The Liquidator

I could easily see how this movie could have gone wrong in many places. The stereotypical roles were given unexpected depth by the fine actors. Although there are no real surprises, except maybe for the lack of surprises involving plot twists. The final one at the end of the movie wasn't at all surprising, and frankly was quite a letdown. Still, it is amusing, interesting and fun to watch.

Vapid spy-stuff, cheeky but with brain-in-neutral. Rod Taylor (handsome and game, as usual) plays an accidental hero who becomes a secret agent for the British. Begins well (with an amusingly melodramatic Shirley Bassey theme song and clever credits sequence), but film then goes downhill while trying--and failing--to formulate a plot. The funniest line is when Taylor's boss cries out, "They've got us by the short 'n curlies!", which I thought was a little risqué for 1965. Jack Cardiff directs, in his usual impersonal style; he seems to know very little about the spy genre, and approaches the material in a by-the-numbers fashion. Peter Yeldham sketchily adapted John Gardner's book. ** from ****

I read the other 17 reviews and was thankful that someone noticed that Eric Sykes was in the movie. It is massively disappointing to read reviews by people who have no inkling about the quality of the cast as well as pathos and irony ...if you had seen Sykes in The Plank you might have some idea of his talent. Though I must admit that Brit humour is often beyond some of our contributors. In his autobiography Eric said that Tony Curtis was the biggest plonker he met in Hollywood and that got my attention (The Great Race).He certainly got my attention again in this movie. I do like Rod Taylor and was taken aback by how well he underplayed this role and of course a cinema legend like Trevor Howard sending himself up was an utter joy . Please watch some of their movies (Clouded Yellow for Trevor) and maybe (No-one Runs for Ever for a rustic Rod)you will see much more in this comedy.

"The Liquidator" was such an amusing film. I loved the fact that Shirley Bassey sang the theme song a la James Bond. It was great to see a spy whose hormones were far more potent than his efforts with a gun. A particularly funny part occurs when Trevor Howard is rescued by Boysie, as Paris is being liberated. Howard thinks that Boysie is a killing machine when, in fact, he is a hopelessly clumsy young man. Rod Taylor is deliciously sexy in the film and displays his flair for comedy.

It's really too bad that there was only one LIQUIDATOR film, as I really enjoyed it. That's because unlike most other spoofs of the James Bond genre, this one takes itself a little more seriously. While I know that there are people out there that think Matt Helm and the Flint movies were NOT total crap (sorry folk, they were), this film doesn't degenerate to smarminess and cheap jokes to make gentle fun of the genre. You see, instead of an obnoxious and over-sexed lead, Rod Taylor plays a secret agent and assassin who HATES the idea of killing anyone! In fact, this is so distasteful to him that he sub-contracts this out to a real assassin. He thinks this has solved his problems--but the problems are only about to begin!