Orders to Kill

Last updated

Orders to Kill
"Orders to Kill" (1958).jpg
British theatrical poster
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Written by
  • Paul Dehn
  • George St. George
  • Donald C. Downes (original story)
Produced by Anthony Havelock-Allan
Starring
CinematographyDesmond Dickinson
Edited byGordon Hales
Music by Benjamin Frankel
Distributed by
Release date
  • March 1958 (1958-03) [1]
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£170,832 [2]

Orders to Kill is a 1958 British wartime drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Paul Massie, Eddie Albert and Irene Worth. [3] [4] It was written by Paul Dehn and George St. George based on a story by Donald Chase Downes, [5] [6] a former American intelligence operative who also acted as technical adviser to the film.

Contents

Plot

Gene Summers, a young American bombardier, is selected by Major Kimball to go on a mission to Nazi-occupied Paris and kill a man believed to be a double agent working in the French Resistance. Summers is picked because of his military experience and fluency in French. He receives rigorous training by his handler Major MacMahon and a British naval commander. Summers is enthusiastic, and remembers all of the information he needs by setting it to melodies of childhood songs. MacMahon, however, has misgivings about Summers' boyish enthusiasm, and fears that his youth and inexperience might jeopardise the mission.

Arriving in France, Summers meets his Resistance contact, Léonie, a dressmaker whose clients include the girlfriend of a high-ranking German officer. Léonie gives Summers more information about the man he is to assassinate, Marcel Lafitte. However, after observing and then unexpectedly meeting Lafitte at a café, Summers begins to have second thoughts about his mission. Lafitte seems to be gentle, polite, friendly and intelligent, has a wife and daughter whom he obviously loves, and also dotes on his cat Mimieux, carefully protecting her from harm at a time when cats are being killed and eaten due to food shortages.

At a subsequent meeting, with curfew drawing near, Lafitte apparently saves Summers from being detained by German troops (who are hunting a Resistance assassin) by allowing Summers to take shelter in Lafitte's office. Summers' misgivings deepen and he begins to doubt whether Lafitte is really guilty.

Summers runs back to Léonie and reveals his doubts about Lafitte. She rebukes him sharply for his folly and reminds him that he would not have been given his orders without reason, and then furiously upbraids him after he reacts to her tirade by inadvertently revealing details of his war service. Léonie points out to Summers that he dropped hundreds of bombs on people while he was a pilot. Summers protests that there is a difference between killing a lot of people at a distance and one person up close. "When I dropped bombs I wasn't there at the other end." Léonie then apologises for her curt behaviour and explains to him that her son was killed in the war, and she counters his doubts about Lafitte's supposed innocence by questioning how Lafitte could have known in advance about the German manhunt that Lafitte had helped Summers to evade.

His confidence regained, Summers prepares to kill Lafitte. Returning to Lafitte's office, he first cracks a blunt object over the man's head, but the blow merely stuns him. The stricken Lafitte turns over to look directly up into the eyes of the young man, and utters a single word: "Why?" In a panic, Summers stabs Lafitte with a pair of scissors, killing him. He steals money from Lafitte's table and tries to make the scene look like a robbery.

Narrowly escaping the Gestapo, the distraught Summers hides the money in a cemetery. He tries to contact Léonie, but it is too late: the Nazis have captured her. Racked with guilt, Summers goes off into the night.

Several months later, after Paris has been liberated, MacMahon is giving the newly promoted Colonel Kimball a tour of the now liberated Paris and informs Colonel Kimball that Summers is in a military hospital. After the assassination, Summers became a drunkard, using the money he stole from Lafitte to pay for the liquor. Summers finds out that Léonie was killed by the Nazis after her capture. At first, the major and the colonel try to convince him that Lafitte was guilty and that many lives were saved by killing him. However, Summers is not convinced and, after Kimball departs, insists that MacMahon tell him the truth. MacMahon confirms that Lafitte was in fact innocent.

Summers leaves the hospital and visits Lafitte's wife and daughter, who are now impoverished. Unable to tell them the truth, Summers tells them that Lafitte was one of their best agents in the Resistance and offers them the small compensation of his own back pay..

Cast

Production

The film was based on an original story by Donald Downes. Downes was an important OSS officer involved in numerous operations during the war. He became a writer after the war; his novel Orders to Kill by Downes was published after the film was shot. [7]

The silent movie actress Lillian Gish has a cameo as the pilot's mother

Producer Tony Havelock-Allan said the film was brought to him by Anthony Asquith with whom he had just collaborated. The producer felt it "would have been better with a harder, sharper edge to it. It needed to be conceived more harshly. Both the films I did with Puffin were well made, well crafted, but the impact was soft and did not grip a worldwide audience. Orders to Kill was a very good story — how hard it is to kill an enemy when you get to know him personally — but the public simply didn’t go for it. Puffin had known Lillian Gish in Hollywood in the ’20s and loved her, so that’s how she came to be in it." [8]

Critical reception

At the time of the film's release, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote "this promising melodrama loses steam and credibility and ends in a sad heap of sentiment that should make an old cloak-and-dagger boy turn gray." [9]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This important British film makes a strong, almost unequivocal, moral comment on the effects of war on the individual conscience, and it is these far-reaching implications which give it its main strength. ...The playing of a strangely assorted cast, guided by Asquith's close direction, is generally firm and detailed. Although clearly inexperienced, Paul Massie successfully achieves the character's change from the light-hearted banter of the beginning to the painful internal struggle of the latter half; and Eddie Albert is quietly convincing as his commanding officer and mentor. Leslie French's portrait of the suspected traitor is most subtly observed, as is James Robertson Justice's Naval Commander. Lillian Gish, alas, makes less of an even smaller role as Gene's mother." [10]

The Radio Times called it "a forgotten gem of the British cinema ... a welcome change from the usual British war movie in which Richard Todd or John Mills carry on regardless." [11]

At the Cannes Film Festival, the American juror, Charles Vidor, complained that the film was offensive to the United States and the film did not progress in the competition, although others felt it was the best in the festival. [12]

Accolades

The film won three BAFTA film awards, including best actress for Irene Worth as Léonie and best newcomer to Paul Massie for his performance in the lead role of Summers. [13] The film was entered into the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Wind</i> (1928 film) 1928 film by Victor Sjöström

The Wind is a 1928 American synchronized sound romantic drama film directed by Victor Sjöström. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The movie was adapted by Frances Marion from the 1925 novel of the same name written by Dorothy Scarborough. Featuring Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson and Montagu Love, it is one of the last films released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer without audible dialogue and is considered to be among the greatest "silent" films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Gish</span> American actress (1893–1993)

Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

<i>Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment</i> 1966 British film by Karel Reisz

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Karel Reisz and starring David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave, and Robert Stephens, with Irene Handl and Bernard Bresslaw. It was made by British Lion and produced by Leon Clore from a screenplay by David Mercer, adapted from his BBC television play A Suitable Case for Treatment (1962), in which the leading role was played by Ian Hendry. A film poster for the film is prominently shown in High-Rise (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Gish</span> American actress (1898–1968)

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American stage and screen actress. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.

<i>The Whales of August</i> 1987 film by Lindsay Anderson

The Whales of August is a 1987 American drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The story is based on the play of the same title by David Berry.

<i>The Duellists</i> 1977 historical drama film by Ridley Scott

The Duellists is a 1977 British historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and produced by David Puttnam. Set in France during the Napoleonic Wars, the film focuses on a series of duels between two rival officers, the obsessive Bonapartist Gabriel Feraud and aristocratic Armand d'Hubert, that spans nearly 20 years and reflects the political tumult of early 19th-century France. The film is based on Joseph Conrad's short story "The Duel", first published in A Set of Six.

<i>Hearts of the World</i> 1918 film by D. W. Griffith

Hearts of the World is a 1918 American silent World War I propaganda film written, produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. In an effort to change the American public's neutral stance regarding the war, the British government contacted Griffith due to his stature and reputation for dramatic filmmaking.

<i>Orphans of the Storm</i> 1921 film directed by D. W. Griffith

Orphans of the Storm is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution.

The Adolescent is a French drama film directed by Jeanne Moreau in 1978, released January 1979. It was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. Set deep in the French countryside just before the start of World War II, it shows the idyllic life of a remote village in the mountainous Auvergne where a family from Paris has come to holiday with relatives. The family get-together marks a coming-of-age for daughter Marie, the adolescent of the title.

<i>Annie Laurie</i> (1927 film) 1927 American silent romantic drama film

Annie Laurie is a 1927 American silent romantic drama film directed by John S. Robertson, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and starring Lillian Gish and Norman Kerry. It is about the battles of Scottish clans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Massie</span> Canadian actor and academic (1932–2011)

Paul Massie was a Canadian actor and academic. He later became a theater professor for the University of South Florida during the 1970s. He remained with the faculty until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1996.

<i>The Buccaneer</i> (1938 film) 1938 film by Cecil B. DeMille

The Buccaneer is a 1938 American adventure film made by Paramount Pictures starring Fredric March and based on Jean Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The picture was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Harold Lamb, Edwin Justus Mayer and C. Gardner Sullivan adapted by Jeanie MacPherson from the 1930 novel Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon. The music score was by George Antheil and the cinematography by Victor Milner.

La Bohème is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor, based on the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini. Lillian Gish and John Gilbert star in a tragic romance in which a tubercular seamstress sacrifices her life so that her lover, a bohemian playwright, might pen his masterpiece. Gish, at the height of her influence with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, asserted significant control over the production, determining the story, director, cast, cinematography, and costume design. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

<i>The Great Love</i> (1918 film) 1918 film

The Great Love is a 1918 American silent war drama film directed and written by D. W. Griffith who, along with scenario writer Stanner E.V. Taylor, is credited as "Captain Victor Marier". The film stars George Fawcett and Lillian Gish. Set during World War I, exterior scenes were shot on location in England. The Great Love is now considered to be a lost film.

<i>The Greatest Thing in Life</i> 1918 film

The Greatest Thing in Life is a 1918 American silent drama film about World War I, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, and David Butler. The film is now considered lost as no prints are known to exist.

<i>True Heart Susie</i> 1919 film

True Heart Susie is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the British Film Institute. The film has seen several VHS releases as well as a DVD issue.

<i>The White Sister</i> (1923 film) 1923 film

The White Sister is a 1923 American silent drama film starring Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman, directed by Henry King, and belatedly released by Metro Pictures. It was based on the 1909 play of the same name by Francis Marion Crawford and Walter C. Hackett. It is the second of four adaptations of the play, preceded by a 1915 production and followed by a 1933 sound film, starring Helen Hayes and Clark Gable, and a 1960 Mexican production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1958 Cannes Film Festival</span>

The 11th Cannes Film Festival was held from 2 to 18 May 1958. The Palme d'Or went to The Cranes are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov.

<i>Middle of the Night</i> 1959 film

Middle of the Night is a 1959 American drama film directed by Delbert Mann and starring Kim Novak and Fredric March. This story of a May-December romance was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from his own 1954 teleplay and 1956 Broadway play, both of the same name. The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, and was released by Columbia Pictures.

<i>Remodeling Her Husband</i> 1920 film by Lillian Gish

Remodeling Her Husband is a 1920 American silent comedy film that marked the only time Lillian Gish directed a film.

References

  1. ↑ "Britain's Cannes Entry". Variety . 2 April 1958. p. 2. Retrieved 6 May 2023– via Archive.org.
  2. ↑ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359
  3. ↑ "Orders to Kill". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  4. ↑ Sandra Brennan. "Orders to Kill (1958) - Anthony Asquith - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  5. ↑ "Orders to Kill (1958)". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
  6. ↑ pp. 152-246 Winks, Robin W. Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961 Yale University Press, 1996
  7. ↑ "Orders to Kill". Turner Classic Movies.
  8. ↑ McFarlane, Brian (1997). An autobiography of British cinema : as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it. Metheun. p. 293.
  9. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (18 November 1958). "Screen: 'Orders to Kill'; British Melodrama Is at the Fine Arts". The New York Times . Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "Orders to Kill" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 25 (288): 58. 1 January 1958 – via ProQuest.
  11. ↑ Adrian Turner. "Orders to Kill". RadioTimes. radiotimes.com. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Hift, Fred (21 May 1958). "Fury Inside Cannes Jury". Variety . p. 3. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  13. ↑ "Awards Database". British Academy Of Film And Television Arts. Retrieved 11 June 2008.
  14. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Orders to Kill". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.