Permission to Kill [The Executioner] ** (1975, Dirk Bogarde, Ava Gardner, Timothy Dalton, Bekim Fehmiu, Frederic Forrest, Nicole Calfan) – Classic Movie Review 4597

Director Cyril Frankel’s dreary, dour and preposterous 1975 spy thriller was a setback to its star Dirk Bogarde, then at the peak of his serious movie career after Victim (1961), The Servant (1963) and Darling (1965), Accident (1967), The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971) and  The Night Porter (1974). Yes, it is meant to be realistic and downbeat, but it is not very persuasive or entertaining.

Bogarde plays Alan Curtis, the British’s espionage boss who is trying to stop the communist Alexander Diakim (Bekim Fehmiu) getting back home to the other side from the West. Among those reluctantly helping Bogarde are Fehmiu’s former wife Katina Petersen (Ava Gardner), the young gay British official Charles Lord (Timothy Dalton) and the US newsman Scott Allison (Frederic Forrest).

It says a lot when actors of this calibre can summon up so little real conviction in their roles and when Freddie Young’s lovely widescreen cinematography, Richard Rodney Bennett’s score and the Austrian locations are the best things about the picture.

However, with the help of the cast’s allure, the location shooting in Gmunden, Austria, Young’s cinematography and Bennett’s score, this creaky and old-fashioned movie remains watchable though.

Robin Estridge scripts the sluggish screenplay from his own novel.

Later, an unusually humble and apologetic Bogarde said he made it just to work with Gardner.

Also in the cast are Nicole Calfan as Melissa Lascade, Klaus Wildbolz, Alf Joint, Peggy Sinclair, Anthony Dutton, John Levene and Bob Sessions.

Anthony Forwood, Bogarde’s friend, longtime partner and manager, appears in a walkon – his last film role.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4597

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com