The Assassination Bureau

The 1960s was a rough time for cinema.  Lacking the Atomic age innovation of the ‘50s and the creative freedom of the ‘70s, it was defined by the slow decay of the studio system and evolving audiences that weren’t so easy to pin down.  It wasn’t until the tail end of the decade that filmmakers found some solid footing in the form of counter-culture independents and outer-space spectacles.  But the same year as Easy Rider and 2001, there were still movies like The Assassination Bureau desperately vying for attention in a world that seemed to be passing them by. 

On the edge of World War 1, a clandestine organization of killers for hire is outed by a budding female journalist, Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg), who hires the chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed), to assassinate himself.  Always up for a challenge, Ivan sees the contract as a chance to test the mettle of his employees…and snuff out the secret plot of his second-in-command (Telly Savalas) whose ambitions for the bureau focus on money rather than morals.  In various countries, under an array of disguises, Ivan dodges his own board members in a comic game of kill-or-be-killed.

 

Based on an unfinished Jack London novel, The Assassination Bureau is working with one heck of a good idea.  The concept of master assassins hunting down one of their own is now one of the most common conceits in action movie history (the John Wick franchise being only the most recent).  But director Basil Dearden’s film is miles away from the gritty noir of Point Blank released only two years prior; his film is a flippant fantasy that mixes Mary Poppins and James Bond in equal measure…with enough camera mugging to fill several episodes of Laugh In.

 

Shot with the sort of flat, overlit feel of episodic television, The Assassination Bureau reeks of comedic desperation.  Everything from unexpected camera zooms to goofy sound effects are employed to make the audience understand they’re supposed to be having a good time. It’s a creative choice that dates the film in much the same way as its contemporaries (think how much better Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid would be without those Burt Bacharach songs!) and leaves the game performances of its two leads hanging out to dry.  Diana Rigg is unbearably cute and Oliver Reed proves he would have made a disarming 007 if he ever sobered up.  But the film is so leaden with forced frivolity it feels more like a hostage video than the steampunk escapism it was meant to be.

 

Arrow’s new Blu-ray makes a good case for its historical significance, though, with a superlative audio commentary from authors Sean Hogan and Kim Newman (whose Anno Dracula series covered much of the same landscape) along with a 30-minute appreciation from critic Matthew Sweet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembodied visions of his ex-lover who refuses to go quietly into the afterlife.  And
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there is an abundance of fully erect fake penises and female genitalia on displ
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annabelle West is named the sole beneficiary…that is, if she can be proved sane afte
Read more