Runtime: The copy on
Amazon is 96 minutes long
Directed by: Terence Young
Starring: An all-star
cast. The leads are E.G. Marshall, Trevor Howard, Marcello
Mastroianni, Angie Dickinson, and Gilbert Roland
From: Several entities...
including the United Nations!
This is also sometimes
known as Poppies Are Also Flowers; whatever you want to call this,
the film is just plain odd:
This
is a unique film I have known of for awhile now and last night I
finally sat down to watch it, as a version is on Prime for free. That
print has the credits and all intertitles in French yet the cast speaks
English, so go figure. Anyhow, this was one of a few films that the
United Nations (!) were involved with back in the 60's. This was an 80
minute feature that debuted on American network TV but after the fact
was turned into a 100 minute (if you include the Princess Grace
prologue, where she talks about how terrible it is that the poppy is
used to make heroin; that print is on YouTube, albeit in not so good
quality) film where the story came from Ian Fleming (!!), Terence Young
was the director, and Harold Sakata was one of the many famous faces in
the all-star cast.
In short, E.G. Marshall and Trevor Howard play mis-matched UN agents who start off in Iran trying to intercept a large shipment of opium; there is a scheme where it's impregnated with radiation (!) as a means to track it via Geiger counter. Then it's off to Italy and France, as the bad guys outsmart the heroes, but the good guys still discover where it's at. The other famous faces that participated included everyone from Marcello Mastroianni, Angie Dickinson, and Gilbert Roland to Rita Hayworth, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quayle, Yul Brynner, Senta Berger and Omar Sharif, who plays someone named DR. RAD. Trini Lopez even has a scene as himself where he sings some of his hit songs. No, I was not kidding either when I said that a few times, Marshall and Howard make important decisions-such as who goes where-by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. What an interesting quirk.
With all the talent involved this could have been great but does not rise about being fine. I suppose you can't complain too much considering it was anti-drug propaganda from the United Nations and there are some pretty preachy points... the main impression I got from this is how weird the whole thing is considering the different actors, the opening act being set and filmed in Iran-back when they were friendly to the West-and how this could have been better with more money put into the production... maybe Xerox should have given more cash; again, I am not joking... Xerox gave this an undisclosed sum of money.
What does help is that this never drags or becomes dull; in addition, Marshall and Howard make for a heck of a team and believe it or not, Marshall actually does some Judo in fights he has with Sakata and another character. Not surprisingly for a Terence Young picture, some action takes place on a train... overall, the action is not noteworthy but at times it can be good. This is best viewed as a curio due to all the different elements involved.
In short, E.G. Marshall and Trevor Howard play mis-matched UN agents who start off in Iran trying to intercept a large shipment of opium; there is a scheme where it's impregnated with radiation (!) as a means to track it via Geiger counter. Then it's off to Italy and France, as the bad guys outsmart the heroes, but the good guys still discover where it's at. The other famous faces that participated included everyone from Marcello Mastroianni, Angie Dickinson, and Gilbert Roland to Rita Hayworth, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quayle, Yul Brynner, Senta Berger and Omar Sharif, who plays someone named DR. RAD. Trini Lopez even has a scene as himself where he sings some of his hit songs. No, I was not kidding either when I said that a few times, Marshall and Howard make important decisions-such as who goes where-by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. What an interesting quirk.
With all the talent involved this could have been great but does not rise about being fine. I suppose you can't complain too much considering it was anti-drug propaganda from the United Nations and there are some pretty preachy points... the main impression I got from this is how weird the whole thing is considering the different actors, the opening act being set and filmed in Iran-back when they were friendly to the West-and how this could have been better with more money put into the production... maybe Xerox should have given more cash; again, I am not joking... Xerox gave this an undisclosed sum of money.
What does help is that this never drags or becomes dull; in addition, Marshall and Howard make for a heck of a team and believe it or not, Marshall actually does some Judo in fights he has with Sakata and another character. Not surprisingly for a Terence Young picture, some action takes place on a train... overall, the action is not noteworthy but at times it can be good. This is best viewed as a curio due to all the different elements involved.
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