Masquerade

I watched it to see Robertson, Hawkins and Mell in a thriller, directed by Basil Dearden, and was very disappointed. The story gets confused, you don't understand what is going on, on which side everyone is. The kid is a bloody pain in the arse, an arrogant brat who thinks he owns everybody. I would give him a jolly good spanking. Spain is portrayed as a third world country. The baddies are a bunch of weirdos; what is a dwarf doing there? A total misfire. It's hard to believe that this was made by the same man who directed "Victim", presenting gays as normal human beings in a time when homosexuality was a crime.

Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli and Jack Hawkins were my reasons for seeing the film. Disappointment! All three are wasted in a banal, uninteresting, predictable story. Just a waste of time.

Nor Michael Relphs for that matter. The script is an incoherent mess. You think that the film is going to get better but it just gets a lot worse. Poor old Jack Hawkins is there smoking himself to death. How can you believe that Cliff Robertson served with him in World War2.

There is some terrific writing in the script. The politics is sophisticated, and all these years later illuminating. The number of twists will keep you guessing. Hawkins is wonderful. All the British actors are. However. Robertson is boring, not charismatic, not sexy, not funny . In the hands of a more appropriate actor this movie really could've been something. From the film summary, you might be expecting more of a Ransom of Red Chief -type story , but it is not that . It is all about the adults and their shenanigans. Good story marred by poor choice of lead actor and sluggish pacing, possibly the editor's fault. Still, worth a watch.

There's an assassination and a change of power in a Middle East country. Suddenly the British oil rights are at risk. So they get Jack Hawkins to kidnap the prince, and he hires old WWII associate Cliff Robertson to help him out. As usually happens in these caper movies, things don't go according to plan. Robertson was born in 1923, so he certainly was of an age to serve in the Second World War. He also looks far too young for the role, in his early 30s at the latest. Still, he does a good job, as does everyone, even though this busted caper movie is not terribly engrossing. The satirical edge is a little weak. I suspect the story got a bit muddled. It was originally intended for Rex Harrison, but he was busy, so they got in Hawkins, and decided they needed an American. Sometimes a lot of rewrites polish a script. Sometimes it makes it worse.