The Naked Runner (1967)

Frank Sinatra plays an American industrialist and widower based in London who is contacted by an old war buddy who needs his friend to deliver a message to a woman they were both acquainted with, now working in East Germany. After passing a microfilm to her hidden in his watchband, Sinatra is caught and then blackmailed into committing murder. Icy, depressing adaptation of an espionage novel, written under the pseudonym Francis Clifford, with a narrative so murky we are never sure how much of a dupe the Sinatra character is, or if indeed he was conned at all. Sidney J. Furie is responsible for the mechanical direction, usually filming the action in scenes from as far away as possible. Sinatra is either delivering a very low-keyed performance or is completely indifferent to the material--with nary a wink to the audience to tell us he knows this is junk and that he's just cashing a paycheck. *1/2 from ****

The film opens with a man's emotionless face in close up, enormously loud classical piano music and a phone ringing in the background. Is he listening to the music or is overlaid title music? This combination of intrusiveness and unclear purpose at the very opening of the film bodes badly for what follows. Sinatra, the world's finest singer of his time, was not a good actor but starry company and stirring plot buoyed up his performances. Here though he was with an unstarry made-for-TV cast with a convoluted plot and uninvolving characters where the task of carrying the film proved too much.Tribute should be paid to the career of its director Sydney J. Furie who appears to be still directing at the age of 85 following a career of 50 years including the brilliant Ipcress File, Lady Sings the Blues and a string of Cliff Richard vehicles early on. Slack deserves to be cut for him on The Naked Runner. As he acknowledged in his personal quote - not every film was a winner. Some definitely were, sadly not this one.

There were harsh words written of that movie on the site and I think it's a bit unfair.Sure the screenplay looks like a cross between " The man who knew too much" and "the Mandchourian candidate".Sure the symbolism is somewhat ponderous: the lady and her puppets,the tunnel and daylight again.But it's an entertaining thriller,ideal for a rainy day :the screenplay is certainly smarter than that of the average thriller of today;Frank Sinatra does a good job,supported by a good cast ,particularly Darren Nesbitt as Colonel Hartmann .Not a masterpiece but not a dud either.People who like the movies I have mentioned can have a look.

This is an excellent spy thriller. The plot gets tangled at times, like what was that all about at the airport and the rifle? Sinatra is great and a well chosen international cast. It may be a B grade movie but you will certainly be entertained. The director uses a plethora of different camera angles which I thought were very good. It is too bad they didn't know how to end it.