The Liquidator (1966)

Two actors not known for comedy, Rod Taylor and Trevor Howard, lead a cast of British comic stalwarts in this sometimes clever, sometimes dopey, James Bond spoof. Taylor takes the part of "L" (the Liquidator) who actually is what Bond pretends to be: an assassin paid by the British government (i.e., taxpayers). The catch? Taylor's character (curiously named Boysie Oakes) can shoot pretty well (trained in WW2) but he can't kill a fly. So he hires a hit-man (Eric Sykes) to do all his murderous handiwork. Then he takes off for the weekend with the boss' secretary (the Miss Moneypenny role, here called Iris--Jill St. John, who never looked lovelier) and all heck breaks loose.Fine supporting work by Akim Tamiroff, the always watchable Wilfred Hyde-White, and David Tomlinson (not long off "Mary Poppins") playing . . . well, more or less against type. Though the laughs are few and far between the movie never takes itself seriously, and it starts off with Shirley Bassey belting out a ridiculous theme song over the credits, sounding suspiciously like "Goldfinger" only more so.So why didn't Taylor make more comedies? Well, watch "The Glass Bottom Boat" and you'll see. His humor is pretty ham-handed, and he himself gets nary a smile until the airplane-flying climax. Still, it's worth a peek for anyone obsessed with Bond and its many duplicates. That's what the sixties was really all about: spies, spies, and more spies, on tv and the big screen.

Terrible film with Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard and Jill St. John thrown into an awful script.The British secret service needs someone to start knocking off people within their own ranks who appear to have become problems. Rod Taylor is brought to do this.Taylor is not an exactly James Bond type. Even his running is done in a dainty manner. He doesn't possess that macho appeal. Instead, this film often becomes comical. Jill St. John isn't exactly that innocent secretary she is made out to be.Falling for fake bullets seems to be par for the course for Taylor in this ridiculous farce. Bad film, a Jack Cardiff bomb.

Rod Taylor is "The Liquidator" -- well, his superiors think he is, anyway -- in this 1965 spoof of the spy genre, directed by Jack Cardiff.The '60s was certainly an interesting time for films - spy films, spoofs of spy films, caper films, big historical films, and sex comedies. Here we have a spoof of the James Bond films, with Rod Taylor playing Boys Oaks, a war acquaintance of Colonel Mostyn (Trevor Howard). The British Security Services is frustrated and embarrassed as they have a number of spies in their midst. It's time to liquidate them, so The Chief (Wilfrid Hyde-White) orders Mostyn to find someone.Mostyn remembers Boys and his impressive actions during the war and drafts him. Of course, he doesn't exactly tell Boys what he wants. He offers him a gorgeous apartment, beautiful women who hang around, a nice car, and after Boys signs his life away, Mostyn drops the bomb. Boys tries but he fails in his first assignment and instead saves the subject from the train tracks he was just about to throw her onto. The other thing is all the travel - Boys really doesn't like to travel. So Boyd has to come up with a solution or lose the perks.I thought this was an okay comedy, nothing special. Jill St. John plays Mostyn's beautiful, sexy secretary, Wilfrid Hyde-White plays the bureau chief; the film also features Akim Tamiroff. There are some funny moments and I like the premise. Entertaining.

I first saw this one on the CBS Late Movie in about July of 1972, and (even more than most of those) I can never see it without seeing that radiating star (I even remember where in the film one of the commercial breaks was.) Yes, the theme song (by Lalo Schifrin) practically dares you to call it "Bond rip-off", but that's as presumptuous with this mid-'60s spy movie as it is with so many others. Rod Taylor, an actor who can fit into so many kinds of role, is perfectly believable as a person more or less drafted into being a spy, and an assassin, because of Trevor Howard's instincts about him, in spite of the fact that he's never actually killed anyone (except during the war, and even THEN it was more or less accidental!). And, like any given person in this position, he tries to have it both ways - tries to hang onto the "jet set" spy movie type of lifestyle they've given him, but with no real intention of doing what they want! (Mainly because he's horrified by it, traitors or no traitors.) And Trevor Howard is great as a sort of semi-comical answer to his Captain Blighe, who won't listen to any of "Boysie's" objections about it. Someone mentioned a slightly surprising line (for 1966), and Howard had another one. In an early scene, Taylor's well-built girlfriend was standing beside a cage with a variety of birds, and Howard said, "Multi-coloured tits!" (The name of the bird species, which made it "acceptable.") And Jill St. John, who might not have a WHOLE LOT to do beyond being "window dressing", is just right for this kind of film (though I'm prejudiced when it comes to her). Actually, she was very believable as this chic mid-' 60s English girl (the way they're usually pictured). Although toward the end (and this is a spoiler) she went against that for a moment. When a very surprised Rod Taylor discovered that she'd been part of the plot all along, she laughed at his confusion, and said, "You dumb ox!" (Kind of a down-to-earth thing for the "femme fatale" to say to the hero!) Some of the best funny parts (in a dark comedy way) have to do with Boysie hiring a professional hit man named Mr. Griffen (played by Eric Sykes) to do the killings that HE'S supposed to be doing, and this part had a really great line (in a very understated way). As they were talking, Boysie started to analyse this whole business of hiring someone to kill people (the guilt attached to it). Griffen said, "Can I give you a word of advice, sir? It never does to probe too deep." (In other words, suggesting that he "let it go".)