Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Usamah Harvey
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Donald Seymour
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
drystyx
1970 was about the time that spy movies became nonsense, as this one shows.Nonsense was in earlier movies. A lot of noir movies were based on this. No plot, no motivation, no story, just one liners and writers contriving excuses to kill people in a movie for no reason, and then claim there was a reason.That's pretty much what happens in this spy movie. George Peppard suspects the husband of a girl he loves to be a spy. We have no idea why, and we have no idea why the characters in the spy ring do what they do. Merely for effect. Once you get past this, that the plot doesn't exist and there is no motivation, the rest is easier to watch.It is full of almost every spy cliché there is, and these were already clichés well before 1970.The "personal" motivations of private lives plays out better than the "plot" angle, and that's what you would watch this one for.
udar55
Brit-born, American-raised spy John Shay (Peppard) is dismayed when his undercover operation in Germany goes belly up. On suspension by his superiors, he begins to sense there is a double agent in the mix and believes it is Adam Booth (Keith Michell), a top agent loved by the brass who also happens to be married to Shay's ex Sarah (Joan Collins). The further he digs, the more Shay is convinced that Booth is feeding info to the Russians.Steeped in a far more realistic world of espionage than the Bond series, this George Peppard vehicle is semi-dull and semi-great. The first hour relies too much on Peppard getting stern talks from his superiors. It doesn't help matters that Shay is quite a chauvinist, shown treating Sarah and current squeeze Polly (Judy Geeson) terribly. Peppard certainly has an on screen presence though. The last 45-minutes redeem the film with a memorable twist (which is, sadly, undermined by a coda that one should ignore if cynical like me) and some great location shooting in Turkey and Greece. Charles Gray (Blofeld in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER) plays one of Shay's superiors.
jmol
Deep in plot factors and to some perhaps slow in development (but layered spy films need to "develop" to set the story in play). But steeped in cold war motivations and sensibilities of the time. Peppard is driven to do his job well, with concern for protecting those things and people he values. Twists and turns confront him, but he resolves the factors. But then there is that final and jaw-dropping question which is the final line of the film!His former controller offers him a position of command within the British espionage structure from which George Peppard has left. Disgusted with the way in which the prior situation was handled (set up by his overseers) Peppard might be presumed to say NO, but my presumption is that the answer would have been YES. Watch the film and screw your head on tight, no exits to bathroom without pause button pushed, this is not a trivial action film.
dinky-4
Espionage dramas which depend on bureaucratic characters engaged in prolonged conversations rarely make good movies and this is no exception. It's competent but never sparks any real interest and the plot seems a bit muddled.There are a number of good names in the cast and they do the best they can with pedestrian material. Top billing goes to George Peppard who plays an Englishman but his American accent is explained by saying that he grew up in the United States. He's involved, in a vaguely romantic way, with two different women -- Joan Collins and Judy Geeson -- but not much comes of this. The ads hint at some hot bedroom action between Peppard and Collins but most of these scenes must have been left on the cutting room floor.Location work in Greece and Istanbul is, like the rest of the movie, strictly routine.
