Main Cast: Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, Jill St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Tomlinson
Release Year: 1966
Country: UK
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
This James Bond parody brings a new sort of jet-set secret agent to the screen -- one who hates flying, is afraid to shoot people, and would rather stay at home! Col. Mostyn (Trevor Howard) is the head of a special branch of British intelligence who is appalled to discover that a number of his best agents are either leaving the force or have turned out to be traitors. It is decided that Mostyn and his men need a special agent to ferret out those who leave his employ while knowing too much and silence them permanently. Mostyn decides the right man for the job is his old army buddy Boysie Oakes (Rod Taylor), but there's a bit of a problem -- while the job requires a globe-trotting assassin who can stare calmly into the face of death, Oakes is a mild-mannered fun seeker who is terrified of airplanes and faints at the sight of blood. None of this dissuades Mostyn, who still gives Oakes the assignment, but when he finds out that flying and guns are a big part of his new job, he hires someone else to do the dirty work for him. Oakes eventually develops a taste for the cars, women, gadgets, and danger of his new career, but the real acid test comes when he actually has to go on an assignment himself. The Liquidator was directed by Jack Cardiff, who along with a respected career as a director was one of the most distinguished cinematographers in the British cinema, lensing such classics as The Red Shoes, The African Queen, and Black Narcissus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The first of what was intended to be a series, The Liquidator is a moderately entertaining James Bond spoof. Unlike other contemporary spy knock-offs (such as the Matt Helm films), The Liquidator actually does a little more than take the Bond basics and riff on them. Instead, it has a premise that could provide for a great deal of fun -- namely that the Bond stand-in is someone who doesn't want to kill and who doesn't really want to be a spy (although he certainly comes to enjoy some of the fringe benefits that come with it, at least in the world of cinema spies). The Liquidator even sets up an interesting solution to this dilemma by having reluctant spy Boysie Oakes hire someone to do his killing for him. In other hands, this conflict could provide for an intriguing moral examination, one that could still be handled in a comic way but that would give the film a bit of weight. Unfortunately, writer Peter Yeldham and director Jack Cardiff take the easy way out, never exploring this aspect. Indeed, Yeldham's script, while amusing and entertaining enough, ultimately ends up being a bit too lightweight all around. It's well crafted, but empty. The Liquidator might also have been a bit better with a more versatile actor than Rod Taylor in the lead. He's fine and does the job well, but he lacks a certain spark that would have lifted the film up to a higher level of entertainment. The rest of the cast, especially Trevor Howard, Eric Sykes, and a delectable Jill St. John, is a big help, and The Liquidator is certainly easy to take. It's just a shame that the creators didn't try a little harder. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
John Blezard - Art Director, Harry Fine - Associate Producer, Joan Bridge - Costume Designer, Elizabeth Haffenden - Costume Designer, Jack Cardiff - Director, Ernest Walter - Editor, Lalo Schifrin - Composer (Music Score), Lalo Schifrin - Musical Direction/Supervision, Edward Scaife - Cinematographer, Jon Penington - Producer, Peter Yeldham - Screenwriter, John Gardner - Book Author
The film follows John Gardner's 1964 novel closely. The novel begins at the end of World War II when British Tank Corps Sergeant Oakes unwittingly saves British Intelligence Major Mostyn from an assassination attempt in Paris.
Twenty years later Mostyn's memories have elevated Oakes into a fearless master assassin when nothing could be further from the truth. He recruits Oakes into the Secret Service where after a training course, he is given the code name "L" whilst HM Government provides him with an enviable lifestyle. When the cowardly Oakes discovers that his function is to 'liquidate' security risks to the State, he hires a freelance professional assassin (Eric Sykes) to do the dirty work and maintain his position.
Things go well until Oakes seduces Mostyn's secretary Iris into coming with him to the Cote d'Azur. There he is captured by enemy agents led by Akim Tamiroff and becomes a dupe in an assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh when he visits an R.A.F. base.
Rod Taylor displays his gifts at being convincing in both comedy and action where he performed his own stunts.[2]
Producer Jon Pennington brought Australian screenwriter Peter Yeldham to the project after both had cooperated on The Comedy Man.
Like Where the Spies Are, also filmed in MGM-British Studios, MGM planned a Boysie Oakes series. However due to production dispute the film's original November 1965 release was delayed to the end of 1966 when the spy film craze was waning.[3] Cardiff recalled that the censors made them delete one of Taylor's lines "it smells like a Turkish wrestler's jockstrap".[4]
Notes
^ liner notes Film Score Monthly The Liquidator soundtrack
