The File Of The Golden Goose

The File of the Golden Goose (1969)

Runtime: 105 minutes

Directed by: Sam Wanamaker

Starring: Yul Brynner, Charles Gray, Edward Woodward, John Barrie, Adrienne Corri

From: Edward Small Productions

I realize this is a film you probably have never heard of before. I never heard of it until about an hour before I saw it would be on TV. The review of this UK-set movie (complete w/ a scene with some Mod people) is below via Letterboxd; it's unfortunately just average.

This was a random watch for me; I had never even heard of this spy thriller before I noticed it would be on MGM HD Wednesday night. I looked at the plot and the cast & I was interested.

In short, it's about an American Secret Service agent (Yul Brynner) who goes to the UK and teams up with an investigator from Scotland Yard (Edward Woodward) to take down a ring of counterfeiters who are copying American cash. The leader of that gang is known as The Owl... who is also a homosexual... only for shock value, at least according to how the movie plays it. That is lamentable but note that The Owl was played by Charles Gray. Another famous face in the movie is Walter Gotell.

The movie is pretty obscure these days and while not awful, I can only rate it as about average. In terms of the plot and characters, there are many other films such as this that do it better, all the intrigue, double-crossing, and the rest. At least I can say that Yul's performance was fine-and you see more of him than you do his English counterpart-and the score was the expected groovy late 60's spy movie music.

What was not expected: a scene that also managed to be the highlight for me. You get to see Gray and others at a psychedelic freak-out party... or at least what a bunch of squares thought a psychedelic freak-out party was. It was hilarious; I almost expected Austin Powers to show up. It was nice to have a good laugh like that. There isn't too much else to say about the film.