THE EXECUTIONER (1970)

By 1970, Cold War Thrillers ran on parallel tracks: James Bond and his brood going OTT; John le Carré and acolytes drifting only more serious.  Light entertainment or reality’s deadly game.  But this modest example of the form offers convergence, trying to split the difference.  And it’s not bad.  George Peppard, in rapid career decline, has a role to fit his charmless arrogance, a mid-level MI6 agent, British-born/U.S.-raised (they gotta explain the accent, no?), who’s just lost his team on a failed mission.  Why?  A leak in the company.  But is this to be Find-the-Mole; or Whack-a-Mole over at what le Carré called The Circus?  Lucky for Peppard, current ‘bird’ (Judy Geeson) has access to all relevant files.  Unlucky for him, spy bosses Charles Gray & Nigel Patrick (played as a couple) catch them out and suspend them.  But Peppard has other resources: Oscar Homolka’s hungry Russian defector; Joan Collins’ infatuated spouse of a prime suspect; agent Keith Michell, a likely KGB ‘plant’; and so on.  Quite a cast for a low-budget Charles Schneer production.  (Schneer known for Ray Harryhausen stop-motion fantasy fables.)  Good location stuff in London & Athens; note the lack of process work even in traveling car interiors.  Director Sam Wanamaker*, one-time Black-Listed actor, now active helming smallish features & series tv, shows he’s partial to ‘60s stylistics (arhythmic quick-cut head-shots, zooms, tight framing) probably has his largest budget here; along with an extra twist at the end.  (Added to give Peppard a get-out-of-moral-purgatory-free card?)  Just keep expectations down for best viewing results.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Though better known for acting, and for actor/daughter Zoë (try his funny take on Leonard Bernstein in THE COMPETITION/’80), Wanamaker had around thirty directing gigs.  Yet he’ll undoubtedly be more remembered as the main motivator in his adopted London-town for starting the push to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on its original Thames site.  Only an American could get it done.  Sadly dying before it was completed.