THE EXECUTIONER (1970)

 

This is another Tubi discovery, a movie I had never heard of. It's a Cold War espionage tale that came out after the 1960s spy craze had already died down. It doesn't try to be an exciting Bond-like glitzy adventure--it takes the dour John Le Carre route of lies, deceit, and bureaucratic infighting, and it succeeds too well in doing it. 

George Peppard is British Intelligence agent John Shay (the character was born in England, but grew up in America, explaining his accent). Shay gets the blame for a botched operation in Czechoslovakia, but he believes the fault is that of a double agent working for the Russians. With the help of his girlfriend Polly (Judy Geeson), who happens to be a clerk in the Intelligence office, Shay gets access to files that convinces him the traitor is high-level operative Adam Booth (Keith Michell). Booth happens to be married to Sarah (Joan Collins), an old flame of John's, and mainly due to this no one takes Shay's charges seriously. Undaunted, Shay proceeds to take matters into his own hands, causing more trouble and grief to all those involved in the situation. 

THE EXECUTIONER has a slow pace, very little action, and a storyline that is hard to follow (it doesn't help that a number of flashbacks are inserted from time to time). The choice of leading man also hurts the movie. On the big screen George Peppard, at least in the films I've seen him in, always has a remote, detached persona, and he certainly has that in THE EXECUTIONER. One could make the excuse that an intelligence agent needs to be remote and detached, but Peppard's Shay doesn't engage the audience, and he's not very likable either. Shay uses his girlfriend to steal files for him, causing her to lose his job, while still desiring Sarah, who happens to be married to the man he's accusing of being a traitor. It's no wonder Shay's bosses at British Intelligence don't believe him--while watching the movie I started to wonder if Shay was the one who was going to turn out to be a Russian agent. (Peppard did much better as an actor on American TV.) 

The delectable Judy Geeson does bring some much needed brightness to the plot as Polly, a young woman, who, amazingly, stays loyal to Shay throughout the film. Joan Collins as Sarah is less truculent than usual, but she's still portraying a woman who entices multiple men, and causes problems for all of them. The cast is rounded out by the likes of stalwart supporting players one always sees in this type of international production--Oskar Homolka, Charles Gray, Nigel Patrick, and George Baker. 

THE EXECUTIONER was produced by Charles Schneer, who is best known for his collaborations with Ray Harryhausen and Columbia Pictures. The movie was directed by Sam Wanamaker, who uses a lot of artsy camera set-ups, but doesn't do much to increase the pace or make things more gripping. The film was shot in London and Greece, but none of the locations particularly stand out. 

A late plot twist in THE EXECUTIONER might have enabled it to stand out from all the other many spy films made during this period, but the twist is negated at the very end in order to make a "safer" ending. The result is that the movie is very low on the list of 007 knockoffs. It's not very entertaining, or suspenseful, and the leading character is someone you're not all that concerned for.