The Assassination Bureau (1969)

Director:

Basil Dearden

Writers:

Robert L. Fish (novel)
Jack London (unfinished novel)

Release Date:

April 1969 (France)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Zeppelins. Bombs. Bordellos. Burials. You name it. We have it.

Plot:

The Assassination Bureau has existed for decades (perhaps centuries) until Diana Rigg begins to investigate it...

Plot Keywords:

Assassination | Corset | Secret History | 1910s | Gadget

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Oliver Reed	...	Ivan Dragomiloff
Diana Rigg	...	Sonya Winter
Telly Savalas	...	Lord Bostwick
Curd Jürgens	...	General von Pinck
Philippe Noiret	...	Monsieur Lucoville
Warren Mitchell	...	Herr Weiss
Beryl Reid	...	Madame Otero
Clive Revill	...	Cesare Spado
Kenneth Griffith	...	Monsieur Popescu
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Baron Muntzof
Annabella Incontrera	...	Eleanora
Jess Conrad	...	Angelo
George Coulouris	...	Swiss Peasant
Ralph Michael	...	Editor
Katherine Kath	...	Mme. Lucoville

Also Known As:

The Assassination Bureau Limited

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Black Park Country Park, Wexham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Heathfield

Trivia:

Last feature film of Eugene Deckers.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Very obvious dummy that falls from the zeppelin at the end of the film.

Quotes:

Miss Winter: Ivan!
Ivan Dragomiloff: Sir Ivan, if you please. Virtue, it seems, has been rewarded.

THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU (Basil Dearden, 1969) ***

Typical 1960s big-budget all-star entertainment with an unlikely but intriguing backdrop (the political turmoil in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century) and agreeably treated as black comedy. As can be surmised, the titular organization – headed by Oliver Reed and numbering among its members Telly Savalas, Curt Jurgens, Philippe Noiret, Clive Revill and Kenneth Griffith – disposes of people it deems criminal but which the law apparently can't reach…until some of them start to get too big for their boots, while Reed accepts lady journalist Diana Rigg's offer of a contract on himself!

Stylish and colorful (shot on a variety of stunning European locations and with great care given to sets, costumes and props), the film is vastly entertaining along the way – gleefully poking fun at politics and murder at every turn. Reed and Rigg make a very appealing couple, while Savalas, Jurgens et al have fun sending up their respective images; of course, Rigg and Savalas would be re-teamed that same year for the James Bond outing ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.

The script, therefore, delivers plenty of suspense and surprise (including numerous disguises and near-escapes for the hero) and is capped by a spectacular climax in which a bomb attack via zeppelin – targeting a castle where all the rulers of Europe have convened for a peace conference – is thwarted.