Sebastian *** (1968, Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, John Gielgud, Lilli Palmer, Nigel Davenport) – Classic Movie Review 8714

Director David Greene’s intriguing 1968 British film Sebastian [Mr Sebastian] stars Dirk Bogarde, who gives a polished, assured performance as the Oxford mathematician don of the title, along with Susannah York, who is lively and likeable as his decrypter new girlfriend Rebecca. So it is a pity that director David Greene’s typical 1968 Swinging Sixties spy thriller is not just a little bit better.

Bogarde and York enlist in M15 as ace cryptographers to help the Brits to break fiendish foreign spies’ devilishly clever espionage codes. The rest of a tasty, quirky cast is not given much chance to shine, even class acts like John Gielgud, Nigel Davenport and Lilli Palmer. But then they are battling Gerald Vaughan-Hughes’s confused, once trendy but now simply flashy-seeming screenplay, based on an original screen story by Leo Marks.

Greene directs to suit the times back then with an eye to surface sparkle rather than to plumbing deep meaning or even paying that much attention to the mystery, thrills or action that you would expect from an espionage thriller. You do want to like it, and it does have its moments, but not perhaps quite enough.

Also in the cast are Janet Munro, Margaret Johnston, Ann Beach, Ronald Fraser, Ann Sidney, Donald Sutherland, Portland Mason, Alan Freeman, Charles Lloyd Pack, James Belchamber, Veronica Clifford, Charles Farrell, Hayward Morse, Louise Perinell, Lynn Pinkney, Jeanne Roland and Susan Whitman.

Bogarde did not think he was right for the part and said: ‘I was so unhappy and disenchanted that I kept my shirt on in one of the bed scenes.’

It was inspired by Marks’ wartime career as an ace code-breaker, and planned as his reunion with Michael Powell, the director of Peeping Tom (1960). But Marks and Powell were replaced by producer Herbert Brodkin, with Marks was credited solely with the story and Powell given a producing credit.

The budget was $1,250,000 (then about £450,000).

Bogarde did interviews for American radio and TV talk shows to advertise it when he ran out of money on vacationing in America and Paramount Pictures agreed in return to pay his expenses to get home.

Bogarde and Gielgud re-teamed much more profitably for the 1977 Providence.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8714

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