THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU (1969)

3 stars

Arrow Video. Blu Ray. 5th January

THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU is a fun comedy thriller with a blackly comic subject matter, from the late 60s, with a great cast of familiar faces (well, that is if you are old enough to recognise them!). It is adapted from an unfinished novel by Jack London (1876-1916), ‘The Assassination Bureau, Ltd’,which was finished by Robert L. Fish and published in 1963.

The film was scripted by Michael Relph (with additional work by Wolf Mankowitz) with direction by Basil Dearden — Relph and Dearden often worked on projects together and this was their penultimate outing.

Diana Rigg, famous as Mrs Peel in THE AVENGERS TV series, stars as activist and would be journalist Sonya Winter, who has uncovered a secret organisation who will kill for money – their original remit was there had to be a moral reason for them to take a life, but latterly it has been all about the money they could earn.

She meets their chairman – one Ivan Dragomiloff (a charismatic Oliver Reed) – and, using money from her newspaper employer Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas), commissions the bureau to assassinate the chairman himself!

Little does she know that Bostwick is also part of the organisation and sees an opportunity to wrest power from Ivan. The chairman calls a meeting of his hired assassins and tells them to fulfil the contract, or he will kill them, but they will have to catch him, as he goes on the run…

Thus begins a Europe hopping adventure with Miss Winter following Dragomiloff, to write her story, whilst he uses various means to kill off the members of the group, as they try and do the same to him.

The film is set in Edwardian times, giving ample opportunity for lavish costumes and gorgeous sets, whilst the quirky plot plays out. It looks splendid, with cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth. The subject matter gave distributor Paramount pause, as it tried to work out how to sell it to American audiences. As mentioned, the cast is packed with actors you will likely recognise, including Curd Jürgens, Warren Mitchell, Kenneth Griffith, Jess Conrad, Beryl Reid, Frank Thornton and Peter Bowles.

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

Audio commentary with authors Sean Hogan and Kim Newman

Right Film, Wrong Time, a 30-minute appreciation by critic, broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet

Original trailer and Image gallery

Collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by Katherine McLaughlin and Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork choices