Maroc 7 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gerry O'Hara |
Written by | David D. Osborn |
Produced by | John Gale Leslie Phillips Martin C. Schute |
Starring | Gene Barry Elsa Martinelli Leslie Phillips |
Cinematography | Kenneth Talbot |
Edited by | John Jympson |
Music by | Kenneth V. Jones |
Production company | Cyclone Films |
Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £399,835 [1] : 12 [2] |
Box office | £214,494 [1] : 15 |
Maroc 7 is a 1967 British thriller film directed by Gerry O'Hara, starring Gene Barry, Cyd Charisse, Elsa Martinelli, Leslie Phillips and Denholm Elliott. [3]
Louise Henderson is the editor of a respected fashion magazine, but she has a secret career as mastermind of a ring of thieves. With their professional operation as a front, Henderson uses one of her models, Claudia, and a photographer, Raymond Lowe, to steal precious artefacts and jewels. Law enforcement agencies have their suspicions about her, so undercover man Simon Grant is assigned the case. He pretends to be a safecracker to infiltrate Henderson's gang, travelling to Morocco, where Henderson intends to switch an imitation Arabian medallion for a priceless real one.
Grant is given cooperation in Morocco by Chief of Police Barrada. Things go wrong when Grant needs to kill Lowe, who has followed him. The theft takes place as planned, until Claudia dies while trying to take the medallion from Grant. To the surprise of cops and robbers alike, the precious medallion is stolen by the one person none of them suspected.
The film was the fifth in a series of movies jointly financed by Rank and the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC). [1]
Producer Leslie Phillips had seen The Pleasure Girls (1965) and hired its director Gerry O'Hara, who was under contract to Sydney Box. According to O'Hara, Gene Barry replaced a German actor who pulled out of the film. O'Hara said the film was "not a very happy experience... I went over budget. There were lots of problems." [4]
The instrumental theme song, "Maroc 7", by The Shadows was released as a single [5] and rose to No. 24 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1967. [6]
On the release of the film, a novelization of the screenplay was published by John Burke, writing as "Martin Sands." [7]
Kine Weekly wrote: "After a slowish and over-mysterious start, the picture gets into a very entertaining stride and the double-twist ending is fun". [8]
Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite an attractive cast and a fashionably post-Bond script, something seems to have gone sadly awry with this thriller." [9]
The New Statesman described the film as "a feeble thriller, ... Denholm Elliott, the archetypal Old Etonian, is cast as a French-Moroccan cop. Gene Barry has the quizzical air of man who's just read the script." [10]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Complex sub-Bond tale of cross and double-cross; hardly worth following really." [11]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "The heavily insured legs of Cyd Charisse are on display in this lacklustre crime caper. ... One of those misfires that makes you wonder why someone in the production line didn’t cry out “Stop, abandon ship”." [12]
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Gene Barry was an American stage, screen, and television actor and singer. Barry is best remembered for his leading roles in the films The Atomic City (1952) and The War of the Worlds (1953) and for his portrayal of the title characters in the TV series Bat Masterson and Burke's Law, among many roles.
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Nothing but the Best is a 1964 British black comedy film directed by Clive Donner and starring Alan Bates, Denholm Elliott, Harry Andrews and Millicent Martin. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is based on the 1952 short story "The Best of Everything" by Stanley Ellin.
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Upstairs and Downstairs is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Michael Craig, Anne Heywood, Mylène Demongeot, Claudia Cardinale, James Robertson Justice, Joan Sims, Joan Hickson and Sid James. It features the first English-language performance of Claudia Cardinale.
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The Pleasure Girls is a 1965 British drama film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Francesca Annis, Ian McShane and Klaus Kinski.
You Must Be Joking! is a 1965 black and white British comedy film directed by Michael Winner and starring Michael Callan, Lionel Jeffries, and Denholm Elliott. It was written by Alan Hackney, from a story by Winner.
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