VividSimon Simply Perfect

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Jay Harris This is based on an unfinished novel by the immortal Jack London, The novel was finished by Robert L Fish. Micheal Relph wrote the delightful screenplay & Basil Reardon directed.Both the writer & director were 2 of the best.We now come to the cast & what a cast.Oliver Reed,this was his second major role,his first major role was the murderous Bill Sykes in Oliver-- 1968's best film..Diana Rigg who had just finished her long run as Emma Peel in The Avengers.This film is a satiric comic look at Europe right before the start of World War 1.Giving excellent support to our stars are Curt Jergens,Telly Sevallas,Philipe Noiret & Beryl Reed among others.At times it may be a bit silly,BUT the director was able to bring the proper focus back easily. In 1969, when I first saw this may rating may have been lower,BUT compared to the junk today, this is an excellent film.It is not to be take seriously, sit back & enjoy the shenanigan's.Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 95 points (out of 100) IMDb 9 (out of 10)

pashli * Some spoilers *They may travel by horse, train, gondola or zeppelin, but a good cast cannot completely escape the pedestrian plotting and direction of 'The Assassination Bureau.'Still, this movie offers the occasional witty line and scenic if stock footage. While there is the requisite amount of on-screen mayhem, it's somewhat comic. And unlike most modern summer movies, watching this won't kill your brain cells.Fans of particular cast members may find 'The Assassination Bureau' worth seeking out, if ultimately less fun than it could be.As other reviewers indicate, serious Jack London's interesting moral dilemma _ the corruption of a group of avengers dedicated to wiping out corrupt rulers _ got turned into comedy by Robert Fish, and the movie takes the slapstick bit from there.While admittedly long in the tooth to be playing a neophyte journalist, Diana Rigg is otherwise well cast as crusading investigator Sonya Winter. With her posh elocution and boyish figure, Rigg seems just the type of prim do-gooder to take it upon herself to root out evil.But the other leads are, ahem, cast against type.This was the first of two movies (the other being 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service') where New Yawk Telly Savalas brought his Bronx accent to a role as an upper-crust European opposite Rigg. They actually get along quite jollily in both films, but in neither is Savalas right for his part. Rough and tumble Oliver Reed is called upon to play the polite, polished leader of the eponymous bureau. Unfortunately, Reed has no comic timing, leaving it to the always arch Rigg to do most of the mugging in their scenes together. And while plenty of knives and swords come to hand, you could cut the sexual tension between Reed and Rigg with a plastic spoon.Despite all this, the actors are troupers. Savalas enjoys hamming it up as Lord Bostwick, a black-hearted master of the yellow press. Reed responds to Rigg with a sort of professional courtesy, and patiently makes his way through the comic bits while waiting for the next bit of action.Much of your response to this movie may depend on whether you enjoy similar Sixties period pieces like 'The Great Race,' with a cast of characters representing national stereotypes: glum Russian, mad German, sybaritic Frenchman, sexy Italian. There is a great supporting cast, including Curd Jurgens, Beryl Reid, Phillippe Noiret and Vernon Dobtcheff, but they must work their stuff within the confines of these types.As they do, the story becomes a chase across Europe, albeit one featuring back projection and sound stages. Some of the individual episodes are well played, but they become repetitive as Reed heroically eludes his own henchmen.A stop in Venice is more inventive, as well-endowed Annabella Incontrera shows up as a Borgia-style contessa. But the movie begins to become imbalanced. While Incontrera is striking sparks with Reed, Rigg is jumping around on a bed while dressed only in a towel. She's trying to dislodge a bomb _ rather than simply leaving the room. It's a scene straight out of 'The Man Show,' and obviously intended for a woman with far more bounce than poor flat-as-a-pancake Diana Rigg.Adding to the indignity, her heretofore chastely independent character then "surrenders" to Oliver Reed _ out of nerves, apparently _ and is forced to mouth appropriate clichés. Rigg's reward is a scene where she's shown tugging on corset laces in an attempt to improve her cleavage. There's no change, but Rigg seems happy anyway and no wonder, since the garment has a balconette bra already jutting out well beyond her natural contours. Even artificially enhanced, Rigg mysteriously loses director Basil Dearden's interest. She virtually disappears for the last 20 minutes of the movie as it becomes a boys-only ripping yarn. In truth, though, that's reasonably entertaining as the male leads are certainly prepared to buckle some swash. Reed finally comes into his own as he wins the hearts and minds of royalty _ oh, good. The special effects are effective for the era, although viewers addicted to CGI may want to look away. As noted, the scenery is largely stock footage with sometimes glaring rear projection, but it still can be striking.In short, viewers expecting a magnificent comic romp need to lower their sights, but 'The Assassination Bureau' makes a decent showing.

silverscreen888 If the awestruck viewer of this lovely, spacious-looking and delightful satire can get past the multiple locales, the elaborate and often-sumptuous style and the sheer colorfulness of the goings-on, there is a solid and interesting plot line under propping the entire gorgeous edifice. Behind the overwhelming "stylishness" that first greets the eyes, and it is a wonderfully varied and colorful production, Jack London's fascinating story of the "assassination bureau" has been updated by writer Robert L. Fish to be an "ethical" idea gone wrong. The basic premise is that the pragmatic and cynical end of the 19th Century with its pseudo-Christian thug-like monarchs, dynasts and empire-builders was unjust to individual victims. because this situation led some to wish the worst offenders removed from their tyrannies and interferences, Ivan Dragomilov's father created the Assassination Baureau, Ltd. However, an instrument designed to remove the worst offending baddies from an imperfect world has now become a murder-for-hire problem. Enter Diana Rigg, who finds out how to hire the Bureau to take a contract on--Ivan Dragomilov, played intelligently by Oliver reed. He accepts the contract, recognizing what his father's "noble instrument" has been allowed to become. The remainder of the film's scenes then feature a long and fascinatingly funny duel between Rigg and Oliver and the bureau's chiefs, against whom Reed has declared war. These stalwarts include stalwarts such as the great Curt Jurgens in Germany, Cilve Revill in Italy, Telly Savals in London and others in Paris and elsewhere. Sweeping scenes such as the French bordello scenes, the German Restaurant duel, the hilarious Italian caper, the flaming-lighter escape on the train trick and others lead to the climactic race to save London from Savalas's explosive plot. The lovely mounting of the production is highlighted by Basil Dearden's wonderful ability with actors, blocking, and camera-work, Art Director Michael Relph's award-level contributions, magnificent costumes luminous lighting and many other achievements. Many other actors including Beryl Reed, Philippe Noiret and pretty Annabella Incontrera contributed; Ron Grainer's music is a great asset also. But I believe what sets this satirical thriller apart is its realistic ethical dimension; the fact that the Age of Empire was an age of evil governments and unethical pretensions by state tsars has not even now been recognized. This long and intensely-diverting film is a beautiful-polished needle that pricks a much-needed hole in the gasbag of public-interest-tyranny's post modernistic pretensions. It is a film that deserves to be laughed with, applauded and considered carefully for its positive sense-of-life and all-around sparkling wit, dialogue and spirit of adventurous fun.

jake87 Perhaps it's the effect of vibrations from all the bombs in the story, but the intended comic souffle of `The Assassination Bureau' never rises beyond mild amusement. While the movie doesn't crash and burn, it also doesn't take full advantage of the ingredients at hand, including a story co-written by Jack London. In the hands of director Basil Dearden and writer Michael Relph, what should be lighter than air becomes a lead zeppelin.That said, `The Assassination Bureau' does have its moments, and won't actually kill brain cells like much current summer fare. Things start off promisingly enough. Diana Rigg seems well-cast as a prim, proto-feminist trying to break into journalism by exposing the nefarious bureau. Oliver Reed is suitably bemused as the bureau's idealistic head, embarrassed by too polite to demur when Rigg suggests his own murder. Telly Savalas isn't very British, but he does have fun as the real villain. He's that epitome of evil, a Fleet Street press lord (some things never change). Morose Vernon Dobtcheff and corrupt Philippe Noiret have amusing turns as two of the bureau's henchmen, who are all represented as national stereotypes. Unfortunately, the repeated misfire attempts on Reed's life lack panache, they become predictable and repetitious.Mid-way through, glamorous Beryl Reid is brought in to sex things up a bit as a Borgia-like Venetian bella donna. There's a brief cross-cut scene contrasting the curvaceous Reid with the boyish Diana Rigg as they lace themselves into corsets. But this is a tame movie, an action-comedy as opposed to a romance. Beryl Reid is quickly dismissed. Despite their off-screen reputations, Rigg and Oliver Reed generate no sparks on it. Indeed, once Beryl Reid is gone, the movie becomes a sort of ripping yarn for boys. Oliver Reed buckles his swash well enough, but Rigg is marginalized. `The Assassination Bureau' is worth renting on an otherwise idle evening, but you might want to read Jack London instead.