The Liquidator (film)
Encyclopedia
The Liquidator is a 1965
MGM film starring Rod Taylor as Brian "Boysie" Oakes
, Trevor Howard
as his Intelligence Chief Mostyn and Jill St. John
as Mostyn's secretary Iris MacIntosh. It was based on the first of a series of Boysie Oakes
novels by John Gardner
, The Liquidator
.
closely. It begins at the end of World War II
when tank corps sergeant Oakes unwittingly saves British Intelligence Major Mostyn from an assassination attempt in Paris.
Twenty years later Mostyn's memories have elevated Oakes into a fearless master assassin when nothing could be further from the truth. He recruits Oakes into the Secret Service where after a training course, he is given the code name
"L" whilst HM Government provides him with an enviable lifestyle. When the cowardly Oakes discovers that his function is to 'liquidate' security risks to the State, he hires a freelance professional assassin
(Eric Sykes
) to do the dirty work and maintain his position.
Things go well until Oakes seduces Mostyn's secretary Iris into coming with him to the Côte d'Azur. There he is captured by enemy agents led by Akim Tamiroff
and becomes a dupe in an assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh
when he visits an R.A.F. base.
, Gabriella Licudi
, David Langton
, Suzy Kendall
and Alexandra Bastedo
. Composer Lalo Schifrin
's score includes a driving main title vocal theme and a soft end title theme ("My Liquidator") both sung by Shirley Bassey
with animated titles by the Richard Williams studio. Other than the Goldfinger
-type title song, Lalo Schifrin deliberately avoided the John Barry
James Bond
style of music.
Rod Taylor displays his gifts at being convincing in both comedy and action where he performed his own stunts. He insisted on playing the role in an American accent because he was more comfortable with it by that stage in his career.
Producer Jon Pennington brought Australian screenwriter Peter Yeldham to the project after both had cooperated on The Comedy Man
(1963).
Like Where the Spies Are
, also filmed in MGM-British Studios
, MGM planned a Boysie Oakes series. However due to a legal dispute the film's original November 1965 release was delayed to the end of 1966 when the spy film craze was waning. Cardiff recalled that the censors made them delete one of Taylor's lines, "it smells like a Turkish wrestler's jockstrap".
1965 in film
The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
MGM film starring Rod Taylor as Brian "Boysie" Oakes
Boysie Oakes
Boysie Oakes is fictional secret agent created by the British spy novelist John Gardner in 1964 at the height of the fictional spy mania. Oakes is a richly comic character who is inadvertently taken to be a tough, pitiless man of action and is thereupon recruited into a British spy agency...
, Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
as his Intelligence Chief Mostyn and Jill St. John
Jill St. John
Jill St. John is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Tiffany Case, the lead Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever.-Early life:...
as Mostyn's secretary Iris MacIntosh. It was based on the first of a series of Boysie Oakes
Boysie Oakes
Boysie Oakes is fictional secret agent created by the British spy novelist John Gardner in 1964 at the height of the fictional spy mania. Oakes is a richly comic character who is inadvertently taken to be a tough, pitiless man of action and is thereupon recruited into a British spy agency...
novels by John Gardner
John Gardner (thriller writer)
John Edmund Gardner was an English spy novelist, most notably for the James Bond series.-Early life:Gardner was born in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge and did postgraduate study at Oxford...
, The Liquidator
The Liquidator (novel)
The Liquidator was the first novel written by John Gardner and the first novel in his Boysie Oakes series.After publishing his autobiographical account of alcoholism Spin the Bottle, Gardner decided to write a novel about governments killing people...
.
Plot
The film follows John Gardner's 1964 novelThe Liquidator (novel)
The Liquidator was the first novel written by John Gardner and the first novel in his Boysie Oakes series.After publishing his autobiographical account of alcoholism Spin the Bottle, Gardner decided to write a novel about governments killing people...
closely. It begins at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when tank corps sergeant Oakes unwittingly saves British Intelligence Major Mostyn from an assassination attempt in Paris.
Twenty years later Mostyn's memories have elevated Oakes into a fearless master assassin when nothing could be further from the truth. He recruits Oakes into the Secret Service where after a training course, he is given the code name
Code name
A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
"L" whilst HM Government provides him with an enviable lifestyle. When the cowardly Oakes discovers that his function is to 'liquidate' security risks to the State, he hires a freelance professional assassin
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
(Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
) to do the dirty work and maintain his position.
Things go well until Oakes seduces Mostyn's secretary Iris into coming with him to the Côte d'Azur. There he is captured by enemy agents led by Akim Tamiroff
Akim Tamiroff
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
and becomes a dupe in an assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
when he visits an R.A.F. base.
Production
The film also features David TomlinsonDavid Tomlinson
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...
, Gabriella Licudi
Gabriella Licudi
Gabriella Licudi is a Moroccan-born British former actress.Born in Casablanca while her father, a Greek naval engineer, was stationed there, Gabriella Licudi was educated in England, France and Spain before settling permanently in England at the age of fifteen...
, David Langton
David Langton
David Muir Langton was a British actor who is best remembered for playing Richard Bellamy in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early years:...
, Suzy Kendall
Suzy Kendall
Suzy Kendall is a British actress best known for her film roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her blonde attractive looks got her leading roles in some fairly prestigious productions...
and Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo is a British actress, best-known for her role as secret agent Sharron Macready in the 1968 British espionage/science fiction adventure series The Champions...
. Composer Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
's score includes a driving main title vocal theme and a soft end title theme ("My Liquidator") both sung by Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
with animated titles by the Richard Williams studio. Other than the Goldfinger
Goldfinger
Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 23 March 1959. Goldfinger originally bore the title The Richest Man in the World and was written in January and February 1958...
-type title song, Lalo Schifrin deliberately avoided the John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
style of music.
Rod Taylor displays his gifts at being convincing in both comedy and action where he performed his own stunts. He insisted on playing the role in an American accent because he was more comfortable with it by that stage in his career.
Producer Jon Pennington brought Australian screenwriter Peter Yeldham to the project after both had cooperated on The Comedy Man
The Comedy Man
The Comedy Man is a 1964 British drama film directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring Kenneth More, Cecil Parker, Dennis Price and Billie Whitelaw...
(1963).
Like Where the Spies Are
Where the Spies Are
Where the Spies Are is a 1965 MGM British comedy adventure film directed by Val Guest and featuring David Niven as Dr Jason Love, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier, Cyril Cusack and Richard Marner. It was based on the James Leasor book Passport to Oblivion...
, also filmed in MGM-British Studios
MGM-British Studios
MGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer initially established at Denham Film Studios in 1936. The films produced there were A Yank at Oxford , The Citadel , Goodbye, Mr...
, MGM planned a Boysie Oakes series. However due to a legal dispute the film's original November 1965 release was delayed to the end of 1966 when the spy film craze was waning. Cardiff recalled that the censors made them delete one of Taylor's lines, "it smells like a Turkish wrestler's jockstrap".
External links
- Original trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUB__PR7EiI
- The Liquidator (novel) http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/liquidator.html