The Boulting Brothers, Roy and John, were already well into their stride as producers and directors of a string of classic social comedies when they took a diversion to make this almost forgotten and rather tame spy drama centered on a group of scientists who discover that their research can be used for germ warfare. It's all rather lacklustre and the main interest today is in the excellent cast of British character actors. Peter Cushing is excellent as the project boss and Tony Britton and Virgina Maskell are reliable leads. Good support comes from such reliables as Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence, Thorley Walters and Sam Kydd. Spike Milligan is on hand to do some comedy relief with a chimpanzee which is obviously designed to lift the rather one note tone of the film but it seems overly silly and completely out of place. Watch it for its cast if little else. Rating **
1 comment:
You know something. . .this movie was nothing like I expected it to be. I must admit to being severely disappointed with it (and also admit to the fact that I hadn't even seen it until after you got the film LOL). The thing I think which shocked me the most is that the film doesn't play like an espionage thriller (which it would appear to be) but instead plays more like a deadly serious (and taking itself WAAAAY too seriously) social drama about VERY IMPORTANT ISSUES (note the capital letters) which it also . . . well, ain't. I would tend to agree with you that the cast is rather superb and I think they try their best to elevate this rather leaden film; but it is a shame such a cast wasn't given a better movie in which to appear. WhatEVER were the filmmakers thinking?!?!?
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