A Great Movie - Little-Seen "The Assassination Bureau" was an unfinished novel from the pen of Jack London. Another writer took London's outline and finished it and several years later it became this fun movie starring Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas, released in 1969 by Paramount Pictures. The movie deviates a little from the book, but all-in-all, both are equally enjoyable. The British director, Basil Dearden, was one of the more interesting directors working in the UK from the late 40s through the late 60s. Many of his films were social dramas which dealt with taboo subjects like race ("Sapphire") and homosexuality ("Victim") way before they were acceptable topics. But he also made films in most of the genres out there. This one and his 1965 spy spoof, "Masquerade," starring Cliff Robertson & Jack Hawkins, are light, breezy and just fun to watch. It is too bad the MGM/UA hasn't put that one out yet for home entertainment.
Oh how I wish we had such a Bureau today! This is a simple silly movie about a fictitious bureau that evaluates governing moguls and occasionally dispatches them when they misbehave. Telly Sevalas turns the bureau upon itself so as to eliminate the assassins and good governments thus benefitting his commercial interests. It's a race around Europe with the assassins and Sevalas in pursuit of Reed and Rigg. R & R use subterfuge to dispatch Sevalas and put the Bureau back on track.
"Virtue, it seems, has been rewarded." "Well, really!" This is one of my four favorite late 60's comedies that I used to make a point of watching for and watching again and again every time they were shown on TV. "The Assassination Bureau" is based on the unfinished Jack London novel, The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. (Twentieth-Century Classics), posthumously completed by Robert L. Fish with the assistance of London's and his wife's notes. London had basically written himself into a corner, which Fish only did a marginal job of extricating the novel from. The movie is MUCH better.
In a subtly altered pre-WWI Europe, would-be journalist Miss Sonya Winter (a cool as a cucumber Diana Rigg) has a plan for how to get a job in her male-dominated chosen field: do a story exposing a secret organization of assassins for hire AND destroy said organization by taking advantage of its policy of guaranteeing that the target will be killed upon presentation of sufficient justification and prepayment of the fee. Newspaper publisher Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas) agrees to back her plan which is to put out a contract on the chairman of the organization, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed at his oiliest). Dragomiloff himself accepts the commission in part because he believes his aging colleagues and friends of his late father the founder have degenerated into amoral killers for the sake of money, effectively challenging them all to a duel.
Doesn't sound like much of a comedy, does it? Yet it is relentlessly, hysterically funny! Diana Rigg's icy coolness is the perfect counterpoint to Oliver Reed's smoldering unctuousness, and Telly Savalas is dead solid perfect. Some of film's finest character actors round out the cast of assassins, including Curd Jurgens as the manic General von Pinck. The dialog is witty and full of understated hilarity, and the verbal sparring between Miss Winter and Dragomiloff is particularly choice as she follows him across Europe to "report on his... whatever happens to him." A frenetic score, gorgeous sets and costumes, unexpected twists and turns during the dash across Europe, and somewhat dated special effects round out the effort. If you've never seen it, you owe yourself at least a rental of this all but forgotten gem.
Note: Though produced from a clear, crisp print, this widescreen DVD is about as bare bones as you can get. No extras of any kind -- just scene selection and English subtitles, which helped me pick up a few things I'd missed due to thick accents despite my multitudinous TV viewings over the years. At this price though, it is worth every penny.
Amusing Caper "The Assassination Bureau" has an amusing premise and for the most part executes it ably enough. Oliver Reed stars as the head of a consortium of international assassins who takes on an interesting assignment. Crusading reporter Diana Rigg contracts his organization to kill him. Reed takes up this proposal because he feels that it will enable him to weed out the weaknesses in the organization. Assistant Chairman Telly Savalas has other ideas, however. The film starts off well enough, has kind of a clunky midsection. This portion of the film feels more slapsticky than darkly comic. The film recovers and delivers a slam-bang ending. Oliver Reed is charismatically suave as Ivan, the head of the Bureau. Savalas and Curt Jurgens as a German associate are sublimely villainous. Diana Rigg, however, isn't given much to do as Miss Winters. The high point for her in this film is a scene where she is required to walk around in a bath towel. Not classic comedy but not a bad way to wile away a few hours.
DIANA AND TELLY - TOGETHER AGAIN 1969 was a good year for the inimitable Diana Rigg and the ubiquitous at that time Telly Savalas. They appeared together in the essential James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and in this little-seen but wonderfully done "Assassination Bureau." Dame Diana was an icon of the late sixties, having charmed us for three years as Emma Peel in the exquisite AVENGERS TV series. After leaving the series, Rigg appeared in these two movies and also in George C. Scott's "The Hospital" and Vincent Price's "Theater of Blood." Cooly beautiful, unassumedly British and elegant, Diana Rigg became one of our most underappreciated screen presences. Her buoyant performance as the feminist Sarah Winters in this film is delightful; never has she appeared so coy and kittenish as in this role. The also underappreciated Oliver Reed is dashing as the hero/villain, and of course, Savalas is triumphant as the quinessential villain. Add Curt Jurgens in a delightfully daffy role as a crazy German and you have a delightful drawing room black comedy. The special effects for a late sixties movie are predictably shoddy, but this is like watching one of those delightful Jules Verne movies---it doesn't matter, the cast is so good. Definitely a minor classic.
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