Movie review - "The Desperadoes" (1969) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Odd sort of late 60s Western from oldies - Henry Levin, Irving Allen, Jack Palance - with the spaghetti influence, also more violence. Levin shoves in lots of scenes of people blasting guns and horse galloping.

Story - Palance is a Southern raider with sons George Maharis and Vince Edwards, going overboard with the killing and raping so Edwards drops out. Years later Palance and Maharis are still running riot and they cross with Edwards.

This was shot in Spain so there are English actors in it - Sylvia Syms doing a topless swim (she went nude a bit, was she ask or offered) as Edwards' wife.

Edwards seems bored - it's not hard to see why he didn't become a star, at least not based on this. Palance hams it up. Maharis is a blank presence. Neville Brandis is a sympathetic marshall.

Down beat - Syms is killed, Palance and Edwards kill each other, a lot of rape.

Feels kind of... stockly nihilistic. Written by Walter Brough who worked with Levin on The Treasure Seekers. 

Proposed Australian films of the 1930s to the 1960s

*Big Timber - from novel by William Hatfield  - announced 1935 - instead Cinesound filmed Tall Timber

*Call me when the Cross Turns Over - from novel by D'arcy Niland to be filmed in 60s with Diane Cilento and Sean Connery but not filmed

*Careful He Might Here You - optioned in 1963 by Josh Logan who wanted to make it with Elizabeth Taylor (who would've been great)

*Collits Inn - Frank Thring was going to film this musical but died

*Come Away Pearler - Colin Simpson novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman see here

*Come In Spinner - novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman

*Conn of the South Seas - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake The Adorable Outcast see here

*Desert Legion - Raymond Longford WW1 story

*The Delinquents - from novel adapted by Alan Seymour for producer Joseph Janni  and director Jack Lee - announced 1963

*Dig - story of Burke and Wills from Ralph Peterson script for Anthony Quayle  - announced 1957

*Don Bradman biopic - proposed by Ron Randell in 1952 see here

*Eureka Stockade - Ken Hall version 

*The Fatal Wedding - Cinesound said might remake this in 1933 see here - this may have just been a random announcement though Cinesound did make Silence of Dean Maitland

*Fisher's Ghost - sound remake by Raymond Longford of his 1925 hit - Tony Buckley says towards the end of

*For the Term of His Natural Life - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here

*The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney - adaptaion of novel to be done by MGM in the late 40s with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck

*Ginger Murdoch - optioned by Frank Thring

*Gold Dust and Ashes - from novel by Ion Idriess announced 1935 by Cinesound see here

*The Green Opal - Chips Rafferty film about immigration

*The Haunted House - announced by Cinesound in 1938 see here 

*James Don't Be a Fool - EV Timms novel

*The Kelly Gang - Cinesound said in 1933 might remake it see here

*Les Darcy film - announced by Chauvel in 1947 to star Tommy Burns see here

*Life of Nellie Melba - proposed 1940 Cinesound film with Marjorie Lawrence

*The Long Shadow - 1947 Jon Cleary novel optioned in late 60s but not made 

*Mr Burke and Mr Wills - Burke and Wills story written by Terence Rattigan

*My Love Must Wait - novel about Matthew Flinders optioned by Charles Chauvel

*Naked Under Capricorn - published 1958 owned by Chips Rafferty

*Ned Kelly - directed by Karel Reisz starring Albert Finney announced 1963

*The One Day of the Year - Alan Seymour's play, filmed a few times for TV, optioned in 1970

*Overland Telegraph - 1939 announcement Frank Clune sold to Cinesound, he'd write it up in 1955

* Pearl of Great Price - late 30s Cinesound announced 1936 see here

*Pepper Trees  - Ealing film late 40s with Chips Rafferty and Tommy Trinder - scheduled for 1948 see here

*The Pioneers - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here

*Redheap - novel by Norman Lindsay to be filmed by Thring 

*Return Journey - film about Burke and Wills which collapsed in the 1960s but resulted in a short

* Robbery Under Arms - Ken G Hall version, mentioned from the 1930s until the 1940s but killed off by Rank's interest and dud 1957 film

*Rudd's New Selection - announced in 1933 see here - became Grandad Rudd

*Sara Dane - from the novel, starring Sylvia Syms, proposed late 1950s

*Saturday to Monday - original of The Siege of Pinchgut - announced in 1950

*Sheepmates - started filming but abandoned

*Storm Hill - Eric Porter film announced in 1946

*Wake in Fright - directed by Joe Losey starring Dirk Bogarde - announced 1963 - there was also a proposed Morris West version

*Wards of the Outer March - novel adapted by Charles Chauvel  - announced in 1944

*When Cobb and Co Was King - novel optioned by Charles Chauvel

*Yellow Sands - Cinesound in late 30s - announced 1936 see here

Movie review - "The Tamarind Seed" (1974) ***

 Julie Andrews goes back into spy territory, as a British secretary romancing a Russian diplomat Omar Sharif. They're not a bad team. I bit weird. Andrews is so sensible and mannered as usual but she is a star and she suits the character - as a sensible woman with a taste for running off with married men. Andrews is recovering from one affair, and starts another. Sharif plays his role like a Latin lover but that suits him.

The film has pleasures. John Barry's lush score, Maurice Binder's credits, both James Bond like. Smart characters. Excellent support cast - Sylvia Syms is superb as the wife of gay spy Dan O'Herlihy, Syms is shagging Bryan Marshall who works for Anthony Quayle, who is also excellent as a head spy. Russian spies include Oscar Homolka and Kate O'Mara (office girl). I like how it was set in Barbados. There's a shoot out at the end.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. 

Movie review - "The World of Suzie Wong" (1960) **1/2

 Big hit for William Holden - and actually I think it was his last one until The Wild Bunch. He scored with interracial romance in Love is a Many Splendored Thing only here the race is a genuine non white actor, Nancy Kwan, stepping in for Frances Nyen.

It's glossy, in colour, widescreen, location filming in Hong Kong. The sexiness was, at the time for a Hollywood film, cutting edge although apparently reduced from the play. It helped that it was set in Hong Kong - not too confronting, what goes on tour etc. 

The piece struck a chord as a novel, play and film. There's a fantasy I think of running off to the Orient, painting and having a hot Asian hooker fall in love with you. And the girl is such a child like idiot maybe she's  not too threatening to white female audiences. That's just a theory - but I know some women who enjoy this film. Feels mean to kill her baby at the end. It gives the piece some emotional kick I suppose but strewth.

There's some racist Poms for Holden to be superior to - and some nice Poms so the British market doesn't get too upset. Michael Wilding is quite funny as a businessman who visits the brothels (Ron Randell played this role on Broadway). Sylvia Syms copes well in a thankless part as Woman in love with Holden. She just kind of hangs around and is encouraging. 

Nancy Kwan does have charisma. Holden was starting to look old but he's got X factor too. Weird to imagine a young William Shatner played that role on Broadway - a young person would've given it a totally different dimension.

It drags in places but there's enough nice photography and colour. I have nostalgic affection for these pieces they remind me of Saturday night movies from Bill Collins.

Movie review - "The Punch and Judy Man" (1963) **

 Tony Hancock's first starring vehicle went well but then he sacked his writers and had his car accident and it all went a bit wonky. He cowrote this with an experienced writer (Phil Oakes) and has a solid support cast so it didn't go crazy, but this didn't tickle the public's fancy.

It's got a lazy seaside atmosphere which probably means more for people who experienced it - Punch and Judy shows, magicians.  

The plot has Hancock attend a swanky function to help his social climbing wife. It ends in chaos.

I didn't like this film much. Hancock is terrific - fully fleshed face,all the emotions there. But it's dull. Or unfunny. There's a long piece with Hancock and some kid eating a sundae which I think is meant to be funny. Syms is good. I think a better cast actress would be more effective but she does a good job. People like John Le Mesurier are in it.

Nicely shot. Boring. Sorry, Hancock.

Movie review - "The Quare Fellow" (1962) **

  Not that well known Irish-British film despite being based on a Brendan Behan play and with two stars, Patrick McGoohan and Sylvia Syms. McGoodhan is a prison guard on death row.

It was made by Bryanston the short lived company that made a lot of worthy movies. They kept the budget low. A good idea but ultimately didn't work.

I understand this was changed from the stage play. I wasn't quite sure of the point of this was. I think the play was focused on the prisoners - the prisoners barely register here.

McGoohan is a warden on death row. He sort of flirts with Sylvia Syms who is the wife of a condemned prisoner. That's a bit contrived. Syms is quite good. So is McGoohan. Actually all the acting is good. Location work helps a lot. (It was shot in Dublin.)

Movie review - "The World Ten Times Over" (1963) **1/2

 Wolf Rilla movie about 24 hours in the lives of two flatmates - Sylvia Syms is visited by her dad (William Hartnell) and tells him she's pregnant; June Ritchie is seeing a married man (Edward Judd). 

I wanted to like this film more than I did. The photography and some of the acting is superb - Syms in particular is terrific. People really like June Ritchie although I felt she was a little OTT. Too much screen time is spent on whiny Edward Judd, a rich man who whines about how his father made him marry this woman. We see him complain about this to Ritchie, his father and his wife. What a whinger.

Donald Sutherland is in it being teased in a nightclub.

The film is described as being about two lesbians and you could read it that way. I think it's about two girls who are mates who have a track record of dating shits and decide to make a go of it together rather than relying on men. So the ending is quite feminist.

Not much happens except Ritchie tries to kill herself at the end. But it's interesting. Great to see a social realist film focus on women (there were  a few eg Taste of Honey, Smashing Time, Georgy Girl).

Romantic track record of Sylvia Syms in her early films

 * My Teenage Daughter - falls for cad who drives a Bentley, crashes parties, knows "jive" and is responsible for her aunt's death

* The Birthday Present - married to man who goes to prison

* No Time for Tears - nurse who falls for sleazy doctor

* The Moonraker -Puritan who falls for Cavalier

*Woman in a Dressing Gown - young woman falls for married man

* Ice Cold in Alex - falls for older military guy

*Bachelor of Hearts - falls for German exchange student

*No Trees in the Street - pimped out to gangster Herbert Lom

*Ferry to Hong Kong - falls for alcoholic Curt Jergens

*Expresso Bongo - stripper in love with promoter Laurence Harvey

*Conspiracy of Hearts - nun

*World of Suzie Wong - in love with man in love with Asian

*Amazons of Rome - Roman in love with Barbarian

*Flame in the Streets - in love with black Johnny Sekka

 *Victim - married to gay Dirk Bogarde

*The Punch and Judy Man - married to Tony Hancock

*The World Ten Times Over - in love with a woman

Movie review - "Flame in the Streets" (1961) **1/2

 This was a TV play then a stage play by Ted Wills. John Mills played Sylvia Syms' lover in Ice Cold in Alex but here they're father and daughter, more appropriate casting.

It's heart is in the right place and some scenes retain their power, such as flinging abuse around, and the issues are still relevant.

People say speeches rather than be real characters. I didn't get the sense Johnny Sekka and Sylvia Syms really loved each other. Or than anyone is a real person. Maybe the dodgy black landlord. The teddy boy racists are just that. Earl Cameron's decent worker is a decent worker.

It's got solid point-counterpoint arguments (Mills wife points out he's never home, Cameron's white wife Ann Lynn shows a more troubled side) but it never comes alive.

The final riot is independent of the main drama. It should've been part of it - like disaffected employers are behind it and specifically target Cameron. And there's not enough oomph. Syms should have died maybe, or Cameron's wife - something to give it more point.

Good on Rank for making it, and in colour and CinemaScope. At least it gives black actors something to play.

Movie review - "Amazons of Rome" (1961) **

Account of Cloelia, who fought the Estrucans - I'm not super familiar with it though I have heard of Horatio at the bridge and he's in this too. But mainly its Cloelia being captured by Etruscans who are fighting Rome, falling for a Barbarian general, escaping with women, returning to fight.

The leads of this are remarkably odd for a peplum - Louis Jourdan as an Etruscan allied barbarian bent on invading Rome, Sylvia Syms as Cloelia. Jourdan looks especially odd. He's always snacking on an apple which is an actor's choice but grates.

Syms has a plucky boyishness which actually sells the character - a little more realistic than the usual statuesque maiden. And while she moons over Jourdan she gets to do more action than him. It's a better role than most of her "girl" parts in British films.

Movie review - "No Time for Tears" (1957) **

 There were a few nurse movies made in Britain in the 1950s - White Unicorn, The Feminine Touch. The novelty of this one is it's set in a children's hospital.

The cast includes Flora Robson, Sylvia Syms and Anna Neagle. The doctors include Anthony Quayle, Michael Hordern and George Baker plus Australia's own Alan White. Joan Sims and Richard O'Sullivan are in there.

Baker plays a love rat doctor who breaks Sym's heart.

Made by Associated British though you're likely to think it's a Rank movie.

Chipper. Nice colour. Episodic. Syms is plucky. But she never had the individuality of say Diana Dors. Some moments can't help but move such as the blind boy. The pantomime show sequence is random - it's as though the filmmakers lacked confidence in the material.

There's probably too many characters and plots - these sort of movies always work best when they focus on a few characters.

Directed by Cyril Frankel - one of the few Anna Neagle movies not directed by Herbert Wilcox.

Movie review - "The Birthday Present" (1957) **1/2

 Interesting drama perhaps better suited to a TV play but still well handled by director Pat Jackson. Tony Britton is a toy sales rep who is busted trying to smuggle an item past customs - a gift for his wife, Sylvia Syms. He tries to keep it secret.

It's very well written and observed. The kindly customs officer, the nasty customs officer, the hail fellow well met co workers, the incompetent solicitor he approaches, another not particularly good lawyer who pleads his case, the snooty judge who sentences him to prison, the unfeeling prison guards.

There is a remarkable sense of events going out of control - Britton gets busted, thinks it's a minor thing, but events snowball. Britton is fine - he's a bit smarmy which adds an element to it (because he's shocked this is happening to him) but I wonder if this would've done better with more of an everyman. Or if had been about Sylvia Syms.

Nicely shot by Ted Scaife. Support cast includes familiar faces like Jack Watling. 

Syms doesn't have a good part. She worries. That's about it. The film seemed to run low on plot after the one hour mark. More complexity from her might've helped. Like if they'd have a kid and/or a lechy best friend moved in. The piece avoids self righteousness until the end when Geoffrey Keen gives a speech

Movie review - "My Teenage Daughter" (1956) **1/2

 Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle tried to move with the times, and good on them, they had a hit with this - a tale of widow Neagle trying to stop daughter Sylvia Syms rooting. Okay that's an exaggeration - she falls for a Bad Penny (Ken Haigh in an early role) who crashes parties, knows jive and drives a Bentley, ignoring the dull farmer who likes her. Bad Penny needs cash, tries to get it off a little old lady who dies of a heart attack. Syms winds up in prison.

Decent melodrama. You can see why Syms would go for Haigh. Neagle is sensible, easy to mock but also empathetic. She's effective.

It's a little silly. Disobey mum and wind up in prison. But it strikes at universal themes.

Movie review - "Bachelor of Hearts" (1958) **

 Amiable dim British comedy about a German student who goes to Cambridge - Hardy Kruger was hot stuff at the time due to The One That Got Away. A German in England isn't really high concept, at least not here. He misunderstands some slang - that's about as much fish gets out of water. The original idea was for a cockney kid to go the Cambridge - that might've had more point.

Cambridge is full of prats as depicted here, so I guess that's accurate? They have japes, smoke pipes, wear sweaters, drive old cars, play dress ups, occasionally go to a lecture.

The cast includes Ronald Lewis, John Richardson, Barbara Steele.  They don't give Richardson much dialogue. Or Steele - but there's no mistaking her look.; Lewis is quite amiable.

Kruger is fine, I guess, though his character is very lechy - he practically entraps Sylvia Syms. Maybe the film would've been better had it been about a female German student - Romy Schneider. Or maybe simply that he just needed a character to play. His German student is too affabble and well adjusted. If he came in as a cliche Tuetonic, no sense of humour, and learned how to soften... that's an arc. But he comes in amiable and goes that way.

The writers were Leslie Bricusse and Frederic Raphael, then collaborators.Location work helps and the colour photography is pleasing. It's amiable. I laughed at the moment where Kruger dresses as versions of the guys to go after their women and in one he acts like an angry young man and the girl gets turned on at him being "so angry". That was funny.

It's a curio. Amiable. Dim. Kruger plays cricket in one scene.

Movie review - "East of Sudan" (1964) **

 I get they wanted to use stock footage but did they have to use so much? The basic idea of this movie isn't bad - group of survivors of a Mahdi attack trudge up river - but they fumbled the casting. Anthony Quayle good an actor as he is is far too posh speaking and inherently genteel to play a lower cast sexy brute of a sergeant, a part that needed, oh I don't know, a young Sean Connery or Patrick McGoohan.

Sylvia Syms should have been ideal as the hoity toity miss but for some reason here comes across as sexless - she was hot as anything in Ice Cold in Alex but not here. Maybe she needed J. Lee Thompson, not Nathan Juran.

Derek Fowlds is the other soldier, who is no threat for Quayle - would have been a better movie if he'd bee more of  a rival or villainous. Jenny Agutter, looking so so young, is the fourth member. She plays a non Brit if I saw that right.

The construction of action and scenes around stock footage is really annoying. People do things just to use stock footage and there's far too much narration during the opening montage

It picks up when the group run into black Africans and they're never sure if they'll be killed or not - this section is quite good.

But really not a good movie.

Movie review - "The Moonraker" (1958) **1/2

 Not the Bond movie but a swashbuckler based on  a play which predated the Fleming novel so they got dibs on the title. It's set in the English Civil War so like most movies set then the heroes are Cavaliers, but the Roundheads aren't painted as villains just tough.

The colour is pleasing, there's plenty of action and the story is solid, if unoriginal - George Baker is a noble who rescues royalists as "The Moonraker". He falls for a Puritan woman (Sylva Syms) who is engaged to a roundhead (Marius Goring).

So far, fair enough, but the film makes some odd decision - Goring isn't a villain he just has a politically different POV to Baker, so the last duel is between Baker and some other guy with dark hair who looks just like Baker. Too many people in the film look like George Baker, it was hard to tell them apart. (There's a servant character whose wife dislikes her husband's loyalty to Baker - he looked too much like Baker).

Sylvia Syms is beautiful and would be revealed to be incredibly sexy in Ice Cold in Alex but is dull here, just hanging around a manor house spouting lines. I did laugh at her in a puritan hat.

The biggest problem though is Baker who simply isn't a star. He's handsome enough and he can act, but he just lacks dash - all while watching this I kept thinking "you're not a star, a support maybe but not a star". They should've given this to Richard Todd or a new TV swashbuckler like Robert Shaw or Roger Moore or someone.

The support cast variers. John LeMesurier is a strong Cromwell, Goring has an interesting crazy eyed look as a Roundhead but his part should have been bigger. People like Paul Witsun Jones are fun. Gary Raymond is spectacularly unmemorable as Prince Charles, the future Charles II. Actors are normally a strong point of British films but this felt undercast.

It was directed by David MacDonald who made some of the worst British movies of the late 40s. This is one of his better pictures but it's still not that well directed; I think he was saved by his story, the photography and costumes.

Movie review - "No Trees in the Street" (1959) **

I have a lot of respect for the efforts of Ted Willis but I'm starting to hate his scripts, with their simple working class folk singing songs and being working class and struggling and overacting melodrama. Maybe I watched this in a bad mood.

I hated the smug cop Ronald Howard, and all the chattering working class singalongs, and the nervy tick hammy acting of the kid brother, and the fact Sylvia Syms was so weak and just whined. The character I had sympathy for was Herbert Lom's gang boss - at least he had a bit of drive; he also has a very sympathetic backstory (beaten up by his dad) and empathetic career arc, being in love with Syms.

The film would've been far better that Sym's character been hot for Lom but she's so anti him and he grabs her and then she kisses him in a really unconvincing scene.

The film felt miscast - Melvyn Hayes never felt like Syms' brother and Joan Miller never felt like her mother. While Syms is a very good actor I feel the movie would've worked better with Diana Dors in her role - there was something more inherently lower class in Dors' personal (had nothing to do with their real circumstances); you would feel her attraction to a gangster more than Syms. Maybe it would've worked better with younger/sexier men... Howard and Lom feel so middle aged. Imagine say, Michael Craig or John Fraser or some other young spunk. It would've been so much more interesting.

In the film's defence maybe the censors wrecked it  - for instance the mother whoring out Syms felt reduced.

But surely the censor wasn't responsible for Hayes' hysterical overacting. By the end of this film I was hating it - Hayes whining on and on, blaming society, blaming Lom, acting, acting, acting. It was a relief when Syms shot him (I think we were meant to think it was tragic but he was so irritating).

I don't mean to be mean. Maybe I should read the original play. The story is solid - gangster employs boy, goes out with his sister whose mother pimps her out. But they didn't execute it well.

Movie review - "Woman in a Dressing Gown" (1957) **1/2

A fascinating film. It does stack the deck in favour of Anthony Quayle shagging his hot younger secretary - Sylvia Syms is so gorgeous, nice, understanding, and sensible... the camera loves her. At least, as directed by J Lee Thompson. She's way too hot for Anthony Quayle but I guess, class system, and Quayle is very good.

Yvonne Mitchell over acts at times as a wife - scatty, messy, clearly depressed. She never looks attractive or like someone Quayle would be with. Yet the film does give her a moment in the sun - she has a lousy life, she lost a child, her living child (Andrew Ray) is selfish. She needs a job and a sense of purpose and the film does acknowledge that.

I did feel the film lacked another character - a parent for Quayle/Mitchell maybe, or another child. Or maybe just flesh out the ones that are there.

I like J. Lee Thompson's direction. He moves the camera around which I feel helps the material. But he lets some scenes breathe.

The film wasn't a whole success for me - I always felt Willis was a bit mean to women and the sympathies of him and Thompson was more with Quayle. Which is true but it's not black and white. I get why some people like this.

Maybe it would work more for me if I'd liked Yvonne Mitchell more - if it had been say one of the Gainsborough gals. I missed Diana Dors - I'm sure Thompson thought about her for the Syms part then decided against it.

Movie review - "Danger Route" (1967) **1/2

Seth Holt directed this but no one was happy with it - not him or Amicus. I've got to say though I didn't mind it.

You can tell it was a tricky production - the movie doesn't have a cohesive feel. Characters come and go. It's like it needed to be in black and white and made five years previously or something. It seems unsure how violent to be, or how sexy, or how cynical. Dr No when it came out felt confident of its tone - this doesn't.

Still there are pleasures - the opening scene of the government agent whispering the job, the novelty of Richard Johnson as a hero. Carol Lynley isn't really at home in this sort of movie - the voice lets her down. Barbara Bouchet has the perect looks - she's a stunner - but not the voice. Maybe Bouchet and Lynley's part should have been combined. They should have had different hair.

Gordon Jackson is excellent as an agent; Maurice Denham isn't bad, Harry Andrew is reliably excellent as are Sylvia Syms and Sam Wanamaker.  The meet cute between Lynley and Johnson - where they pretend to know each other but actually do - predates the similar one in Butch Cassidy 

 Diana Dors is always fun to see - here she's an aging housekeeper, plump, nice, lonely and horny, with a husband in Australia looking "after sheep". Her scenes with Johnson do slightly feel like they're in a different movie to the rest. She would've been better than Lynley in her part but she would've been considered to be too old.

The action scenes aren't particularly well done. This is a movie that got away. But it was late 60s spy stuff with some great actors and twists - I went with it.

Movie review - "Ice Cold in Alex" (1958) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Long - over two hours - and occasionally there are dull patches. Anthony Quayle's South African accent takes some listening to. But it benefits from location work in Libya. Gorgeous photography. Some ideal gritty "sand" action stuff - sand dunes, quick sand, wind.

Sylvia Syms is shot lovingly - someone was in love with her, the cameraman or J Lee Thompson. She gets countless gazing close ups. I'm not complaining, mind. She's beautiful - especially when handing over a cigarette. (Aside: Syms seemed to take over the "Diana Dors" parts in J. Lee Thompson's oeuvre around this time. Coincidence? Dors being in America?)

It's a shame she doesn't have a more sexually charged leading man than John Mills - who seems far more interested in Anthony Quayle. It's good work from Mills, though - playing an alcoholic gives him something to sink his teeth in to. (Though the film kind of celebrates his alcoholism - being about the pursuit of a beer. Mind you it does make for a very satisfying ending. I don't drink but I enjoyed that beer.)

Syms' part actually isn't that great - I mean, she goes along for the ride, drives the truck at key moments - but it's not super duper involved. Harry Andrews is a passenger too. I felt maybe he should've been killed half way.

I love the moment at the end when Mills reveals to Quayle that they know he's a spy - superb acting from Quayle, staring into his glass, going "oh f*ck I thought I had it over them, and had succeeded, but I didn't and kind of to make it worse they've even helped me out." It's a wonderful ending.

I'm actually sympathetic to the US wanting to cut it but to 80 minutes??