Hollywood made a bunch of mod movies in the 1960s that look better than they really are; I think the most recent movie I blogged about that I'd put in that category is A Lovely Way to Die. Hollywood also went over to Europe to use their exotic locations for some of the movies, as in the fun if not particularly great Jack of Diamonds. Recently, I watched another movie in this genre that unfortunately isn't all that much fun: Assignment to Kill.
An opening sequence shows a couple of people skiing down a mountain in Switzerland, when one of them comes upon a body in the snow who it turns out is the victim of a plane crash, although how the body remained buried all that time is beyond me. Patrick O'Neal, trying to look like James Coburn, plays Richard Cutting, an insurance investigator who has something to do with that crash, or will. His boss Eversley (Kent Smith in one scene) tells him about a reclusive business magnate Valayan who has had some claims on his ships that might in fact be sabotage; Eversley wants Cutting to investigate.
This obviously takes Cutting to Switzerland, and the stylish skiing village where the accident occured. The local police inspector seems to have a wry interest in the case, but more worryingly for Cutting is that he sees a couple of guys who are also interested in the case. These turn out to be Valayan's right hand man Matt Wilson (Herbert Lom), and Wilson's henchman called "The Big Man" (Leon Greene). It'll mean some danger for Cutting if Wilson discovers that he's investigating, so he hides from Wilson to get a head start.
The person who was supposed to be on that flight that crashed but whose body hasn't been found is Walter Green (Peter van Eyck). Cutting figures that Walter is hiding out somewhere in his hometown of Zürich, so heads off there. In Zürich, he meets lovely American expat Dominique (Joan Hackett), who might be able to help him find Walter. Apparently, Walter had the goods on Wilson with Wilson being responsible for the sabotage, which is why Wilson would want Walter dead. Walter is alleged to have written an affidavit testifying to Wlison's misdeeds, and wants to give it to Valayan.
It goes on like this, with Matt Wilson chasing after Cutting and Dominique, and then showing up when Cutting finally gets to meet Valayan (John Gielgud). There's a mystery to be solved, and eventually it does, but pretty much nobody gets to live happily ever after.
The big problem with Assignment to Kill is that it's needlessly convoluted, with no real reason for us to care about the story or the characters. With that, all we have left are the Swiss locations. The locations in the Alps are unsurprisingly lovely, while the Zürich pesented here isn't glamorous at all. We get Hollywood's view of what 60s bars might look like, and a bunch of dim neon signs, but that's about it.
It's easy to see why a movie like Assignment to Kill got greenlit, what with a mystery that might have seemed exciting on paper, and those Swiss locations. It's just a shame that what was on paper got translated to something much less on screen. Assignment to Kill did get a DVD release courtesy of the Warner Archive.
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