Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966)

POPPIES ARE ALSO FLOWERS is a surprisingly decent little international thriller made in the Bond mould - Ian Fleming wrote it and Terence Young was even called in to direct. The film's progeny is of interest, given that it was a propaganda piece made by the United Nations to show off their abilities. E.G. Marshall and Trevor Howard play a pair of UN investigators hoping to stop an opium smuggling gang operating out of Iran, and their detection leads them to a number of slippery customers based around the world. I only know of Marshall through his roles in the likes of CREEPSHOW, so it was a surprise to see him playing an action hero here and even more of a surprise that he makes a decent stab of it. There's not a wealth of action but the train-set climax more than makes up for that with some great fight scenes. The film is well worth a watch for Bond fans looking for a pseudo-enterprise in the same mould, and an endless array of both international and Hollywood stars keeps you involved in the story: Yul Brynner, Jack Hawkins, Hugh Griffith, Anthony Quayle, Eli Wallach and even Rita Hayworth all show up to good effect here.

"The Poppy Is Also A Flower" AKA "Operation Opium" AKA "The Opium Connection" AKA....well, it goes by many names, is a rather forgotten film today, despite its once-in-a-lifetime cast and the participation of three James Bond veterans (author Ian Fleming, director Terence Young, and Harold "Oddjob" Sakata as - what else? - a brutal henchman). Leonard Maltin dismisses it as a BOMB, but I wouldn't go quite that far. It's true that the film is mostly unexciting, and possibly frustrating when the curiosity value wears off and you realize that many of the big names in the cast either pop up only for extended cameos (Omar Sharif, Marcello Mastroyanni, etc.), or are wasted - sometimes in both senses of the term (Rita Hayworth). But the script does take a daring and unexpected turn in the middle, and near the end Terence Young stages not one, but two hand-to-hand fights on a speeding train, recalling his own "From Russia With Love". The best character in the film is Angie Dickinson's strong and mysterious "widow", but like many others, she is underused. And a sign of how much times have changed: this US co-production ends with a "Thank You" credit to the government and the people of Iran - you could hardly imagine that happening today! ** out of 4.

Hilariously awful star-studded turkey, an apparent do-gooder drama concocted by Ian Fleming, sponsored by Xerox and directed by Bond-filmmaker Terence Young, details the United Nations' efforts to stop the trafficking of opium out of the Middle East. Bungled ingredients include star-cameos, an introduction by Grace Kelly (!), and Yul Brynner (misspelled in the credits) as a fez-topped Colonel who rides out to meet his enemies on horseback as if this were a Samurai western. The curious, sloppy over-dubbing leaves some of the actors looking like foreigners in a spaghetti spy-drama, while Kelly implores us to remember that...yes...Poppy flowers are attractive and innocent-looking, but their seeds are producing drugs that are destroying our young people! Not as fast as films like this. E. G. Marshall's somewhat bemused performance is the only asset the picture has to offer. Also known as "The Poppy Is Also a Flower", "The Opium Connection" and (my favorite) "Danger Grows Wild". NO STARS from ****

Another surprisingly bad film from director Terence Young (did this guy really make such greats as Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Wait Until Dark?) What's more surprising about Poppies Are Also Flowers is the calibre of the cast. Trevor Howard, E.G Marshall, Omar Sharif, Angie Dickinson, Yul Brynner, Jack Hawkins, Senta Berger, Rita Hayworth, Anthony Quayle, Eli Wallach, Trini Lopez, Marcello Mastroainni, Stephen Boyd and Hugh Griffith all make appearances in the movie - and virtually every one of them is guilty of rampant bad acting. I challenge anyone to find this talented a cast in a more badly acted film. The story is pretty poor too. Narcotics agents Lincoln (Trevor Howard) and Coley (E.G Marshall) arrive in Iran to investigate the death of another agent, Benson (Stephen Boyd). They learn that Benson had struck a deal with a tribal chief (Hugh Griffith) to buy his opium crop, but a disgruntled rival buyer attempted to seize the crop in transit, killing Benson in the process. In order to track down the killers, Lincoln and Coley agree to let another opium crop leave Iran bound for an unknown European drug lord. However, they put a radioactive element into the opium, meaning that they can track its progress with geiger counters, all the way to the head man. The trail leads from Iran to Switzerland to Italy and, finally, to France. The film is based on an idea by Ian Fleming (yes, the Bond creator). However, there is little of the flair in this film that you would find in the Bond books and films. The very concept of contaminating opium in order to track its whereabouts seems rather unconvincing and implausible, but the film doesn't suffer too much because of it. The problem here is more fundamental - it's a badly scripted film. A plethora of characters come and go without proper introduction or development, and various events and actions are patched together without sufficient explanation. Such under-cooked ingredients do not make for a satisfying viewing experience. Other than Georges Auric's stirring music and E.G Marshall's performance (the only good one in the whole film) as the hero, Poppies Are Also Flowers is a failure.