A Man Could Get Killed

1966 "but what a wonderful way to die!"
5.8| 1h37m| NR| en
Details

An American businessman visiting Lisbon gets mistaken for a British secret agent who stole some diamonds. As a result, he has everybody in Lisbon after him.

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Reviews

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
gsskimsing-22418 I like James Garner, but honestly, how he must have squirmed during the making of this movie. An inane plot involving smuggled diamonds, spy vs spy skulduggery and total lack of chemistry between a supposed romance between James Garner and Melina Mercouri. Not only that, the supporting cast of Sandra Dee and Anthony Franciosa makes you wonder just who's playing the lead roles. And the bumbling villains are so incompetent and nonthreatening that they're more of a distraction than anything else. I suspect the studio wanted to reprise the excellent thriller "Charade" made 3 years earlier, but in that they failed dismally. The only thing going for this movie is that the theme song "Strangers in the Night" became such a big hit.
gridoon2018 "A Man Could Get Killed" is an American production, but it has a dry wit that puts it closer to the British school of comedy. It's mildly amusing, though certainly nothing phenomenal. One of its distinguishing qualities is the location shooting around Lisbon (but there is NO Rome whatsoever, a strange inaccuracy in Leonard Maltin's usually dependable guide); another is Melina Mercouri, who, besides looking at least a decade younger than her age at the time (she was in her mid-forties!), is also clearly one of the best actresses to appear in this sort of "fluffy" fare, and brings her distinctive voice and joie de vivre to her role. The rest of the cast also works well, the plot has its share of twists, and the ending makes perfect use of the famous "Strangers In The Night" melody. **1/2 out of 4.
Randwulf When I was in high school I played in our school orchestra, and one of the pieces we regularly performed was the popular song made famous by Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night". On the sheet music written in fine print under the title were the words, "From the 1966 Universal motion picture 'A Man Could Get Killed'". It sounded like it might be a spy movie because of the year it was released, and being a fan of spy movies I eventually did some research on what the film is about - a fortune in smuggled diamonds sought by spy versus spy versus average guy mistaken for a spy (kind of like Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest"). I hate what they call "spy spoofs" which are disrespectful to the genre and don't take romantic heroism seriously (and which lack the admiring parody found in the television series "Get Smart"), but this is not that tongue-in-cheek "camp" stuff. It's a movie with a serious plot yet with loads of humor, and that's a totally different animal.The cast and the Portuguese locations sounded great, so I started looking for a DVD of this gem I had missed. I couldn't find one anywhere, and I looked and looked in every place I could think of! Why this wonderful movie has been neglected is beyond me, but at last I did find a DVD on an obscure online auction site and the seller shipped it to my USA home from Europe. I am thankful, because I absolutely loved this movie when I finally got a chance to see it.James Garner and Melina Mercouri are the "strangers in the night". Sandra Dee, Tony Franciosa, Robert Coote and all the cast are very enjoyable to watch, and the plot is fun! I hadn't seen Melina Mercouri in her famous role in "Never On Sunday" (1960), but I had seen her in "Topkapi" (1964). It was long ago and I didn't remember much about her except that she seemed intense. When she appeared on the screen in "A Man Could Get Killed" she struck me as the kind of husky-voiced foreign woman who is both laid-back and excitable at the same time. To date her would be like having a date with a Soviet commissar or something. Yet as the movie progressed she really began to allure me, and she became just wonderful! I fell in love with her, as James Garner's character secretly does too. This leads up to the final scene of the movie, which is simply unforgettable.I realize that everybody has their tastes and maybe for you this caper movie wouldn't be anything special, but my wish is for those of you who would be inclined to like it the same pleasure I had viewing it! I also want it to be made more widely available so it will finally get the recognition it deserves.
skoyles A year before we were married, my wife and I went to see this movie on a date. We have not seen it since, yet we still quote a line or two from it all these decades later. I hope we do not have to wait for James Garner's death before it is released on DVD. It is a truly funny motion picture, liked even by someone like me who likes very few comedies. As I recall, the humour in this movie springs from the story, ridiculous though it may be, and that makes for a good amusing film. Robert Coote in particular was superb.