Vapid spy-stuff, cheeky but with brain-in-neutral. Rod Taylor (handsome and game, as usual) plays an accidental hero who becomes a secret agent for the British. Begins well (with an amusingly melodramatic Shirley Bassey theme song and clever credits sequence), but film then goes downhill while trying--and failing--to formulate a plot. The funniest line is when Taylor's boss cries out, "They've got us by the short 'n curlies!", which I thought was a little risqué for 1965. Jack Cardiff directs, in his usual impersonal style; he seems to know very little about the spy genre, and approaches the material in a by-the-numbers fashion. Peter Yeldham sketchily adapted John Gardner's book. ** from ****
Review of The Liquidator
