Blindfold *** (1966, Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Warden, Guy Stockwell, Brad Dexter, Anne Seymour, Alejandro Rey) – Classic Movie Review 8818

Co-writer/ director Philip Dunne’s enjoyable 1965 Swinging Sixties comedy crime mystery thriller Blindfold stars Rock Hudson as a New York psychiatrist, Dr Bartholomew Snow, who is hired by American general Prat (Jack Warden) and his agents to help an unbalanced physicist Arthur Vincenti (Alejandro Rey).

But spies kidnap the brilliant scientist Vincenti – and all is not what it seems. Snow falls in with the mysterious Vicky Vincenti (Claudia Cardinale), who may or may not be trusted.

Soon international spy rings, chases and other Hitchcockian situations abound. The action is fast paced, the humour is amusing and the far-fetched fun is pleasantly self-mocking.

Snow is kidnapped but notes the things he hears on the way to the kidnappers’ hideout and help the police find the kidnappers following the sounds.

The appealing cast keeps Blindfold bright and fizzy entertainment – with the lightweight talents of Hudson, Cardinale and Warden expertly deployed. The screenplay by Philip Dunne and W H Menger is based on the novel by Lucille Fletcher.

Also in the cast are Guy Stockwell, Brad Dexter, Anne Seymour, Han Rhodes, Vito Scotti, Angela Clarke, John Megna, Ned Glass, Mort Mills and Robert Simon.

Blindfold is directed by Philip Dunne, runs 102 minutes, is made by Universal Pictures and 7 Pictures, is released by Universal, is written by Philip Dunne and W H Menger, based on the novel by Lucille Fletcher, is shot by Joseph MacDonald in Technicolor, is produced by Marvin Schwarz and scored by Lalo Schifrin.

Robert Redford gets the same treatment as Hudson in Sneakers (1992) when he is kidnapped and blindfolded and thinks the sound of the geese he passed are people at a cocktail party.

Hudson and Cardinale reunited for A Fine Pair in 1968.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8818

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