Movie review - "The High Bright Sun" (1965) ***

A real curio, and a surprise to those who considered Ralph Thomas and Betty Box (myself included) solely committed to making purely commercial films. I'm sure they wanted to make money with this, but still it's a tough and unusual movie, a rare look at the disturbances in Cyprus under British rule in the 1950s. You won't get much of an analysis of the situation - it's mostly angry Greeks and occupying British; the presence of the Turks are barely mentioned except when Greek-Cypriot George Chakiris says he refuses to drink Turkish coffee.

But Thomas paints an evocative picture: there's some terrific location work, a memorable theme song (reminiscent in a little way of The Third Man's zither tune), shots of Greek Cypriot faces glowering at the Brits, the torn loyalties of the locals, the battered British officers.

Dirk Bogarde is mostly very effective as the tough, ruthless local intelligence operative - smart, misogynist, cunning. I say "mostly" though because there are these attempts to soften him. He calls Susan Strasberg a bitch and says he's going to force a confession out of her, then he apologises and confesses to being in love with her. He seems to know what's going on and be ruthlessly efficient but when you look at what he does it's not that smart. (The film would have been better if he had been straight out ruthless.)

Susan Strasberg's character is also confusing - she's an American whose father was from Cyprus; the plot involves her witnessing a murderous attack on British soldiers and realising her father's best friend (with whom she is staying) is hiding the leading Cyprus general. She seems to dilly-dally: she doesn't dob but falls for Bogarde and we're never clear why she does either. Strasberg is pretty, though, and her fragility suits the role.

The supporting cast features superb work from Denholm Elliot, as a seemingly drunk intelligence officer who has a rather convoluted history with Bogarde's wife, and solid work from George Chakiris. (While the film does depict Bogarde to be ruthless he does have a few shades whereas Chakiris is shown to be out-and-out-evil.) This movie is a little bit of a mess but I've always enjoyed it.