both Ruth and Jennifer. The group’s unhinged leader, Lou Kramer, played with convincing, unpredictable mania by Anthony Perkins, is demanding the government pay him – within twenty-four hours - a ransom of 25 million GBP in five different currencies to not go through with the detonation. The terrorist has assessed that such destruction would bring the economy to the brink of ruin, cause an environmental catastrophe, and in doing so take the lives of some seven hundred men working on the platforms.

“FRANCE’S ANSWER TO BOND”

By Raymond Benson

Way back in 1911, French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre created a super-villain who became a worldwide phenomenon in literature, comics, and film—Fantômas, a master of disguise, thief, killer, and head of his own network of criminals. The two authors wrote 32 books featuring the character, and then Allain alone continued with 11 more. There was a serial of silent films made in France beginning with Fantômas (1913, directed by Louis Feuillade and starring René Navarre). Over the last century, more films, comics, books, and television series were produced, leading up to the hugely popular reboot of the character in the 1960s.

After the success of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), the French studio Gaumont quickly got into the act of making their own answer to what was becoming a phenomenon. Once From Russia with Love (1963) proved that 007 wasn’t a one-shot wonder, director André Hunebelle and writers Jean Halain and Pierre Foucaud plowed ahead with the first of what would become three of France’s biggest box office hits. Significantly, the creators took a more humorous approach to the material, creating a send-up of the Bond pictures while inventing their own special world of espionage and crime. It was if a 007 film of the 60s had been directed by Blake Edwards.

The filmmakers especially struck gold with the casting choices, actors who would remain in their roles for all three pictures—

Jean Marais, the handsome and renowned sex symbol from French art house movies (and more) plays Fantômas, usually wearing a blue skintight mask and delivering a signature slow, evil, but genuinely amused laugh—but Marais also plays the “hero” of the movies, Jérôme Fandor, who in the trilogy is a rather different character from previous iterations. Here, Fandor is a journalist who is constantly in pursuit of Fantômas and the spectacular stories about the arch villain for his newspaper. Never mind that Fandor also has the prowess, physicality, and know-how of a James Bond—he can fight, rappel walls, create fanciful disguises as well as his nemesis, and so on.

Of special note is the casting of Louis De Funès as police Commissaire Juve, who has also made it his life’s mission to capture Fantômas. Juve is inept and bumbling and, in a way, France’s answer to The Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau. While Funès had made many films prior to the Fantômas trilogy, the actor suddenly shot into the stratosphere of popularity and became one of the country’s top comedic stars. His energetic, frustrated, and explosive portrayal of Juve steals the show in all three movies—he is very, very funny.

Thirdly, the female foil for everyone in the stories is gorgeous Mylène Demongeot as Hélène Gurn, a photographer for Fandor’s newspaper and the journalist’s girlfriend. She’s smart, sophisticated, and sexy, and the writers manage to find important plot points for her in all three pictures. Jacques Dynam also appears in the trilogy as L’inspecteur Bertrand, Juve’s right hand man, who is just an incompetent as his boss and the source for much of Juve’s exasperations. There are other regulars, such as Robert Dalban as Fandor’s superior at the paper, but it is these four actors that we come to know and love over the course of the trilogy.

Fantômas appeared late in 1964, around the time that Goldfinger was hitting the screens. This picture establishes the relationships between all the characters and illustrates how the villain uses disguises (with very impressive makeup work on Marais) to pull off thefts, including impersonating both Fandor and Juve. The Bond influence is palpable. Fantômas’ lair resembles the Ken Adam sets of Dr. No, especially No’s dining room, and there is an abundance of the not-quite-sci-fi gee-whiz technology going on.

Fantômas Unleashed (Fantômas se déchaîne) was released in late 1965. This one especially capitalized on Bond for its use of gadgetry, which Juve hilariously introduces to the police force but eventually utilizes in an ingenious way in the climax of the film. In this picture, Fantômas is developing a weapon that will use telekinesis to get people to do his bidding. This reviewer found the second film of the series to be the most fun to watch, the funniest, and the most well-made of the bunch. The cinematography (all three films are in widescreen Scope) was very impressive, and the picture included what apparently was the first filmed Scope skydiving action scenes (shot by free fall camera operator Jean-Jacques Dubourg) that predates the pre-credits sequence of Moonraker by fourteen years! There is also a car that turns into a plane, antedating the one in The Man with the Golden Gun by nine years. Sacré bleu!

Fantômas Against Scotland Yard (Fantômas contre Scotland Yard) was released in early 1967 and is the wildest and weirdest of the threesome. Our intrepid heroes pursue Fantômas to Scotland and a “haunted” Scottish castle, where there are plenty of hijinks involving mediums and phony ghosts and such, as the villain attempts to extort millionaires to pay him “tax” or die. Still enjoyable and a hoot, it’s apparent that the filmmakers probably couldn’t have sustained the success had the series gone on. De Funès was receiving offers for bigger and better things, and Marais had other interests to pursue as well. While recasting and retooling the James Bond series was fine for Eon Productions, breaking up the band and bringing in new talent would not have been wise for Fantômas.

Kino Lorber’s new 2-disk Blu-ray package presents all three movies in excellent restorations (the second picture looks the best, and the third one, oddly, is grainier than the others). An audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas accompanies Fantômas, but there are no other supplements except for theatrical trailers of these and other Kino Lorber releases (such as the OSS-117 French films of the 60s).

The Fantômas Three Film Collection is a slice of French cinema history, a reflection of that crazy decade of the 1960s, and a treat for fans of the 007 and Pink Panther flicks. Recommended!

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY HANK REINEKE

Novelist Jay Richard Kennedy was, in his pre-Hollywood youth, known to friends simply as Samuel Richard Solomonick. Idealistic and having come of age in the midst of the U.S. depression, this native of Bronx, New York, would be caught up in the radical politics of the 1930s. In the years prior to the entry of the U.S. in World War II, Kennedy’s personal politics were mostly aligned with those of domestic left-wing groups, including the U.S. Communist Party. This marriage of shared ideals was primarily due to the CP’s seemingly uncompromising anti-fascist beliefs.

But Kennedy’s allegiance to the CP and to their professed socialist ideals came to an abrupt end in 1939 when the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin shocked internationalists and fellow travelers by doing the unthinkable - co-signing a non-aggression pact with Hitler’s Germany. That agreement, of course, was not long-lasting, broken when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. But Stalin’s pact with the Devil had irreparably shaken the faith of many left-wing activists who had previously – and naively - looked to the Soviet Union for political guidance.

Though Kennedy would abandon many tenets of the far left, he remained an unapologetic political liberal. He was particularly active in the civil rights movements of the 1960s. He worked alongside members of C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality) and professed solidarity with the Black Panther Party. In truth, this activist wasn’t doing so badly working within the framework of the capitalist system. In April 1966, the recording industry trade magazine Billboard would describe the creative Kennedy as a true renaissance man. He was, they explained, been “at various times a writer for films, radio producer, novelist, talent manager, songwriter, and music publisher.”

At age 54, Kennedy’s youthful radicalism, while never abandoned, was likely tempered when he was tapped by Frank Sinatra to head the record and music publishing wing of Sinatra Enterprises. Kennedy’s 1965 novel, Favor the Runner, had mixed politics and seamy stories of entertainment industry practices. The novel was praised by Sinatra as “the most entertaining and beautifully written novel about show business to be published in this or any season… a swinging, shattering, glorious experience.”

Though the film credits of The Chairman do note that the film was based on a Kennedy’s original novel, it would appear as though the book was only first published two months following the movie’s release in June 1969. It was also published in an odd manner, the mass-market Signet paperback movie-tie-in of August 1969 preceding the later 1970 hardcover by the New American Library/World Publishing. The hardcover version of the book was simultaneously published in the UK under the more intriguing title “The Most Dangerous Man in the World.” (This title was retained for the UK release of the film.)

As Kennedy had a life-long interest in contemporary international-politics, it’s not surprising that the ideas behind The Chairman would germinate from his passion. In 1966 Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of Party, would architect his infamous “Cultural Revolution,” fervently calling on students and workers to commit themselves to continual revolution. It was a disastrous experiment, an anti-intellectual call to arms. During a four year period, universities were shuttered and any semblance of a free press crushed, leaving only Mao’s cult-of-personality and famed “Little Red Book” to light the path to world revolutionary socialism. Professors, intellectuals, workers of mid-to-high station - even loyal Communist Party members - were publically criticized, chastised and jailed by Mao’s infamous Red Guard, derided by the faithful as “Capitalist Roaders.”

Interestingly, the term “Capitalist Roader” was invoked to disparage the new bourgeois class of post-revolutionary China, accusing former comrades of abuses of privilege and power. Such charges were – somewhat oddly - more anti-Soviet than anti-American in their hysteria. In the mid 1950s, Mao had soured on what he perceived as the U.S.S.R.’s softening anti-revolutionary rhetoric and other “anti-socialist” practices as détente. Mao deemed such peace offerings as misguided and “revisionist.” It was a moment in time when the Soviet Union and China were jockeying for position as the preeminent architects of the international socialist movement.

The opening credit sequence of J. Lee Thompson’s The Chairman perfectly captures the revolutionary zeal of Mao’s Red Guards. Playing beneath composer Jerry Goldsmith’s stirring score is a montage of folk art and propaganda poster images of China’s peasant class brandishing their “Little Red Books,” holding them triumphantly aloft in their left-hands or dutifully studying Mao’s enlightening text.

The film had been in the works for some time. In February 1967, the syndicated gossip columnist Earl Wilson teased: “Jay Richard Kennedy, Frank Sinatra’s story sleuth, is winding up the minutes of The Chairman, about Commie China, which Frank, Yul Brynner, and Spencer Tracy’ll have fun with in Hong Kong next fall.” None of this would actually happen, of course, though Frank Sinatra was strongly rumored to have been considered for the role of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Hathaway early on. The part eventually went to Gregory Peck. For his troubles, Peck would sign onto a contract that reportedly paid him $500,000 dollars and 10% of any profits. Peck had been working steadily, though his more recent films had not been overly successful at the box office. In 1969, the actor would appear in no fewer than four feature-length films of varying success. Though The Chairman, Peck’s first film with 20^th Century Fox in more than a decade, eventually brought in 2.5 million dollars, it was not a huge box-office success. The film would only rank as the forty-first highest-grossing film of 1969.

On July 17, 1968, Hollywood gossip columnist Joyce Haber reported that producer Arthur Jacobs was in London test-screening some of the “10,000 feet of film” the filmmaker had managed to photograph discreetly “behind the bamboo curtain for use in The Chairman.” Afterwards, the production crew was to move to Hong Kong for principal photography. Jacob’s first choice to helm the feature was the British director Peter Yates. Yates was a natural choice for this espionage film, having previously worked on such ITV television series as The Saint with Roger Moore and Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan. Yates had recently – and easily - made the transition to feature films, beginning with Robbery (1967) but scoring big-time with Bullitt (1968) featuring Steve McQueen.

Jacob’s talks with Yates eventually stalled, perhaps due to the success of the latter film which might have made the director too hot – or too expensive - a property to sign on to The Chairman. Jacobs then offered the directorial job to another Brit, the equally talented J. Lee Thompson. Thompson was a natural choice. He had already worked with Gregory Peck on The Guns of Navarone (1961, for which he would receive a “Best Director” nomination by the Academy), Cape Fear (1962), and the all-star cast assembled in search of Mackenna’s Gold (1969).

In The Chairman, Gregory Peck portrays John Hathaway, an American currently residing in England and lecturing at a London university. He is contacted by Shelby, an American military attaché, who along with a Russian diplomat, and a British RAF officer, press him into accepting an industrial espionage assignment, code name Minotaur. It seems the Red Chinese have developed a ground-breaking agricultural enzyme that allows for crops to grow in usually unfriendly environments. With such ground breaking technology, the allies are afraid the world’s power balance will accordingly tilt. They are afraid that the poorest nations of the third world would sidle to the side of their Peking benefactors.

The Chinese have already expressed interest in having Hathaway lend his scientific expertise to their breakthrough. Though they possess the secret formula, they have thus far been unable to produce this enzyme in sufficient quantities. As few Americans are welcomed to Peking, the calculating Shelby wants Hathaway to accept the invitation of the Reds. He’s not to help out as they wish, of course, but will only be sent east long enough to steal their secret. The scientist refuses until the U.S. President himself calls, urging Hathaway to accept as the mission has been deemed as being of “urgent and terrific importance.”

Hathaway relents and agrees to have a “Q-23 transmitter” surgically inserted as a mastoid sinus canal implant. While Hathaway is told the implant has a satellite monitored tracking radius of one hundred and ten miles and can even monitor changes in his physiology, he is not informed the device also houses a “coil of explosive wire” which the military can remotely detonate should the mission go wrong. Arriving in China in the midst of the Cultural Revolution - already warily surveilled by his cautious and suspicious Chinese hosts - things, quite understandably, go wrong rather quickly.

While a very entertaining and old fashioned Cold War thriller, The Chairman does suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. It’s first positioned as a serious film involving a chess game of competing ideologies and geo-political espionage. But it soon loses such sober prestige when it occasionally dresses as a pastiche of a more outlandish James Bond adventure. In many respects the film is less interesting as the controversies that would surround its production. Principal photography on The Chairman was scheduled from August 26^th through December 3^rd, 1968. Most of the film’s interior scenes were shot without incident on the soundstages of Pinewood Studios, with the windy and rugged cliff sides of Scotland doubling as those of western Mongolia.

The real troubles began when, following a series of location shoots in Taiwan, the cast and crew were due to arrive in Hong Kong on Saturday, November 30, 1968. The company’s Hong Kong schedule was unceremoniously scrapped when, on Wednesday the 27^th, the New York Times reported the “British colonial government, reacting to Communist protests, announced today that it had forbidden an American film unit to shoot several sequences here of the movie The Chairman.” The leftist Wen Wei Pao and other Communist newspapers were at the forefront of cancellation of the film unit’s business in Hong Kong. The newssheets all published editorials decrying the project as a “conspiracy of the British and American imperialists,” an “insult to Chairman Mao,” and a “serious provocation against the 700 million Chinese people.”

Interestingly, there was not a lot of support for the production team in Hong Kong’s non-Communist mainstream press either. Beginning In the spring of 1967, Hong Kong had been wracked with nearly eight months of serious violence – bombings, assassinations, and street riots – following a series of hit-and-run confrontations between police and Communist agitators in the wake of a labor dispute. The resulting chaos and property damage had wearied many of the 8.5 million people living in Hong Kong. They were less interested in engaging in a free-speech battle, opting instead for an uneasy peace. To complicate matters further, a British-based journalist for Reuters was concurrently being held under house arrest in Peking, the capitol of mainland China. The reporter’s detention was seen by most observers as Peking’s retaliatory tactic for what they accused was Hong Kong’s “unjustified persecution of Communist reporters.”

BY MARK CERULLI

Fifty years after his one remarkable turn as Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby returns to the fertile ground of international espionage in Passport to Oblivion, a new audio thriller by the UK’s Spiteful Puppet Company, based on James Leasor‘s highly successful novel of the same name.

Lazenby plays Jason Love, a quiet country doctor with a VERY adventurous WWII past. But when MI6 needs his help, Love can’t refuse the call in this thriller that’s set in 1964. (David Niven played Dr. Love on the big screen in the 1966 feature film Where the Spies Are.)

As Lazenby says, “What’s interesting about this character is he’s a reluctant spy rather than a Double-O-Agent. Oh, and he’s Australian. I reckon I can play Australian rather well!”

The all-star cast also includes Glynis Barber, Nickolas Grace, Michael Brandon and Terence Stamp – a lineup that even impressed the former 007, who said, “I’ve been surrounded by a pretty amazing cast, who it will be a pleasure working with.”

As the first actor to take on one of cinema’s most iconic roles after Sean Connery moved on, Passport to Oblivion marks another Lazenby first – “It will be interesting to step into the world of audio and declare it another first for me, making my debut in that discipline.“

And you can pre-order the limited-edition 2-Disc set, due for release on 29 November 2019, here:

https://spitefulpuppet.com/product/passport-to-oblivion-2-disc-set/

Spiteful Puppet has the option to the 9 other Jason Love novels, so there’s a very good chance this spy story won’t be a one-off for George Lazenby. Or as the star puts it, “Maybe I’ll do more than one this time?”

You can follow Lazenby’s adventures on screen and off at his dedicated website, https://www.georgelazenbyofficial.com/, as well as on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgelazenbyofficial

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgelazenbyofficial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lazenbyofficial

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The Warner Archive has released the 1966 spy spoof "The Glass Bottom Boat" starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor, who had teamed for "Do Not Disturb" the year before. Everyone was riding the James Bond-inspired mania for espionage flicks and Day and director Frank Tashlin came up with a winner. The action takes place entirely in and around Catalina Island, California. Day plays Jennifer Nelson, a widow who recently started a job at a NASA facility where she works as a tour guide. She also moonlights by donning a mermaid costume and swims beneath the glass bottom boat tour boat owned and operated by her father Axel Nordstrom (Arthur Godfrey), much to the delight of the customers. One day, her costume gets snagged on the line of Bruce Templeton (Rod Taylor), who is deep sea fishing. As in most films of this type, their initial encounter is unfriendly, which is a necessary ingredient for the couple to inevitably become lovers. When Jennifer is guiding a tour at NASA she is stunned to learn that Bruce is a world-acclaimed scientist who has developed a top-secret gravity simulation device that the government has hailed as a major step forward in the Cold War space race against the Soviets. Bruce hires Jennifer as his personal secretary despite her lack of credentials just so he can attempt to seduce her. She is immediately smitten by him but keeps his advances at arm's length even when she is agog at at his state-of-the-art mansion that is equipped with inventions of the future that seemed fantastic in 1966. (They include a forerunner of the microwave oven and a self-guided vacuum cleaning device.) Things start to heat up when an abundance of other characters are introduced who are either allied in keeping the formula for Bruce's invention (known as "Gizmo") secret or who are serving as enemy agents trying to steal it.

"The Glass Bottom Boat" afforded Doris Day one of her best roles from films of the 1960s. Once again, she disproved the myth that she only played over-aged virgins. True, she doesn't jump at the chance to bed Bruce, even though he's a millionaire who looks exactly like Rod Taylor. But it's made clear that she just wants to ensure he isn't going to treat her as a one night stand. By today's standards, this would be commended as a sign of female empowerment. When she does get ready to move their relationship to the next level, in true family comedy style, fate keeps intervening with a series of interruptions. Day plays well alongside Rod Taylor and they exhibit genuine screen chemistry. The multi-talented Taylor was always woefully underrated as an actor even though the native Australian could portray American, British and Irish characters with equal conviction. Most of the belly laughs are provided by the sterling assembly of great comedic character actors of the day. Dick Martin is Bruce's perpetually horny business partner who is willing to sell his friend down the river in his desperate attempts to bed Jennifer. There's also the great Edward Andrews as a pompous U.S. army general who is reduced to the level of fawning schoolboy in Jennifer's presence. The inimitable John McGiver turns up as a NASA paper-pusher who is enlisted in an ill-fated spy assignment and Alice Pearce (in her last screen role before succumbing to cancer) and George Tobias blatantly recreate their popular roles as the nosy neighbors from the sitcom "Bewitched" to very funny effect. Even Eric Fleming (recently fired as the lead actor in TV's "Rawhide) turns up in a rare comedic role as a double agent and acquits himself surprisingly well. Arthur Godfrey is equally funny as Jennifer's crusty-but-lovable dad and one can only ponder why this icon of American TV and radio eschewed pursuing a career on the big screen. The most inspired bits come from Dom DeLuise as a bumbling spy and Paul Lynde as a snarky security man obsessed with revealing Jennifer is really a Soviet agent. The script by Everett Freeman is racier than most Doris Day vehicles and even includes some gay-themed humor. (Martin and Andrews end up in bed together and Lynde gets to dress in drag.) If all that isn't enough, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameo by a tuxedo-clad Robert Vaughn set to the theme from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.". (This was shrewd marketing on the part of MGM. When word leaked out about Vaughn's appearances, countless "U.N.C.L.E." fans went to see the movie for that reason alone. I know. As a 9 year-old fan of the show, I was among them, persuading my dad to take me to see "The Glass Bottom Boat" at a drive-in.)

Although the film isn't a musical, Doris Day does get to do some crooning, singing a love song ("Soft as the Starlight") that was co-written years before by Joe Lubin and Curly Howard of the Three Stooges! This song is reworked into the catchy title theme for the movie that will have you humming it to the point it becomes annoying. (Think "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"). Day also does a duet of the song with Arthur Godfrey and slips in a few bars from her signature song "Que Sera Sera". She also gets to indulge in a fantasy sequence in which she appears as a scantily-clad Mata Hari.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray ports over all the extras from the previous DVD release. There are three vintage featurettes. One has Godfrey providing narration about the Catalina locations in a droll, humorous fashion. Day takes us on a tour of a NASA facility in another and there is a third featurette in which a young model tours the MGM back lot, which will afford retro movie lovers some glimpses of very familiar sets from movie and TV productions. There is also a trailer and a vintage cartoon. The transfer is right up to the Archive's generally high standards but the trailer could stand a facelift. 

I won't make the case that "The Glass Bottom Boat" is a comedy classic. It isn't. There's plenty of corn and gags that don't come off and some of the rear and front screen projection effects are crude even for 1966. But the film made me laugh quite a bit back then and revisiting it through this Blu-ray, I found that it still does. Highly recommended. 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE

BY DOUG OSWALD

Ben Kingsley is an escaped Nazi living in Argentina in “Operation Finale” available on Blu-ray from Universal. Kingley is not just any escaped Nazi, but Adolph Eichmann, the highest ranking Nazi to escape justice after World War II. The so called “Architect of the Final Solution” has been living a quiet life in Argentina for 15 years when Israeli intelligence, Mosaad, receive information from blind German ex pat Lothar Hermann (Peter Strauss) and they set a plan in motion to kidnap Eichmann and bring him to Israel to stand trial.

The German community in Argentina is filled with former Nazis who gather for reunions and discuss their mutual hatred of Jews. Lothar’s daughter, Sylvia Hermann (Haley Lu Richardson), meets a boy named Klaus (Joe Alwyn) at the cinema. He invites her to a German party where she is appalled by the overt anti-Semitism. Lothar gets word to the Israelis that Eichmann may be the father of the boy his daughter is seeing. The Mosaad encourage Sylvia to visit the Eichmann home where she meets Vera (Greta Scacchi) and the children as well as Adolph Eichmann himself who is living under an assumed name and working as a mid-level manager. A Mossad agent confirms it is Adolph Eichmann, but they will not know for certain until they capture and interrogate him.

Mosaad agent Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) is part of the team assigned to develop a precision kidnapping and escape plan. As we know from history, the Israelis succeed in getting Eichmann in May 1960 and bringing him to Israel for a public trial. The agents held Eichmann at a safe house for nine days in order to confirm his identity and smuggled him out of Argentina on an El Al flight. The movie depicts the tense moments when the flight plan was waiting final approval until the flight was released for departure.

The days at the safe house are interesting as Eichmann was kept isolated, blindfolded and handcuffed to his bed. His interrogators finally get him to confirm his identity when the head of the Mosaad, Isser Harel (Lior Raz), purposely misreads Eichmann’s SS service number several times until Eichmann’s perfectionism gets the better of him and he corrects Harel. Eichmann states his desire to set the record straight on his role in the Third Reich as little more than a bureaucrat ensuring the trains ran on schedule. The fact that the trains contained human beings who were being transported to their deaths was of no concern to Eichmann and he took no responsibility for his role in the murder of millions under Nazi Germany.

The film was directed by the multi-talented actor, writer and producer Chris Weitz, best known for his work as director and writer on “About a Boy” and “The Golden Compass” as well as the writer of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” The movie does a nice job dramatizing this post-script to World War II and the defeat of Nazi Germany. Oscar Isaac is very good as agent Malkin, especially his interrogation scenes with Kingsley. I do have a problem with Kingsley playing the younger Eichmann in flashback scenes during World War II which make him look like a wax-work figure. The movie ends with Eichmann departing Argentina followed by brief scenes of him on trial. The film includes a coda running prior to the end credits including film of the actual trial and profiles of the agents involved with Eichmann’s capture.

BY HANK REINEKE

Scream and Scream Again (1970) is the second of three films horror maestro Vincent Price would sign onto in his late-stage years of working for American-International Pictures. This film, a very peculiar one by many standards, was bracketed by two other British horrors for A.I.P., The Oblong Box (1969) and Cry of the Banshee (1970). All three films of these films were helmed by director Gordon Hessler, who also doubled as producer of these first and third efforts.

From 1960 through 1964 A.I.P. enjoyed great success with Roger Corman’s cycle of stylistic Gothic horrors. These films were similar in many ways, often featuring a tortured and/or haunted Vincent Price in Corman’s somewhat liberal adaptations of stories by the likes of literary horror masters Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. The successes of these films were mostly in the studio’s rearview mirror by 1965. With the ticket-buying public’s interest in Gothic horror and costume period pieces clearly on the wane, A.I.P. was doing their best to exploit the talent and drawing power of their most bankable contract star. Depending on who you ask, some argue that this trio of British A.I.P. film projects (1960-1970) ministered by Hessler and starring Price were satisfying only to a base of faithful devotees.

Both Hessler’s The Oblong Box and Cry of the Banshee – not to mention Michael Reeve’s controversial Witchfinder General (1968) – were unrelentingly grim in the presentation of their subject matter. They were all very good films, mind you – some consider the Reeves’ film a masterpiece - but their dark and serious themes and depressing atmospherics simply did not allow Price to bring his trademark mix of Devilish charm and menace to his assigned characters. It wasn’t until the releases of The Abominable Dr. Phibes (A.I.P., 1971), Dr. Phibes Rises Again (A.I.P., 1972) and Theatre of Blood (United Artists, 1973), that the ship would be righted, all three capitalizing on the veteran actor’s talent as a colorfully self-mocking, blood-letting, and black-humored eccentric.

In Scream and Scream Again, a modern day sci-fi thriller rather than a traditional horror, Price again was burdened again in a humorless role as “Dr. Browning.” The not-so-good doctor is, in fact, a mad scientist engaged in the creation of super-human “composites,” whiling away his days in the laboratory of his stately manor house. Price is, sadly, wasted in a role that could have been played by anyone. Then again none of this film’s top billed players – Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing – were given much to do. If Price’s is the principal star of this film, it’s simply by default. He merely enjoys the most screen time of the three principals listed… but a bit more on that later.

Dr. Browning is not a terribly interesting character; he’s too thinly drawn by screenwriter Christopher Wicking and we don’t see much of him until the film’s closing minutes. The best of Vincent Price’s on-screen characterizations are the ones where he seems relishing the role. One is never really certain if Price even has any idea what is going on around him in Scream and Scream Again. Director Hessler would more or less confirm this in subsequent interviews, confiding to one writer that he thought Price was not particularly fond of the three films he made under his direction. In the case of Scream and Scream Again, Hessler believed the actor “didn’t know what he was doing in the picture; he thought it was all weird and strange.”

If this was the case, Price was not alone in his confusion. Co-star Christopher Lee (who tragically only shares a brief single scene with Price) expressed similar sentiments. As Lee’s on screen time in this ninety-four minute film (U.S. version) lasts little more than eight minutes or so in total, he could more easily dismiss the film’s shortfalls as he wasn’t burdened with the responsibility of carrying the picture. And for a film that teamed the three-biggest horror movie icons of the 1960s and 1970s for the first of only two full-length features together, it’s something of a tragedy that poor Peter Cushing’s role is little more than a cameo. The scourge of missed opportunity is ever-present throughout Hessler’s opus.

Scream and Scream Again is credited as having been based on Peter Saxon’s 1966 sci-fi-novel The Disorientated Man. But, as with seemingly everything relating to this is film, even that’s vague. In fact there was no actual Peter Saxon; the name was a general pseudonym given to a stable of authors over-used and underpaid by a certain British publisher of mass market sci-fi paperbacks. As I’ve never read Saxon’s novel, I cannot say with any certainty if Hessler’s film is in any form a faithful, cinematic reproduction of the source material. I can attest that the director most assuredly captured the spirit of the book’s title. In the final analysis, it could be argued that Hessler’s multiple, shifting and confusing scenarios in Scream and Scream Again produced The Disorientated Viewer.

I won’t attempt to explain the film’s storyline here. In short Hessler’s mosaic narrative is a series of seemingly incongruous episodes bewilderingly stitched together. These threads do come together, somewhat un-satisfyingly, in the end. It was an unusual approach in telling this complex story cinematically but, in my personal opinion, only occasionally successful. On the other hand, the film is never dull, just confusing in its structure. It can also be argued that for a film masquerading as a police case or espionage caper, there’s no palpable sense of tension building to a satisfying climax. Nonetheless, many of the film’s scenes are memorable in standalone instances. Not particularly suspenseful, but memorable.

The mysterious villains of this film are adorned in both business suits and ersatz-Nazi regalia. It’s never overtly explained if these schemers are jack-booted Communists or Fascists, but they’re most certainly totalitarians. The bad guys are seemingly based out of some unnamed East European nation. The Stasi-like military helmets, the term “Comrade,” and a well- guarded checkpoint suggest a hostile regime resembling that of Communist East Germany. But their interest in scientifically developing an army of super-humans is… well, straight from the Nazi playbook.

Disappointingly, and as referenced earlier, the better part of the film does not prominently feature Price, Lee, or Cushing despite their shared star-billing. The film mostly follows the violent doings (and ensuing police investigation) of a renegade composite; a handsome but murderous, synthetic flesh-eating Cyborg who drives a nifty red sports coupe. His modus operandi in choosing victims is by befriending them at “The Busted Pot,” a swinging and noisy London nightclub. To tell more is to give things away. Should you require a more detailed synopsis there are plenty of erudite and thoughtful treatises on Scream and Scream Again published in books, magazines, and on-line.

BY HANK REINEKE

It would be inaccurate to dismiss Peter Cheyney’s “Lemmy Caution” as just one more James Bond knock-off. Caution was, from the outset, more of a hardboiled gumshoe than super spy. The character also pre-dates the creation of Ian Fleming’s James Bond, with Cheney having churned out ten Lemmy Caution thrillers from 1936 to 1945. James Bond’s creator was certainly conversant with Cheyney’s work in the spy/thriller canon. Fleming’s friend and biographer John Pearson would recount Fleming’s excitement when his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), was described by one critic as a “sort of Peter Cheyney de luxe.” One review enthusiastically anointed first-time novelist Fleming as “the Peter Cheyney of the carriage trade.”

Such favorable comparisons stoked Fleming’s confidence in his craft. Cheyney’s novels were great sellers in their days, reportedly selling some 1,500,000 copies at peak. Today, with the passing of time, his books are at best-dimly remembered. Much like the novels of Sax Rohmer, they are recalled mostly by bookish types interested in the time-capsule pulp mysteries of the 1930s and 40s. Cheyney’s novels – similarly to unfortunate passages and caricatures present in several of Fleming’s own aging works, to be fair – would be considered too politically incorrect in this day to appeal to most readers of contemporary mysteries.

Following the success of the publication of From Russia with Love - and the attendant hosanna’s of critical acclaim - Fleming would distance himself from the Cheyney comparisons. In a letter to his publisher Jonathan Cape, Fleming expressed a degree of wariness to the interest of the Daily Express in developing James Bond as a character in a proposed comic-strip series. While acknowledging the potential exploitative and financial windfalls of the venture, Fleming argued his champagne enterprise might somehow be devalued by his creation’s appearance in a series of cartoon strips: “A certain cachet attaches to the present operation and there is a danger that if stripped we shall descend into the Peter Cheyney class.” Fleming wasn’t alone in his newly found disapproval of Cheyney’s déclassé novels. Famed mystery writer Raymond Chandler too would dismiss Cheyney as an author having written only “one good book.”

The film adaptations of Cheyney’s “Lemmy Caution” featuring American actor Eddie Constantine would also pre-date EON’s James Bond series by nine years. The first Lemmy Caution film La môme vert-de-gris was released in France in May of 1953, one month following the publication of Fleming’s first James Bond novel that April. If Sean Connery’s tenure as James Bond was occasionally fractious and mostly disowned by the actor, Constantine was more accepting of his typecast as Lemmy Caution. It was a character of whom the American actor was rarely dismissive of.

(Hedison with Roger Moore on the set of Live and Let Die, 1973)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

David Hedison has died at age 92. The Rhode Island native started in theater, studying at the famed Actor's Studio under the guidance of Lee Strasberg and made an impression off-Broadway in the 1950s. Hedison originally was billed under his birth name as "Al Hedison" but would later change it to David. He found himself in demand for television and feature film. He played the role of a scientist who is transformed into a deadly creature in the 1958 cult classic "The Fly" in which Hedison co-starred with Vincent Price. Hedison began to guest star on many popular TV series before landing his first series, starring in "Five Fingers", an espionage show that ran from 1959-60. His best-known role was on Irwin Allen's sci-fi series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", which ran from 1964-68 and saw Hedison starring with Richard Basehart. He would return to episodic TV as a regular on the popular soap opera "The Young and the Restless" in 2004. Hedison never quite made the front ranks of leading men in feature films but he did appear in many diverse movies. Among them: "The Greatest Story Ever Told", "The Enemy Below" and "The Lost World". When Roger Moore inherited the role of James Bond in 1972, he arranged to have his old friend Hedison (who had appeared with him in an episode of "The Saint") to play the prominent role of 007's C.I.A. colleague Felix Leiter. Hedison would resume the role opposite Timothy Dalton's Bond in the 1989 film "Licence to Kill". He also appeared with Moore in the 1979 adventure film "ffolkes" (aka "North Sea Hijack".).

For more click here.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"The Deadly Affair", directed by Sidney Lumet, is the 1967 film based on John Le Carre's 1961 novel "Call for the Dead". Le Carre was riding high during the Bond-inspired Bond phenomenon of the 1960s. Unlike the surrealistic world of 007, Le Carre's books formed the basis for gritty and gloomy espionage stories that were steeped in realism and cynicism. The film adaptation of Le Carre's "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" had been released the previous year to great acclaim. Lumet, who made "The Deadly Affair" for his own production company, rounded up top flight British talent including screenwriter Paul Dehn, who had written the film adaptation of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and  co-wrote the screenplay for "Goldfinger".

As with all Le Carre film adaptations, the plot is complex to the point of being confusing. There are many intriguing characters of dubious allegiance to one another, a scarcity of violence in favor of people talking in back alleys and living rooms and a desire to paint the world of Cold War espionage as a tawdry environment in which the good guys are indistinguishable from the bad guys. James Mason plays Charles Dobbs, a veteran British Intelligence agent who takes a leisurely walk through St. James Park with a civil servant, Fennan (Robert Flemyng),who is aspiring to get a promotion to the Foreign Office. Dobbs informs him that there is a bit of concern about his security clearance because an anonymous person has tipped off MI6 through a letter that states Fennan's may have a dual allegiance to the communists. Dobbs considers the matter somewhat trivial and tries to assure Fennan that his name will probably be cleared. The men part on seemingly upbeat terms but the next day Dobbs is told by his superiors that Fennan has committed suicide. Dobbs is flabbergasted and insists the man showed no signs of instability. Nevertheless, Dobbs feels he is being made to be the fall guy for failing to see obvious weaknesses in Fennan's personality. That's not his only problem. Domestically, his young wife Ann (Harriett Andersson) is causing him great distress by taking on numerous lovers under his very nose. (Dobbs is even instructed to phone her before he comes home in case she has a bed mate in their house.) Dobbs is humiliated at playing the role of cuckold but can't bring himself to divorce Ann- even when it is revealed that his old friend Dieter (Maximilian Schell), a German Intelligence agent who is visiting London, has also been seduced by her.

Dobbs smells a rat at MI6 and doubts Fennan committed suicide. He starts his own investigation into who killed him and why. An interview with Fennan's widow (Simone Signoret) only makes matters more complex when he begins to suspect she might be a Soviet agent. Dobbs enlists the only two colleagues he can trust: agent Bill Appleby (Kenneth Haigh) and the semi-retired agent Mendel (Harry Andrews). The trio find that as they get closer to the truth, the trail is getting more dangerous with numerous murders occurring and their own lives in danger.

To bring Le Carre's novel to the screen, certain recurring characters from his books, such as legendary spy George Smiley, had to have their names changed because Paramount had the rights to "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the characters appeared in the novel and screen version. Paul Dehn's screenplay is confusing but never boring and by the end you can pretty much figure out what is going on even if some of the peripheral characters' significance remains a bit vague. Sidney Lumet was the ultimate "actor's director" and could always be counted on to get top-rate performances from his cast. "The Deadly Game" is no exception, with James Mason in fine form as a man who has been disgraced professionally and personally but who still has enough pride to attempt to clear his name. Lumet hired two fine actors who appeared in his 1965 masterwork "The Hill"- Harry Andrews and Roy Kinnear- to reunite for this production and they have a great scene together. (Andrews must be one of the most under-rated actors of all time.) Maximilian Schell only appears sporadically but his role is pivotal and he is typically impressive, as is Simone Signoret as a woman of doubtful allegiance. Harriett Andersson, whose proficiency in English was limited, is occasionally difficult to understand (she was reportedly partially dubbed because of this). She accepted the role at the last minute when Candice Bergen had to back out of the film. She is suitably sultry and her character is quite interesting, professing to love her husband even as she revels in submitting him to sexual humiliation. The only humor in the film is provided by a very amusing Lynn Redgrave in a small role as Virgin Bumpus (!), an inept set designer for a Shakespearean theater production. Quincy Jones provides a fine jazz score that fits in well with the lounge music craze of the era and Freddie Young's cinematography depicts London as an ominous, rain-spattered place that adds to the chilling atmosphere of any Le Carre story.

"The Deadly Affair" was highly acclaimed in Britain, having been nominated for five BAFTA awards but it was largely overlooked amidst the tidal wave of other spy movies from the time period. It's a first-rate thriller and Mill Creek Entertainment has included it with five other Cold War films in a collection that features "Man on a String", "Otley", "Hammerhead", "The Executioner" and "A Dandy in Aspic". The DVD transfer is excellent but unfortunately there are no bonus features. Highly recommended.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Twilight Time has released the 1965 WWII espionage thriller "Morituri" as a region-free, limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray edition. The film represents yet another gem from Marlon Brando's "lost decade" of  films that were bookended by the massive failure of "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1962 and his triumphant starring role in "The Godfather" ten years later. During those years, Brando's films were largely disparaged by critics and ignored by his former fans. Ironically, many of these productions were very good indeed and Brando often gave some of the most intriguing performances of his career. "Morituri" paired Brando with Yul Brynner, another Hollywood legend with a penchant for being difficult to work with. Brynner was known for making demands of producers that rivaled that of the King of Siam while Brando engaged in a penchant for making last minute changes to the script that often put him at odds with the cast and crew. Such was the case on this film, which is a moody, B&W production that is by necessity claustrophobic in nature as virtually all of the action takes place aboard a ship. The film opens with Robert Crain (Brando) being paid a visit by a British Intelligence office, Colonel Statter (Trevor Howard, who reconciled with Brando after griping about his work habits on "Mutiny on the Bounty"). Crain is posing as a Swiss national and living out the war in India,  leading a carefree life of leisure. He also happens to be a munitions expert and Statter reveals that the Brits are aware that Crain is actually living under an assumed name, having deserted the German SS a couple of years before. He offers Crain a proposition: agree to go on a possible suicide mission or be placed in the hands of German forces who are eager to have him in custody in return for the release of a high-profile British prisoner. Crain's mission is to pose as an SS man and board a German freighter that is carrying a precious load of valuable raw materials to occupied France. The Allies want to capture the goods or at least destroy them before they can reach the Germans. Crain is to try to somehow disable the explosive devices hidden within the ship that are designed to scuttle the craft in the event of capture, thus allowing the Allies to intercept the vessel and take the cargo. Left with a Hobson's Choice, Crain reluctantly agrees.

The captain of the freighter is Mueller (Brynner), a career sailor whose reputation has been tarnished due to a scandal. The German high command have given him another chance for redemption by ordering him to deliver the goods to France by navigating through waters that are filled with Allied submarines on the prowl. Mueller considers himself to be a loyal German (his son is an esteemed naval captain) but he balks at the brutality of the Nazi regime. Thinking Crain is actually an SS officer, he takes an immediate dislike to him and suspects he is there to spy on his movements for the German brass. Crain immediately sets out to disable the scuttling systems on the ship but finding the hidden boxes proves to be an arduous and dangerous task. Meanwhile, an unexpected boarding by two German naval officers results in their expressing skepticism about Crain's real identity. With his mission and life in mortal danger, Crain attempts to rally disaffected crew members to take control of the ship in alliance with some American prisoners who are also being transported.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The daffy 1969 British spy comedy "Otley" features Tom Courtenay in an amusing performance as a young slacker in mod London who gets caught up in a Kafkaesque espionage adventure. He's a homeless drifter and grifter who makes the rounds looking for a place to spend the night after the landlady evicts him for not paying the rent. (But she does so only after they have a night in bed.) Otley attends a party where he meets Imogen (Romy Schneider), a beautiful but mysterious young woman. He also runs into an old friend, Lambert (Edward Hardwicke), who owes Otley a favor. He reluctantly allows him to spend the night on his couch. However, while Otley is blissfully sleeping, Lambert is assassinated in his kitchen. Otley then inexplicably wakes up in a field adjacent to Gatwick Airport, his mind numb and devoid of any idea about what happened or how he got there. This is the beginning of his bizarre odyssey that sees him kidnapped by various spies on both sides but he's never sure who is really working for who. All of them are convinced that he is a spy himself and that he has information about the murder of Lambert. The witty screenplay by director Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, based on a novel by Martin Waddell, takes the old Hitchcock concept of presenting a protagonist who is an everyday man swept up in deadly events that he can't convince anyone that he knows nothing about. You can also add a healthy dose of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" in that he is never sure which side is holding him captive at any given time and he is constantly being pressed to provide information. The character of Imogene keeps appearing and disappearing with no indication as to whether she is friend or foe.

The film becomes so mind-boggling and confusing that at a certain point it's best to just go with the joke and sit back and enjoy this madcap romp, deftly enacted by Courtenay as a bewildered man who simply wants someone to explain who is who and what is going on. Ultimately, he ends up getting drafted into an MI5 mission- but are his bosses really with MI5? There are some wonderful location shots of London and its surroundings including a rather eerie scene in Notthing Hill Gate tube station that is inexplicably vacant and adorned with posters of movies from the era ("Romeo and Juliet", "Thoroughly Modern Millie", "The Charge of the Light Brigade"). The cast is peppered with marvelous character actors including Leonard Rossiter as a benign and comforting cold-blooded killer, Alan Badel, James Villiers, Fiona Lewis, Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey and Geoffrey Blaydon. There's also a wacky score by Stanley Myers and impressive cinematography by Austin Dempster. In all, "Otley" is one of the better spy spoofs of the 1960s.

Mill Creek Entertainment has included "Otley" with five other Cold War films in a collection that features "Man on a String", "The Deadly Affair", "Hammerhead", "The Executioner" and "A Dandy in Aspic". The DVD transfer is excellent but unfortunately there are no bonus features.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The 1965 WWII espionage thriller "Morituri" starring Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner is yet another worthy film in the Brando canon that was woefully underrated upon its initial release. One of the tail end of major studio B&W releases, the film is now available for order from Twilight Time as a Blu-ray limited edition of 3,000 units. It contains an isolated  Jerry Goldsmith score track, a collector's booklet with liner notes by Julie Kirgo and trailers for the film. Twilight Time's Mike Finnegan provides an interesting analysis of the film titled "A Grand Hotel on a Cargo Ship". Click here to read.

"Morituri" will ship on May 21 but you can pre-order from Twilight Time as of today by clicking here.

“EXPRESSIONISTIC RELICS”

By Raymond Benson

F. W. Murnau was one of the leading filmmakers of the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s, most well-known for the first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula—Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922). He also spent a little time in Hollywood in the late silent era, responsible for one of Tinsel Town’s great silent pictures, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), which won the only Academy Award ever given for “Unique and Artistic Picture.”

German Expressionism is mostly defined by a stylized visual conceit that distorts reality for an emotional effect. Highly-contrasted light and shadow play large roles in the mode, as well as sharp, angular lines of design. The works of, say, Tim Burton, could be said to be influenced by the school of German Expressionism. Most of the films noir made in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s also harked back to the movement.

Kino Video has released a double feature Blu-ray containing two lesser-known pictures made by Murnau in Germany—The Haunted Castle from 1921, which is more of a whodunnit melodrama than anything resembling the paranormal or supernatural, and The Finances of the Grand Duke from 1924, a light comedy with some espionage mixed in. The first concerns a revenge tale with some secret identities and guilt-ridden angst. The second contains a plot that might be too complicated for its own good, dealing with a likable dictator who wants to save a tiny country from its creditors.

Neither film is anything to write home about—they are both rather staid, slow, and, frankly, dull.

What is astonishing, though, is Kino Video’s miraculous restoration in 1920x1080p, which presents the movies in such a pristine and gorgeous transfer that it’s difficult to believe these pictures were made nearly a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, there are no supplements or audio commentaries on the disk.

Nevertheless, silent film and Murnau enthusiasts may very well find something here to savor. Studying old movies embodies a little bit of time travel. There are good lessons contained within that inform us of the manners, social sensibilities, and artistic trends of the day. So little of this period’s work survives, and Kino should be applauded for making it available.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

Gilbert on the set of the 1977 James Bond blockbuster The Spy Who Loved Me with production designer Ken Adam and producer Albert R. Broccoli at Pinewood Studios, London.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Cinema Retro mourns the news of director/producer Lewis Gilbert's death in London at age 97. Gilbert was a good friend to our magazine and gave what is probably his last interview to our correspondent Matthew Field several years ago. It ran in three consecutive issues of Cinema Retro (#'s18, 19 and 20). 

Gilbert had a remarkable career that began early in life as a music hall performer and an actor in small roles in British films. During WWII he served in the RAF, producing and directing documentaries for the military. His first feature film as director was "The Little Ballerina", released in 1947. Gilbert toiled through directing low-budget, often undistinguished films, honing his craft along the way. He earned praise for his 1958 WWII-themed espionage film "Carve Her Name with Pride" and had a major hit in the WWII genre with the release of the 1960 film "Sink the Bismarck!" As Gilbert's clout in the industry rose, so, too did his production budgets. He directed the 1962 adventure film "Damn the Defiant!" (UK title: "H.M.S. Defiant") starring Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde followed by the 1964 Cold War thriller "The 7th Dawn" starring William Holden. He rose to even greater prominence by producing and directing the 1966 anti-Establshment comedy "Alfie", a major early hit for Michael Caine that was accorded great critical praise and numerous Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Gilbert proved to be eclectic in his abilities to move between genres. He was a seemingly unlikely choice to direct the 1967 James Bond epic "You Only Live Twice" starring Sean Connery, which was set in Japan, but the film was an enormous boxoffice success. Ten years later Gilbert returned to the Bond genre to direct Roger Moore in two back-to-back 007 films, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker". Both films were major international hits. Gilbert had also directed the 1970 big-budget screen adaptation of Harold Robbins' bestseller "The Adventurers", but it was a troubled production that flopped with critics and the public. In 1971 he directed a popular, small-budget teenage love story, "Friends" which featured original songs by Elton John early in his career. Four years later he directed the film's sequel, "Paul and Michelle".  In 1980 he directed the sophisticated comedy "Educating Rita" which won Oscar nominations for Michael Caine and Julie Walters, followed by "Shirley Valentine" in 1989. 

For more, click here.

A LOOK AT 2017 FILMS NOMINATED FOR PROMINENT OSCARS

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water illustrates just how far the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has evolved when it comes to recognizing major achievements in film genres that were once generally ignored when it came to Oscar recognition. The once-gentrified Academy would occasionally bow to popular sentiments and nominate blockbusters like The Exorcist, Jaws and The Exorcist for major awards but no one ever truly expected them to win. More often than not, horror and sci-fi-oriented movies were generally recognized in the categories of special effects to the exclusion of recognition for picture, director, screenplay, etc. As a new generation that was weaned on the artistic merits of these genres came of age, the Academy began to reflect their values and at last the artists who created great works in these areas were afforded attention. The Shape of Water is a cinematic oddity that is admittedly an acquired taste, so it speaks well for the Academy that del Toro has been nominated for Best Director and Original Screenplay (with Victoria Taylor) as well as  Best Picture. 

If you haven't seen it, do so, because the greatest asset of the movie is that you never know in what direction the script will veer. The film is set in the early 1960s with Sally Hawkins as the protagonist, Elisa, a cleaning lady who is employed at a top secret government facility that is dedicated to Cold War espionage research. Elisa lives a lonely existence and she is suffering from a severe handicap: she is a mute. She shares a modest apartment above an old world movie theater with Giles (Richard Jenkins), an aging gay graphic designer and artist who is living on the financial edge, having lost full time employment and trying to subsist on a decreasing number of freelance assignments. He and Elisa are the closest of friends and he acts as combination parental figure and intellectual companion who has learned to communicate with her with ease. Elisa's life takes a dramatic turn when she discovers that government agents have brought an extraordinary find into the facility: a creature that resembles a human in form but which has gills and lives underwater in a river in South America. The creature, which we will refer to as a merman (no, his name isn't Ethel), is being examined and routinely tortured by short-sighted government agents led by Richard Strickland (a mesmerizing Michael Shannon), a mean-spirited who quickly decides the creature has no real value in terms of helping to win the Cold War and advocates having him destroyed. Elisa secretly makes contact with the merman and takes pity on him, sneaking him food and helping to ease his pain. She realizes he is an intelligent creature who has human qualities and vulnerabilities. With his execution imminent, she organizes a daring rescue for the merman, assisted by Giles and her best friend and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer). This unlikely trio of misfits orchestrates the plan in a manner that is both ingenious, amusing and very suspenseful. By now, Elisa is madly in love with the merman and thereby introduces perhaps the first inter-species romance seen in a major film. Call it Creature from the Black Lagoon by way of Hunchback of Notre Dame. I won't divulge much more except to say the performances are truly superb and Hawkins, Jenkins and Spencer have all been justifiably nominated for Oscars along with Alexandre Desplat for his impressive score. 

There are a few nitpicks I can make, primarily that del Guillermo throws in some superfluous sex scenes. We know Elisa is a lonely soul, but is it necessary to demonstrate that by having scenes of her masturbating in the bathtub? Similarly, a scene of Strickland playing tyrannical husband to his obedient, attractive wife includes an out-of-left-field tidbit in which she plops out one of her breasts, thus leading to a scene in which he makes love to her in a manner that most women would consider to be sexual assault. Not to be a prude, but such gimmickry seems reek of crass commercialism rather than ingredients that add measurably to the story, 

The Shape of Water is a moving and genuinely beguiling love story unlike anything the Academy would have considered honoring had it emerged decades ago. It's not for everyone but even those who don't warm to the premise will admire the outstanding performances and production values.  

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Athena Video has released "The Rise of the Nazi Party", a three disc DVD set comprised of all ten episodes from the acclaimed British documentary series that was telecast in the USA under the title "Nazis: Evolution of Evil". The fascination with Adolf Hitler and his criminal regime seems to only increase with time. While the documentaries cover well-worn turf, what makes this presentation notable is that the narrative concentrates on the inner workings of the Nazi party and the interaction between its key figures. The series uses dramatic recreations of major events interwoven with an abundance of actual newsreel footage and photographs. Clearly, a sizable sum had been spent on production values. The series interweaves contemporary footage of German locations with the historical films. While the notion is somewhat innovative,  the shifting between old and new scenes can be somewhat distracting. That's about the only gripe, however. "The Rise of the Nazi Party" is a fascinating look at how a group of misfits, scoundrels and sadists rose to dominate one of the world's great nations. The series begins with the aftermath of WWI and correctly points out that the greed of the victorious Allied nations ironically helped nurture the rise of right wing extremism practiced by Hitler. The Allies insisted that German pay reparations for the war and the notorious Treaty of Versailles placed such onerous financial burdens on the German people that it risked turning the entire nation into a Third World country. The staggering debt was seen as a cash cow, particularly by Britain and France, the Allied countries that had suffered the most from the conflict. (Incredibly, Germany only recently made the final payments on its war debt.) Because WWI was such a senseless conflict caused by so many vague factors, the German people resented having the entire blame placed on them. As the financial situation in Germany worsened, hyperinflation devalued the German mark to the point where a loaf of bread could cost millions. Simultaneously, as the documentary points out, the Germans suffered another indignity when France sent armed legions to Germany's industrial region to occupy the territory and appropriate the revenues from factories. It was amid such a period of crisis that Adolf Hitler first became known. A decorated hero in the war, Hitler resented the military brass that had signed the Treaty of Versailles and in some warped fashion believed that a cabal of influential Jews were behind the strategy. His inexplicable but rabid anti-Semitism would characterize the entire Nazi movement. Even in its dying days, Hitler had the Nazi regime allocate enormous resources to continue his attempts to exterminate an entire people. 

The documentary traces Hitler's first association with fringe groups who were calling for an overthrow of the weak Weimar Republic, a democratic government that had been imposed by the Allies but which had lost the confidence of the German people. Within a short time, the charismatic Hitler becomes the leader of the dissidents and moves to unite the fractions among them into the National Socialist Party. His first attempt to take the nation in a violent coup fails and he is imprisoned. However, behind bars he turns himself into a martyr to his cause by writing his influential memoir, Mein Kampf. When he emerges from jail, Hitler realizes the way to power is to bide his time and go through legal means. The Nazis grow in numbers and in strength but the everyday German doesn't believe they can ever win national offices. They were wrong. During the pivotal election cycle, the average German is lethargic and stays home from the polls while Hitler's fanatical followers turn out in droves. The Nazis become a major factor in the German political landscape. Ultimately, Hitler is appointed Chancellor under the aging but beloved President, von Hindenburg. Knowing that taking action against this national icon would backfire, he bides his time until von Hinderburg's death. He then appoints himself supreme leader of the nation, citing the need for a strong man with extraordinary powers to take on the many crisis facing Germany. The German reichstag all but votes themselves out of any meaningful power beyond being a body of "rubber-stampers" for Hitler's legislation. Within a short period of time, Hitler makes good on his promises. He authorizes massive public work projects that not only wipe out unemployment but also result in the nation having the most modern road system in the world. Worker's wages are raised and the average person's living standards rise appreciably. Hitler becomes a beloved icon. However, the dark side of this success is Hitler's calculated ability to split the population into "us" and "them", the latter being "undesirable" minorities, especially the Jews. He passes the Nuremberg Laws that effectively deprive German Jews of all civil rights- and it only gets worse from there. By rewarding Aryans with a good lifestyle, he correctly gambles that the average German won't do much to protest the persecution of the Jews. By the time he is committing wholesale genocide, many Germans are repulsed but are powerless to stop him. Hitler's obsession for expanding Germany's borders into Czechoslovakia and Austria are achieved without firing a shot, despite having blatantly violated the Treaty of Versailles. However, he miscalculates the Allies with his invasion of Poland, as evidenced by France and England declaring war. Hitler's fate is ultimately sealed when he makes the ill-advised decision to declare war on America in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He is now fighting an industrial giant with seemingly unlimited resources.  This factor, coupled with his betrayal of the Soviet Union, it is only a matter of time before Germany is defeated.

The documentary also explores Hitler's love life (or lack thereof) and his obsession with his half-niece, who ultimately committed suicide, possibly because of his dictatorial control over her life. The show also delves into the rise of Hitler's top right hand men: Himmler, Goering, Goebbels and others. Among them is Ernst Rohm, an early supporter of Hitler who built his private body guard, the Brownshirts, into a major military force that virtually equaled the German army. In a sign of the backbiting that would characterize the Nazi brass, Hitler is manipulated by others into believing that  Rohm is planning a coup. Thus, Hitler personally leads a raiding party on Rohm and his top men at a vacation resort where they are holding a conference. (It was actually a ruse for Rohm and his homosexual lovers to engage in sexual activities that Hitler felt were appalling for a true Aryan to participate in.) He orders his old friend to be executed. It would serve as a boiler plate for the inner rivalries and paranoia among his confidants that would dominate is reign as Fuhrer. (In the dying days of the Reich, both Himmler and Goering would betray Hitler by each presenting himself as the new Fuhrer and hoping to sue for peace.) 

The purpose of the series is not to present the history of WWII. Certain major elements are covered in detail: the Holocaust,  the disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union, the attempted assassinations against Hitler, the manipulation of Chamberlain at Munich, etc. However, other key events such as the invasion of Poland,  the Hitler/Stalin pact and the fall of France are barely mentioned. The episodes are mostly concerned with the psyche of the Nazi brass. All of it is set to the pitch perfect narration of Joseph Kloska, who provides the necessary tone of gravitas. (Inexcusably, none of the actors who are seen throughout the entire series merit even a mention in the end credits.) There are the usual "talking heads" who provide analysis of the subject matter and these scholars are particularly interesting throughout. The final episode, "Aftermath", is one of the most compelling as it explores the breakout of the Cold War in the immediate aftermath of Germany's defeat.  The Nuremberg Trials are covered in considerable detail and the episode bluntly addresses the decision by the United States to recruit notorious Nazi war criminals and whitewash their pasts in order to benefit from the technological knowledge these people had in the areas of science and espionage. (Wernher von Braun, who developed the first rocket technology, had the blood of thousands of slave laborers on his hands yet his indisputably built America's space program.)

The entire series is compelling throughout and will provide new perspectives for even the most devout WWII scholars. The set includes a booklet that features biographies of key Nazis along with a useful timeline of their rise and fall from power.

If there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, it's that when people in democracies are too lethargic to vote or become involved in the political process, the worst elements of society may one day seize power.  

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON AND TO VIEW PROMOTIONAL VIDEO 

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Kino Lorber has released the 1968 espionage thriller "The High Commissioner" on Blu-ray. The film, which was titled "Nobody Runs Forever" in it's UK release, is significant in that it paired two charismatic leading men- Rod Taylor and Christopher Plummer- in a low-key but well-scripted tale that sustains interest throughout. The film is based on John Cleary's novel and presents some offbeat and refreshing elements for a spy movie made at the height of the James Bond-inspired phenomenon. Most refreshingly, the two protagonists are Australians, a rare instance in which heroes from "Down Under" are showcased in a non-Australian movie of the era. Taylor plays Scobie Malone, a tough-as-nails police officer in the Northern Territory who is content to fulfill his job of keeping order in the Outback and arresting small-time trouble makers. He is reluctantly assigned to travel to London for an unusual mission: to bring back the Australian High Commissioner, Sir James Quentin (Plummer) and have him stand trial on charges that he murdered his first wife many years before. When Scobie arrives in London, he realizes that the timing of his mission could not be more sensitive: Quentin is hosting an important diplomatic conference with African leaders in the hope of finalizing a major treaty that could affect the balance of power in the African continent. The world is watching as Quentin tries to iron out details to make the treaty a reality. When Scobie informs him of his assignment, Quentin seems curiously nonplussed about the nature of the charges against him- but he is quite concerned by the fact that his sudden absence from the conference would almost certainly cause the talks to collapse. He imposes on Scobie to give him a few additional days to sort out the final details on the treaty. Scobie takes an instant liking to Quentin and his adoring wife Sheila (Lilli Palmer), and agrees with the request. Scobie's cover story to Sheila is that he is simply acting as a bodyguard to Quentin, but she seems to suspect his real motive is more nefarious. When an attempt is made on Quentin's life, Scobie is instrumental in thwarting it. The two men ultimately bond as friends and Scobie begins to suspect that Quentin could not have possibly murdered his first wife. Why then is the Australian government convinced he had? More pressing is solving the problem of who is behind the assassination attempt on Quentin and who in his inner circle is a mole. It appears a shadowy organization feels threatened by the chances of the treaty succeeding- and wants to thwart it by killing Quentin. 

"The High Commissioner" is a film that plays best if not examined in detail because there are plenty of loosely-developed plot points. It's never quite explained why Scobie was taken all the way from the Outback for this particular assignment. Surely the government could have found one equally capable law enforcement officer who was a bit more accessible. It also becomes clear that the plot to thwart the conference is just the "MacGuffin" in that it's never thoroughly explained who the bad guys are or why they feel threatened by Quentin's peace conference. Nor do we learn precisely what is being negotiated at the conference. What we do have are some intriguing characters including two of the most glamorous actresses of the period: Daliah Lavi, in full dangerous femme fatale mode as a seductive enemy agent and Camilla Sparv as Quentin's loyal secretary who holds a not-so-secret crush on him. While on assignment, Scobie allows himself to be seduced by Lavi (who wouldn't?) but remains chaste with Sparvi's character, so as to not impede his professional standing with the Quentins. The film moves along at a brisk pace under the direction of Ralph Thomas, who had recently helmed two other spy flicks- "Deadlier Than the Male" and "Agent 8 3/4" (aka "Hot Enough for June". )  Thomas showcases Taylor's rugged good looks by giving him Bondian opportunities to wear tuxedos and engage in plenty of mayhem. The film's climax takes place at Wimbledon, where the villains intend to assassinate Quentin by using a gun placed inside a television camera. The murder charges against Quentin come to a head in an emotional discussion Scobie has with Sheila, though her explanation for his innocence seems rather weak. The film builds to a fiery and explosive final scene that is undermined only shoddy special effects. 

The best aspect of "The High Commissioner" is that it provides a good role for Rod Taylor, one of the most charismatic leading men of the 1960s. Taylor was usually cast as American or British characters because he had mastered both accents, but here he is allowed to talk like a native Australian, which, in fact, he was. Equally at home in posh cocktail parties or flailing away at the bad guys, Taylor was the epitome of the charming tough guy. Plummer also gets an interesting role though the character is never fully developed and plays second-fiddle to Taylor's. Nevertheless, he embellishes the much-besieged Quentin with quiet dignity even when narrowly dodging bombs and bullets.  Lilli Palmer is especially poignant as Quentin's ever-faithful but long-suffering wife who is harboring a terrible secret that figures in the explosive climax. There is also an impressive supporting cast that includes Clive Revill as a butler whose allegiance may be in question, Calvin Lockhart as a handsome international man of mystery and an unrecognizable, black-haired Derren Nesbitt as a villain. The lush locations begin in Australia before moving to London, where director Thomas capitalizes on them. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios. 

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is up to the company's usual fine standards and includes the original trailer. Recommended.  

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In the wake of their success co-starring in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers realized they had captured lightning in a bottle with the teaming of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. The studio quickly paired the two character actors again in the Bogart films Casablanca and Passage to Marseilles. In 1944, Warners decided to give Greenstreet and Lorre what amounted to starring roles in the thriller The Mask of Dimitrios, based on the Eric Ambler novel and set in pre-WWII Europe. (Lorre received fourth billing in the film behind Greenstreet, Zachary Scott and Faye Emerson, but in terms of screen time, he is the star of the movie.) Lorre plays Cornelius Leyden, a mild mannered crime novelist who is visiting Istanbul, where he becomes intrigued by the murder of a man named Dimitrios, who was a local legend in terms of his criminal activities. Dimitrios's body has washed ashore, as shows evidence that he has been stabbed to death. Sensing a good story in the murder, Leyden pursues the man's background and finds out he was known throughout Europe for his audacious crimes. Leyden decides to track down those who interacted with Dimitrios, including jilted partner and abandoned girlfriends. All agree that he was a charismatic cad who worked his way up from petty crimes in Istanbul to being an integral part of Europe's pre-war espionage activities. Leyden is followed in his footsteps by Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), an affable man of mystery who is also obsessed with tracking down Dimitrios's acquaintances and activities leading up to the man's death. After a rocky introduction at the point of Peters' gun, the two men forge an alliance and travel through Turkey, Yuguoslavia and finally Paris in their quest. Along the way, they determine that Dimitrios is very much alive and well, having used another man's murder as an opportunity to fake his own death. Peters is determined to use that information to blackmail Dimitrios and thus ensure acquiring enough money to afford a comfortable retirement. 

Much of the story is told in flashbacks as various individuals relate their experiences with Dimitrios to Leyden and Peters. As played by Zachary Scott, Dimitrios lives up to his legend as handsome womanizer and persuasive businessman, though each of his friends and partners ends up being abruptly jilted in some manner, as Dimitrios moves on to his next scam. (Jack Warner had high hopes for Scott becoming the studio's next great leading man, but his interest in promoting Scott seemed to wane and the actor never really acquired the stardom that his role in this film would seem to have assured.) Leyden and Peters also meet Irana, an entertainer in a squalid Istanbul cafe, who relates how Dimitrios became her lover and ensured that her fortunes improved. However, when she loaned him her savings, he abandoned her, never to be heard from again. Although nursing a broken heart and bearing resentment for the man on one level, she admits she still carries a torch and his abandonment of her left her in a depressed state of mind that still continues. (Apparently, once you've experienced Dimitrios, no other man comes to close as a lover.) As Leyden and Peters close in on their prey, the stakes become higher - and they realize their lives are very much at risk.

The Mask of Dimitrios, ably directed by Jean Negulesco, is a joy to watch. It doesn't have the artistic pretensions of The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, but it is a thoroughly entertaining movie. Lorre and Greenstreet's "Mutt and Jeff" act continues to present them as essentially the same character in film after film, but that doesn't in any way compromise the delight of watching these two eccentric actors at the peak of their careers. The supporting performances are also equally delightful and the film bares all the rich artistic hallmarks of a WB release from the era. 

The Warner Archive has released the film as a burn-to-order DVD. The transfer is excellent. An original trailer is included that features specially-filmed footage of Greenstreet and Lorre addressing the audience. The DVD is region free.  

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE

BY HANK REINEKE

As one might expect from any 1960’s James Bond pastiche, an assortment of cool spy gadgetry is on display in Franklin Adreon’s Dimension 5 (1966): microchips secreted in the rear compartment of a Bulova wristwatch, a poison dart firing pen, an exploding briefcase, and a cool bullet-firing point-and-shoot 35mm camera. If that’s not enough – and with possible exception of the invisible car from Die Another Day (2002) - Dimension 5 offers us one of the more ridiculous and dubious items found in any secret agent arsenal… a “time-convertor” belt.

We’re first introduced to this device during the film’s mildly exciting pre-credits sequence. In the first few minutes we’re treated to what one expects from a nifty ‘60s spy thriller: a bit of a car chase, a surprising punch-to-the mouth of a double-crossing Asian villainess and a swooping helicopter rescue. What we do not anticipate is agent Justin Power’s (Jeffrey Hunter) unusual means of escape from the clutches of his pursuers. If trapped by enemy spies, agent Powers’ need only activate the power ring on his index finger. The ring sends a signal to the time-convertor waist belt and instantaneously whisks him from harm’s way. This is, alas, a bit of a cop-out; a too convenient plot device that – literally - sweeps the good guys from the forces of evil with little suspense or effort. If it’s any consolation, we later learn that over-use of the time-convertor belt carries an element of danger. There is one chance in one hundred that the user might be transported into the past or future with no possibility of a return to the present.

Having recently watched director Adreon’s sleepy and unsatisfying Cyborg 2087, I must admit approaching Dimension 5 with low expectation. Happily, my fear was unfounded as the team at United Pictures Corp. managed to cobble together a reasonably viable 60s’ spy thriller chock full of the genre’s stock accoutrements. Screenplay duties were handled by Arthur C. Pierce, more noted for his contributions to science-fiction films than espionage tales. Pierce’s “original” screenplay borrows freely from the James Bond EON playbook, especially that of Goldfinger (1964) which was then a recent blockbuster Though the set designs of art director Paul Sylos for Cyborg 2087 were not only unimaginative but practically non-existent, he manages to redeem himself on Dimension 5. His martini-cool design of the multi-level combination office-control room-wet bar at Espionage, Inc. is a perfect example of 60’s lounge elegance. Cinematographer Alan Stensvold’s work here is also measurably glossier than demonstrated in Cyborg 2087. Though Paul Dunlap’s score is serviceable, it’s not particularly memorable. His soundtrack features no musical cues or bravado fanfares worthy of James Bond’s John Barry or of Matt Helm Messrs. Bernstein, Montenegro or Schifrin.

In still another tip-of-the-hat to the cash cow Bond film formula, Dimension 5 offers us both an ersatz “M” (Donald Woods as “Kane”) and an ersatz “Q” (Jon Lormer as “the Professor”). This is alternate-universe, “bizarro world” Bond. If James Bond’s cover was that as an agent of Universal Exports, Justin Power’s converse cover is that of an associate of California Imports, Inc. There are some Playboy-era woeful, groan-producing double entendres sprinkled throughout. Boss Kane and agent Powers engage in a bit of locker room talk when the spy lustily describes female fellow agent Ki Ti Tsu (aka “Kitty”) (actress France Nuyen) as a “penetrating study.” Kane lasciviously concurs with his agent’s assessment and – obviously ignoring the parameters of Espionage, Inc. policies on sexual harassment – tells Powers to “school” his standoffish new partner on “a horizontal curve.” Wink, wink.

Powers and Kitty’s mission is to search out the feared and secretive underworld figure known alternately as both “Mr. B” and “Big Buddha.” “Mr. B” is, perhaps unsurprisingly, portrayed by none other than Harold Sakata, (yes, Oddjob himself), the iconic henchman to Gert Fröbe’s Goldfinger. “Mr. B” is, as explained, an unpleasant and unreasonable sort of fellow. His dossier claims him as the former head of Peking’s secret police as well as the leader of a sinister crime syndicate known throughout the underworld as the Dragon Organization. The Hong Kong office of the good guys suspects the Dragons are planning a major terrorist operation. It’s in this belief that they’re holding one person-of-interest in custody, the belligerent and uncooperative Mr. Chang (Gerald Jann). “Mr. B” is, perhaps, the ultimate Scrooge: we learn he’s threatening to ruin everyone’s favorite winter holiday by destroying all of Los Angeles via a Christmas Day Hydrogen Bomb attack. Just as Goldfinger smuggled in the components of two “atomic devices” into the U.S. via a series of couriers, so has Big Buddha brought in the various machineries to assemble his H-Bomb.

If Goldfinger’s scheme was to wreck the U.S. and world economies by radiating the gold supply of Fort Knox, Big Buddha’s scheme – described here as a “fantastic red plot” and also, not coincidentally, orchestrated by Chinese Communists – is a call for the removal of all Allied forces from Southeast Asia. Mr. B’s more political and personally less pocket-lining threat is not an empty one. His warehouse on a waterfront pier is already stockpiled with the necessary canisters of deadly Unranium-238, brought in undetected via a Japanese freighter and secreted in satchels of imported rice.

In an article in the Hollywood Reporter about the trend toward female action heroes, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli confirms that Eon Productions has finalized a deal with IM Global and Paramount to adapt the spy novel "The Rhythm Section"  by Mark Burnell for the screen. Blake Lively will star in the espionage adventure which Broccoli tried unsuccessfully to film for the last seven years. However, the sudden interest in action flicks with women in the lead roles finally made the project a reality. Reed Morano, director of "The Handmaid's Tale", will helm the film which will be slotted for a February 2019 release. Broccoli and her stepbrother and fellow producer Michael G. Wilson are simultaneously prepping the next James Bond film for release, also in 2019. It will mark Daniel Craig's final appearance in the role. For more click here. - Lee Pfeiffer

BY HANK REINEKE

Though heavyweights Columbia and Universal produced as many serials as Republic Pictures from 1929-1956, the latter studio is generally best known for its exciting sound-era chapter-plays.  Universal and the less widely known Mascot Pictures were in the game the earliest; both studios began releasing their sound serials in 1929. Mascot would only last six years or so. Universal – choosing to concentrate exclusively on the production of feature films – effectively got out of the serial business in 1946. Republic and Columbia hung on to the production of chapter-plays the longest; they released their final serials in 1955 and 1956, respectively.

Republic wasn’t only a serials factory. The studio was in the low budget feature filmmaking business as well, busily churning out a dizzying array of westerns, adventure pictures, and mysteries. They would test the box-office potentials of the horror film market during the 1940s with limited success. As a second-tier “Poverty Row” studio, Republic would enjoy a less distinguished track record in the horror film realm than, say, Monogram Pictures. The latter studio would occasionally tap the talents of such moonlighting film ghouls as Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, and Lionel Atwill. Dutifully exploiting the popular culture trends of the day, Republic would soon move into the production sci-fi serials beginning with King of the Rocket Men (1949). In the next five years the studio would knock out a number of similar themed serials with The Invisible Monster (1950), Flying Disc Man from Mars (1951), Radar Men from the Moon (1952), and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952).

Lee Sholem’s Tobor The Great (1954), now out on Blu Ray from Kino-Lorber Studio Classics, was one of Republic’s earliest non-serial feature films of the “Silver Age” of Sci-Fi. Though more of a timepiece curiosity than a great film, old-school sci-fi fans – at least those with long memories - will welcome Tobor The Great as a valuable addition to their private collection. The year 1954 was, to be sure, a good one for devotees of sci-fi cinema. Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea managed to garner the studio two Academy Awards. Universal unleashed The Creature from the Black Lagoon in glorious 3-D and, not to be outdone, Warner Bros. released a swarm of giant radioactive ants collectively known as Them! on the city of Los Angeles. Tobor The Great is not even remotely as entertaining nor well crafted as the three above mentioned films, but it’s arguably no better or worse than such other 1954 efforts as Devil Girl from Mars or Roger Corman’s Monster from the Ocean Floor.

It’s obvious that Republic’s target audience for Tobor The Great was the juvenile market. We’re introduced early on to Brian “Gadge” Roberts (Billy Chapin), a ten year old whiz kid who is a prodigal student of mathematics and the sciences. We soon learn that young Brian’s proclivities for the disciplines are at least partly inherited. The boy and his mother Janice (Karen Booth) have been living comfortably in the home of his maternal grandfather ever since the boy’s father had been killed while serving in Korea.

Gadge’s grandfather happens to be the kindly Professor Arnold Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes), a research scientist working for the C.I.F.C., an acronym for the Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission. The commission’s principal concern is with helping guarantee America’s front-runner status in space travel, rocketry, and guided missile launches. The professor, an expert in astrophysics and aerodynamics, studiously labors away in a secreted wine cellar repurposed as a modern subterranean experimental laboratory.

Writing in The Daily Beast, Ron Capshaw addresses a long-running rumor that Errol Flynn may have been a Nazi spy. The largely debunked theory, which still intrigues Hollywood historians, revolves around Flynn's friendship with a man who was a Nazi espionage agent in the pre-war years.  The two traveled together and considered themselves good friends. Letters written by Flynn were revealed to have contained anti-semitic statements and Flynn once insulted studio mogul Jack Warner in front on a film set by telling him that "We don't allow any Jews on the set". In one letter, Flynn even says that he wishes the United States had its own version of Hitler so that Jews could be taught a thing or two. By 1940, however, Flynn was routinely denouncing Naziism and when America entere the war the following year, Flynn even volunteered to work undercover as a U.S. espionage agent, though nothing came of the proposal. He also never saw his Nazi spy pal again after 1940 and began dismissing him as a "screwball". However, the U.S. government was still so concerned by the possibility that Flynn, too, was spying for Nazi Germany that they had him followed and investigated. For more click here. 

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES!

By Lee Pfeiffer

The release of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds has thrust Enzo G. Castellari, the director of the Italian WWII pic that inspired it, back into the spotlight. This has resulted in a re-examination of his work, which has been relegated to cult status outside of his native Italy. Severin Films, which is fast becoming a major source of first-class presentations of otherwise neglected films, is honoring Castellari with the U.S. home Blu-ray edition of the director's 1969 WWII adventure Eagles Over London. Even fans of Castellari's Inglorious Bastards (note the spelling difference for the Tarantino version), probably are unfamiliar with this ambitious, relatively big budget 1969 film that was a hit in Italy, but was virtually unseen in America or England. Thanks to Severin, and Tarantino, who continues to champion Castellari's work, the movie can finally be seen and judged by English-language audiences. The film is highly impressive on all levels and one realizes the frustration that Castellari must have felt in having his achievement virtually unseen outside of mainland Europe. 

BY DEAN BRIERLY

“It Takes a Thief,” the iconic adventure/espionage series that many consider Robert Wagner’s defining role, has had an interesting if somewhat checkered DVD release history. As reported in Cinema Retro back in 2010, the first digital presentation of Alexander Mundy’s nefarious exploits appeared in July of that year courtesy of the German company Polyband, which released all 16 season one episodes in a pair of three-disc sets, followed up with a four-disc set featuring 12 of the 26 season two episodes, but then inexplicably ended its release program. These Region 2 sets, which have English as well as German audio options, are still available at Amazon Germany.

In October 2010, Australia’s Madman Entertainment jumped into the fray, putting out the complete first season in a five-disc set, and subsequently issuing seasons two and three as seven-disc sets. These Region 4 sets are now out of print.

Meanwhile, American fans clamoring for a long-overdue Region 1 release finally had their wishes granted courtesy of the Canadian media distribution company Entertainment One, which packaged all 66 episodes, the full-length pilot film, plus video interviews with Wagner and writer-producer Glen A. Larson into an 18-disc box set that went on sale in November 2011. That set, unfortunately, is also no longer available.

Somehow, a world in which Al Mundy—still the epitome of glamor, sophistication and excitement—is no longer readily accessible to his countless fans just doesn’t seem right. However, “It Takes a Thief” fans who failed to nab one of the aforementioned DVD options have now been granted a reprieve, albeit from an unexpected quarter. Yep, the Germans have once again come to the rescue of this irreplaceable cultural touchstone. To which we can only say a heartfelt danke schön!

Fernsehjuwelen, a DVD label that specializes in “jewels of film & TV history,” has just released the complete series in a deluxe 21-disc Region 2 set that can be purchased through Amazon Germany. Comparable in most respects to the out-of-print Entertainment One box, this new set does raise the bar significantly in terms of image quality, at least for the season three episodes. The eOne set did right by the season one and two episodes, which were generally sharp and clear; but season three was problematic, with some episodes exhibiting a marked drop-off in sharpness and, worse, considerable color bleeding and ghosting. Important visual detail was sometimes lost, especially during nighttime or low-light scenes. This was frustrating, as many of the third season “It Takes a Thief” episodes were filmed in Italy, and the variable resolution detracted from the beautiful location photography.

No such issues arise with the Fernsehjuwelen discs. Each season three episode boasts excellent color balance and image clarity. This is the main improvement offered by “Ihr Auftritt, Al Mundy!”—the German title for the series that translates to: “Your Performance, Al Mundy!” This set includes the same video interviews of Wagner and Larson from the eOne set; an interview with Rainer Brandt, the German actor who dubbed Wagner in many of the episodes; and an extensive German-language booklet written by Oliver Bayan that features interviews he conducted with Wagner and co-star Malachi Throne in 2010. Unless you sprechen Deutsch, you’ll have to avail yourself of Google translation to read these brief but fascinating Q&As.

The Fernsehjuwelen box set, which houses all 21 discs in a sturdy multi-DVD case, is available through www.amazon.de for EUR 58.99, which works out to approximately US $63.43. Need I say that it’s a veritable steal?

(Note: to view this set, you will need a Region 2 or all-region DVD player.)  

Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti co-authored (with Louis Paul) the book "Femme Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" for McFarland publishers. The book has just been issued in a softcover edition, revised and updated. Here is Tom Lisanti's story behind the creation of the book. 

It was a long time coming, fifteen years in fact, but McFarland and Company finally released a soft cover edition of the very popular and well-received Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Film & Television, 1962-1973 by Louis Paul and myself. The book profiles 107 dazzling women (Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch, Dahlia Lavi, Carol Lynley, Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate, among them) who worked in the swinging sixties spy genre on the big and small screens. Some include interviews with these sexy spy gals. This new edition contains some profile revisions and updates and a few new photos.

The idea for this book was all Louis Paul’s. We worked together at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and became friends. Louis is an expert on European spy movies, giallos, thrillers, etc. from the sixties and seventies. He had a side video business and produced a fanzine called Blood Times. I had been interviewing sixties actresses for magazine articles and culled them for a book that was called Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema. While I was finishing it up, Louis suggested we do a book on sixties spy girls. There were books on just the Bond Girls but we thought we'd go beyond that to also include actresses from the Matt Helm, Derek Flint, and Euro spy movies. And we also decided to include actresses who worked in TV spy shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, The Avengers, It Takes a Thief , etc. At the last minute I pulled quotes from some of my interviewees on their spy films/TV shows destined for my first book and saved for Film Fatales.

Robert Vaughn and Donna Michelle in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature film "One Spy Too Many" (1966).

We felt that the book would reach a nice size audience because spy films have remained so popular due to James Bond. It is 2017 and they still are making Bond movies. It seems never ending and moviegoers just love the escapism. The affection for the 1960s Bond movies extends to the copycat films (Matt Helm, Derek Flint, Harry Palmer, Diabolik, etc.) and TV shows of the day. They all employed handsome debonair leading men, adventure, romance, diabolical villains, picturesque scenery, and some of the most beautiful actresses from Hollywood and Europe. The spy girls in particular remained popular because this genre gave them different type characters to play. A number of the actresses are exceptional and in some cases their characters are more memorable than the hero. In the book the roles are broken down into four distinct types: the helpful spy/secret agent/operative; the innocent caught up in the chicanery; the bad girl-turned-good; and the unrepentant villainess/femme fatale/assassin. This is why fans love their spy girls because of the varied facets found in this genre.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Felix Leiter, the CIA agent who assisted James Bond in both novels and on screen, is finally getting into the spotlight on his own via a new series of comic book adventures authorized by the Ian Fleming estate. The comics will be written by James Robinson with artwork by Aaron Campbell, both of whom have impressive credentials in the industry. The series will be published by Dynamite. Based on the preliminary artwork, this ain't your grandad's version of Felix Leiter. In the Bond films he tends to be as dapper and sophisticated as 007 himself but the comics will present Leiter as a freelance investigator who looks more "Miami Vice" than "Casino Royale". According to the publicity, Leiter will still be involved in the world of espionage. Bond fans have long griped about the character of Leiter not being used to his fullest potential on screen. Not helping matters has been the problem of inconsistency over the decades with a variety of actors taking on the role. Each played Leiter in an entirely different manner and bore no physical resemblance to the other actors. Only two actors have played the role more than once: David Hedison (in "Live and Let Die" and "Licence to Kill" and, more recently, Jeffrey Wright in "Casino Royale" and "Quantum Of Solace"). In the literary world, Leiter lost a leg to a shark in the novel "Live and Let Die"- a scene that was dramatized in the 1989 Bond flick "Licence to Kill". Leiter did not appear in any Bond movie again until the series was re-imagined with Daniel Craig in 2006 with "Casino Royale". When Wright took over the role, no reference was made to the shark incident. The character debuted on screen in the very first Bond movie, "Dr. No" in 1962. He was played by Jack Lord, who would go on to star in "Hawaii Five-0" on television. For more click here