Assignment K * (1968, Stephen Boyd, Camilla Sparv, Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Jeremy Kemp, Jane Merrow) – Classic Movie Review 10,514

Director Val Guest’s mostly dull and dreary 1968 British spy thriller Assignment K stars Stephen Boyd in a dull and dreary performance as toy company boss Philip Scott, secretly the head of a British spy unit, who discovers that his girlfriend Toni Peters (Camilla Sparv) is a German agent.

Based on the 1964 novel Department K by Hartley Howard, there is an over-complex, mechanical, forgettable plot about spy ring chief Boyd doubling as a toy firm boss, then being unmasked as a British agent, and the East German Stasi kidnapping his girlfriend to gain information about his operatives’ activities.

But the biggest mystery may be what classy actors like Michael Redgrave (as Harris), Leo McKern (as Smith), Jeremy Kemp (as Hal) and Jane Merrow (as Martine) are doing stranded in this mediocre espionage stuff here. The locations and skiing scenes add a little conventional action excitement. A smart-looking film, it is nicely shot in Technicolor and Techniscope by Ken Hodges on location in Kitzbühel, Tyrol, Austria, and in London.

Assignment K is a routine assignment for interesting director Guest, who writes the screenplay with Bill Strutton and Maurice Foster.

Also in the cast are Robert Hoffmann, Jane Merrow, Jan Werich, Vivi Bach, David Healy, Geoffrey Bayldon, Werner Peters, Dieter Geissler, Ursula Howells, John Alderton, Basil Dignam, Friederich von Ledebur, Carl Möhner, Catherina von Schell, Herbert Fuchs, Peter Capell and Olga Linden.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,514

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com