The File of the Golden Goose

Last updated

The File of the Golden Goose
The-file-of-the-golden-goose-movie-poster-1969.jpg
Directed by Sam Wanamaker
Written by Robert E. Kent
Screenplay by John C. Higgins
Story byJohn C. Higgins
Produced by David E. Rose
Edward Small (executive) [1]
Starring
Narrated by Patrick Allen
Cinematography Ken Hodges
Edited by Oswald Hafenrichter
Music by Harry Robertson
Production
companies
Caralan Productions Ltd.
Dador Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release dates
  • June 1969 (1969-06)(UK)
  • October 2, 1969 (1969-10-02)(NYC)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The File of the Golden Goose is a 1969 British neo noir thriller film directed by Sam Wanamaker and starring Yul Brynner, Charles Gray and Edward Woodward. [2] [3] Its plot involves an American detective being sent to Britain to track down a major international criminal. [4]

Contents

It is a reworking of the 1947 American film noir T-Men , directed by Anthony Mann.

Plot summary

A trail of counterfeit hundred dollar bills has been discovered in several places around the world. When this comes to the attention of the United States Secret Service, they assign one of their top men, Pete Novak, to the case of finding out who is producing and distributing them.

Pete realizes that this is an assignment that demands his full attention, so he immediately breaks up with his girlfriend in preparation for the journey he must take. Before Pete can even begin his search, he is ambushed by a gang of hoodlums trying to shoot him down as they drive by outside his home. He concludes that the gang must have been tipped off by someone on the inside of the service about his new assignment. He manages to kill them, but discovers afterwards that the killers have accidentally shot and killed his ex-girlfriend in the process.

The killing of the girlfriend makes the whole assignment very personal for Pete. To begin the search for the counterfeit distributor, he travels across the Atlantic to London to visit Scotland Yard headquarters, since they are in charge of the counterfeit investigation in Europe. There, he meets up with Superintendent Sloane of the Yard, who arranges for him to be partnered by an investigator by the name of Arthur Thompson. Arthur is a very happily married jolly old copper, who manages to ignore all of Pete’s remarks about the inappropriateness of being a married man working as an agent or policeman.

Pete and Arthur start infiltrating the counterfeit organization, posing as members of the Golden Goose gang – a gang that has been all but erased from the face of the earth by the police. They use their fake identities to hide their undercover infiltration from the head of the illegal operation, "The Owl" Harrison, and are ultimately successful in stopping the counterfeit operation. [5]

Cast

Related Research Articles

<i>The Magnificent Seven</i> 1960 film directed by John Sturges

The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay, credited to William Roberts, is a remake – in an Old West-style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai. The ensemble cast includes Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, and Horst Buchholz as a group of seven gunfighters and Eli Wallach as their main antagonist. The seven title characters are hired to protect a small village in Mexico from a group of marauding bandits led by Wallach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yul Brynner</span> Russian-born actor (1920–1985)

Yuliy Borisovich Briner, known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards, and later an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film adaptation. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for The King and I. Considered one of the first Russian-American film stars, he was honored with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956, and also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanne Woodward</span> American actress (born 1930)

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American retired actress. With a career spanning over 60 years, she has been a star since the Golden Age of Hollywood, Woodward made her career breakthrough in the 1950s and earned esteem and respect playing complex women with a characteristic nuance and depth of character. She is one of the first film stars to have an equal presence in television. Her accolades include an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema and the oldest living Best Actress Oscar-winner.

<i>Golden Yeggs</i> 1950 film by Friz Freleng

Golden Yeggs is a 1950 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon was released on August 5, 1950, and stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. A forerunner of the Rocky and Mugsy characters appear, with Rocky already in his present-day form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Gotell</span> German-British actor (1924–1997)

Walter Jack Gotell was a German-British actor. He was well-known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the Roger Moore-era of the James Bond film series, as well as having played the role of Morzeny, a villain, in From Russia With Love. He also appeared as Gogol in the final part of The Living Daylights (1987), Timothy Dalton's debut Bond film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Felt</span> Watergate scandal whistleblower (1913–2008)

William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Deputy Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980, he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.

<i>Black Tuesday</i> (film) 1954 film by Hugo Fregonese

Black Tuesday is a 1954 American crime drama film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves and Jean Parker. The supporting cast features Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly and Russell Johnson.

<i>T-Men</i> 1947 film by Anthony Mann

T-Men is a 1947 semidocumentary and police procedural style film noir about United States Treasury agents. The film was directed by Anthony Mann and shot by noted noir cameraman John Alton. The production features Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade, Alfred Ryder, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart and Charles McGraw. A year later, director Mann used the film's male lead, Dennis O'Keefe, in Raw Deal.

<i>Port of New York</i> (film) 1949 film by László Benedek

Port of New York is a 1949 American film noir/crime film directed by László Benedek with cinematography by George E. Diskant and shot in semidocumentary style. The film is notable for being Yul Brynner's first film appearance. The film, which is very similar to T-Men (1947), was shot on location in New York City.

<i>Guns of the Magnificent Seven</i> 1969 film by Paul Wendkos

Guns of the Magnificent Seven is a 1969 Western, styled in the genre of a Zapata Western, the second sequel to the classic 1960 Western action film The Magnificent Seven, itself based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). The film was directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly. It stars George Kennedy as Chris Adams, the character Yul Brynner portrayed in the first two films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Wright (actor)</span> American character actor (1894–1962)

William Henry "Will" Wright was an American actor. He was frequently cast in Westerns and as a curmudgeonly and argumentative old man. Over the course of his career, Wright appeared in more than 200 film and television roles.

"Golden Opportunity" is an episode of the long-running police procedural television series, The Bill, broadcast on 16 April 2002. The episode is significant in the show's history, as it features the events of the first Sun Hill Fire, which resulted in the death of six officers. The episode attracted 8.6 million viewers, and was the first of the few times computer generated imagery had been used on the show. With new producer Paul Marquess wanting to change the cast significantly and the station set due to be redeveloped, the decision was made to stage a dramatic explosion and fire on the set, a storyline that led to the axing of eight characters in total during the events of the storyline.

<i>The Chairman</i> (1969 film) 1969 film by J. Lee Thompson

The Chairman is a 1969 spy film starring Gregory Peck. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay was by Ben Maddow based on a novel by Jay Richard Kennedy.

Osamu Kobayashi was a Japanese actor, voice actor and the former executive director of Dōjinsha Production until its closure. He was a baritone.

<i>The League</i> American television sitcom (2009–2015)

The League is an American television sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football league, its members, and their everyday lives.

<i>Sol Madrid</i> 1968 film by Brian G. Hutton

Sol Madrid is a 1968 film directed by Brian G. Hutton and filmed in Acapulco. Based on based on the 1965 novel Fruit of the Poppy by Robert Wilder, it was released in the UK as The Heroin Gang and in Australia as The Secret File of Sol Madrid. The MGM film starred David McCallum, Stella Stevens, Telly Savalas and Ricardo Montalbán with John Cassavetes being replaced by Rip Torn prior to filming. It was the final film of Paul Lukas.

<i>Dusty Ermine</i> 1936 British film

Dusty Ermine is a 1936 British crime film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring Anthony Bushell, Jane Baxter and Ronald Squire. In the United States it was released under the alternative title Hideout in the Alps. It was based on the play of the same title by Neil Grant.

<i>Glass Chin</i> 2014 American film

Glass Chin is a 2014 American crime drama film written and directed by Noah Buschel, starring Corey Stoll, Billy Crudup, Marin Ireland, Yul Vazquez and Kelly Lynch. It premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

<i>New Orleans Uncensored</i> 1955 film by William Castle

New Orleans Uncensored is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by William Castle and starring Arthur Franz and Beverly Garland.

<i>Death on the Riviera</i> 1952 novel

Death on the Riviera is a 1952 detective novel by the British writer John Bude. It was part of a series featuring Superintendent Meredith of Scotland Yard. While Bude set many of his earlier novels in regional England, after the Second World War they made increasing use of more exotic, Continental settings. In 2016 it was reissued by the British Library Publishing as part of a group of republished crime novels from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

References

  1. "'Kremlin Letter' Set in Spring" Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 27 Aug 1968: d17.
  2. "The File of the Golden Goose". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  3. BFI.org
  4. Thompson, Howard (3 October 1969). "Spy Story: Golden Goose' Treads a Familiar Trail". New York Times. p. 34.
  5. "The File of the Golden Goose". DVDtalk.com. 27 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2018.