I remember 1969. I graduated from high school, moved on to college, and was introduced to love, both emotional and physical, by an extremely charming and voracious blonde in my homeroom. I don't remember this movie being around at all! If I had taken that blonde to a regular theater rather than a drive-in and paid to see it back then, I would have felt cheated. But today I was introduced to it on AMC, and being all these years older now, found much to enjoy, even if it left me wanting something more at the end.
This is the story of a lone hit-man, considered the best in his field, who travels to Europe for a multiple hit job that includes his predecessor, and meets an American woman who makes him question his life, his job, his very existence. Watching this group of fine actors and actresses, most of whom are now dead, reminded me of a time that seemed somehow cleaner and more innocent and more promising than today. James Coburn as the hit man was at his zenith in looks and charm, and it was as if he were playing a serious version of Derek Flint. Lee Remick, one of Hollywood's three most beautiful women which includes Grace Kelly and Rhonda Fleming, was as lovely as ever and a joy to watch here, especially in her peach bra and flowered panties as she masquerades as a hooker! Burgess Meredith was as mischievously entertaining as ever, and Lilli Palmer was as flawlessly charming in this role as any of her others. Karen Black, a year before Easy Rider and a couple of years or so before Five Easy Pieces, appears as a hooker early on and steals the camera's attention in spite of taking off her clothes. And finally, Sterling Hayden, an actor I've seen often but with whom I've never been impressed, gives perhaps the most endearingly natural performance of his career as the "retired" assassin. The actors are simply marvelous, the overlapping dialog as scenes change quite interesting, and the scenery is almost as beautiful as Lee Remick. However, somewhere along the way, this movie loses its direction.
As Leonard Maltin says in his review of this film, it's more about making a statement than telling an exciting or moving story, and though on an intellectual level I can appreciate a movie like that, this one seems to blow it at the end. Perhaps it's the casting of James Coburn. After watching two Derek Flint movies time and time again over the years, I kept waiting for him to flash his teeth and deliver one-liners. He dispatches one of his victims during a riot, and while most of it is off screen, you can't help picturing in your mind how Derek Flint might have done it and laughing just a little when the deed is done. When you finally get around to taking the film seriously, it starts to have an updated tragic feel reminiscent of Alan Ladd's This Gun For Hire. It seems to have only one way to go. Burgess Meredith tells Coburn that if he doesn't complete his assignment he(Meredith) will have to assign someone to kill the other targets and Coburn. In the serious world of killers, kill or be killed, there really is no room for choice. Coburn fails the test, reality is ignored, and the movie fizzles out like a bad firecracker.
I felt cheated at the end, the actors and the audience deserved better, but I will go back and watch this film again at least one more time if for no other reason than to watch these marvelous actors and actresses work at their craft and remember a brighter and more promising time in my youth. Besides, where else can you go to see a young Karen Black take off her clothes and a radiantly beautiful Lee Remick cavort around in her underwear!
This is the story of a lone hit-man, considered the best in his field, who travels to Europe for a multiple hit job that includes his predecessor, and meets an American woman who makes him question his life, his job, his very existence. Watching this group of fine actors and actresses, most of whom are now dead, reminded me of a time that seemed somehow cleaner and more innocent and more promising than today. James Coburn as the hit man was at his zenith in looks and charm, and it was as if he were playing a serious version of Derek Flint. Lee Remick, one of Hollywood's three most beautiful women which includes Grace Kelly and Rhonda Fleming, was as lovely as ever and a joy to watch here, especially in her peach bra and flowered panties as she masquerades as a hooker! Burgess Meredith was as mischievously entertaining as ever, and Lilli Palmer was as flawlessly charming in this role as any of her others. Karen Black, a year before Easy Rider and a couple of years or so before Five Easy Pieces, appears as a hooker early on and steals the camera's attention in spite of taking off her clothes. And finally, Sterling Hayden, an actor I've seen often but with whom I've never been impressed, gives perhaps the most endearingly natural performance of his career as the "retired" assassin. The actors are simply marvelous, the overlapping dialog as scenes change quite interesting, and the scenery is almost as beautiful as Lee Remick. However, somewhere along the way, this movie loses its direction.
As Leonard Maltin says in his review of this film, it's more about making a statement than telling an exciting or moving story, and though on an intellectual level I can appreciate a movie like that, this one seems to blow it at the end. Perhaps it's the casting of James Coburn. After watching two Derek Flint movies time and time again over the years, I kept waiting for him to flash his teeth and deliver one-liners. He dispatches one of his victims during a riot, and while most of it is off screen, you can't help picturing in your mind how Derek Flint might have done it and laughing just a little when the deed is done. When you finally get around to taking the film seriously, it starts to have an updated tragic feel reminiscent of Alan Ladd's This Gun For Hire. It seems to have only one way to go. Burgess Meredith tells Coburn that if he doesn't complete his assignment he(Meredith) will have to assign someone to kill the other targets and Coburn. In the serious world of killers, kill or be killed, there really is no room for choice. Coburn fails the test, reality is ignored, and the movie fizzles out like a bad firecracker.
I felt cheated at the end, the actors and the audience deserved better, but I will go back and watch this film again at least one more time if for no other reason than to watch these marvelous actors and actresses work at their craft and remember a brighter and more promising time in my youth. Besides, where else can you go to see a young Karen Black take off her clothes and a radiantly beautiful Lee Remick cavort around in her underwear!