Permission to Kill | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cyril Frankel |
Written by | Robin Estridge |
Produced by | Paul Mills |
Starring | Dirk Bogarde Ava Gardner Bekim Fehmiu |
Cinematography | Freddie Young |
Edited by | Ernest Walter |
Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
Production company | |
Distributed by | AVCO Embassy Pictures (in the United Kingdom through Columbia-Warner Distributors [2] ) |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Countries | Austria United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Permission to Kill (also known as The Executioner and Vollmacht Zum Mord) is a 1975 Austrian/American/British spy thriller film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Dirk Bogarde, Ava Gardner and Bekim Fehmiu with Timothy Dalton, Nicole Calfan and Frederic Forrest. [3] It was produced by Paul Mills from a screenplay by Robin Estridge, made by Sascha-Verleih and distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures. The film had original music by Richard Rodney Bennett and the cinematography was by Freddie Young.
British agents try to stop a communist returning home from the West. [4]
The film was shot at the Sievering Studios in Vienna and on location in Gmunden, Austria.[ citation needed ]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A suspense thriller entirely devoid of tension since Robin Estridge, from whose novel it is adapted, has failed to provide his protagonist Diakim with an authentic political identity. Lacking the vaguest idea who Diakim is or what he stands for, audiences can hardly be expected to feel strongly about his life or his death. The plot's overall lack of definition is not improved by the tritely ominous secrecy surrounding the character of Curtis, an agent of implausible efficiency and ruthlessness who would have been more at home in a fantasy thriller than in this pretentious political mishmash. ... The film reaches its melodramatic nadir when Lord, his bloody chest uncovered, is laid prominently on a table in the bustling HQ of Western Intelligence Liaison, studiously ignored by the hard-hearted Curtis while a secretary dabs ineffectively at the wound with a minuscule piece of cottonwool. Bogarde, at his best for some time recently in roles requiring understated menace, here shields behind his poker-face and occasionally twitching upper lip. The tousled but still good-looking Ava Gardner, in the thin supporting role of Katina, emotes heavily in a style of acting more suited to the star vehicles of an earlier age." [5]
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her performance in Robert Siodmak's film noir The Killers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in John Ford's Mogambo (1953), and for best actress for both a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her performance in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964). She was a part of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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