SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
ShadeGrenade
'The Assassination Bureau Ltd.' was an incomplete novel by Jack London finished years after his death by thriller expert Robert L.Fish. The 1969 film version was produced by Michael Relph and directed by Basil Dearden, whose other credits include 'The League Of Gentlemen' ( 1960 ). Crusading journalist Sonya Winter ( Diana Rigg ) uncovers the existence of a secret society of hired assassins operating at the turn of the 19th century. Their founder is cocksure Russian nobleman Ivan Dragomiloff ( Oliver Reed ). He is hired by Sonya to murder...himself. Feeling the Bureau to have become complacent, he accepts the challenge. The tables have been turned. Before he can end the meeting by banging his gavel, the first of many attempts on his life is made. An army of assassins pursues Ivan and Sonya across Europe, but they manage to stay one step ahead of them. Newspaper owner Lord Borstwick ( Telly Savalas ) - also Sonya's employer - wishes to the Bureau to become a political weapon and plans on using a dirigible to bomb a Bavarian castle in which the crowned heads of state are soon to gather...This is a fun tongue-in-cheek romp, almost like an extended episode of 'The Avengers' in period costume, and the presence of Diana Rigg supports this view. 'Wynter' resembles Mrs.Peel in as much as she is also stubbornly independent, but her 'feminism' is largely played for laughs. Oliver Reed was tipped at one point to replace Sean Connery as 'James Bond', but his hell-raising image put producers off. On the evidence of his performance here, he would have been terrific. He is wonderfully cool and resourceful, boasting a Sherlock Holmes-like talent for disguise. In one of the best scenes, he disposes of a waiter ( Kenneth Griffith ) on a train by blowing hot brandy into the man's face. In Paris, he turns a cellar into a bomb that goes off as soon as his would-be killers open the door.One of the many pleasures this affords is spotting well-loved British characters in small roles. An uncredited Peter Bowles is in the brothel sequence, Warren Mitchell and Clive Revill are among the other Bureau members, and Frank Thornton is one of the Bureau's victims who plummets down a lift shaft. Rigg and Savalas reunited later in the year for the Bond picture 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.Michael Relph is credited with the script but Wolf Mankowitz ( one of the writers of 'Dr.No' ) provided additional dialogue. This is most evident in the scene where Sonya first meets Ivan. His attempt to justify the Bureau's existence is borderline persuasive. Despite a few longueurs ( notably the Venice sequence ), 'The Assassination Bureau' is ideal Sunday afternoon viewing.
wvisser-leusden
In the Sixties English actor Patrick MacNee successfully played male lead John Steed in the Avengers TV-series. During these years MacNee had a number of successive female partners, of whom Diana Rigg became by far the most famous.Even more so, Rigg's acting provided the Avengers with immortality. In particular in 1965, when this TV-series were at their most inspirational.Diana Rigg also stars in 'The Assassination Bureau', more or less copying her famous Avengers-role of Emma Peel. 'Assassination' itself also shows great similarities with the great TV-series: bizarre, with a surrealistic touch. Humorous. Quite a speedy plot, with sharp turns. Dealing with ingenious crime, and using a fair amount of violence.The differences with the Avengers are only minor: MacNee is replaced by Oliver Reed, and 'Assassination' is set in the past. In the turbulent year of 1914, to be precise'The Assassination Bureau' makes a good and enjoyable watch. Which is no wonder, for it cashes in on the Avengers-success. Copying its formula, and using Diana Rigg as a prime asset to do so.
ferbs54
Back in the mid-'60s, Diana Rigg was probably responsible for jump-starting the puberties of millions of baby boomer boys, thanks to her portrayal of Emma Peel in the hit BBC program "The Avengers." At any rate, along with Anne Francis' turn on "Honey West" and just about every woman in the first five Bond movies, she was certainly responsible for jump-starting mine, and I love watching her in anything she does even today, almost 40 years later. (Seeing her "Medea" on Broadway in 1994 was especially satisfying.) In "The Assassination Bureau" (1969), Diana plays a British (natch) freelance reporter in turn-of-the-century London who infiltrates Oliver Reed's titular organization (a sort of political Murder Inc.) and hires him to put a hit on...himself! Thus starts a series of wild and woolly escapades, as Reed races all over Europe trying to kill his organization's principals, before they can do away with him. We get tongue-in-cheek episodes (filmed all over Europe, and with lavish production values) involving a Parisian brothel, a Swiss bank, the beer halls of Vienna and the canals of Venice, all culminating in a fierce, exciting battle on an airborne, primitive zeppelin, with the fate of the Continent hanging in the balance. The film moves along very briskly and is quite entertaining, and Curt Jergens and Telly Savalas (who starred with Rigg that same year in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service") add delicious supporting performances. Diana, need I say, looks absolutely gorgeous, especially when shown in those frilly undergarment and bathtub scenes. Featuring a literate, witty script and consistently amusing and inventive situations, "The Assassination Bureau" is a real treat indeed. And Diana Rigg's exquisite presence is the yummy icing on an already tasty cake.
silverscreen888
If the awestruck viewer of this lovely, spacious-looking and delightful satire can get past the multiple locales, the elaborate and often-sumptuous style and the sheer colorfulness of the goings-on, there is a solid and interesting plot line under propping the entire gorgeous edifice. Behind the overwhelming "stylishness" that first greets the eyes, and it is a wonderfully varied and colorful production, Jack London's fascinating story of the "assassination bureau" has been updated by writer Robert L. Fish to be an "ethical" idea gone wrong. The basic premise is that the pragmatic and cynical end of the 19th Century with its pseudo-Christian thug-like monarchs, dynasts and empire-builders was unjust to individual victims. because this situation led some to wish the worst offenders removed from their tyrannies and interferences, Ivan Dragomilov's father created the Assassination Baureau, Ltd. However, an instrument designed to remove the worst offending baddies from an imperfect world has now become a murder-for-hire problem. Enter Diana Rigg, who finds out how to hire the Bureau to take a contract on--Ivan Dragomilov, played intelligently by Oliver reed. He accepts the contract, recognizing what his father's "noble instrument" has been allowed to become. The remainder of the film's scenes then feature a long and fascinatingly funny duel between Rigg and Oliver and the bureau's chiefs, against whom Reed has declared war. These stalwarts include stalwarts such as the great Curt Jurgens in Germany, Cilve Revill in Italy, Telly Savals in London and others in Paris and elsewhere. Sweeping scenes such as the French bordello scenes, the German Restaurant duel, the hilarious Italian caper, the flaming-lighter escape on the train trick and others lead to the climactic race to save London from Savalas's explosive plot. The lovely mounting of the production is highlighted by Basil Dearden's wonderful ability with actors, blocking, and camera-work, Art Director Michael Relph's award-level contributions, magnificent costumes luminous lighting and many other achievements. Many other actors including Beryl Reed, Philippe Noiret and pretty Annabella Incontrera contributed; Ron Grainer's music is a great asset also. But I believe what sets this satirical thriller apart is its realistic ethical dimension; the fact that the Age of Empire was an age of evil governments and unethical pretensions by state tsars has not even now been recognized. This long and intensely-diverting film is a beautiful-polished needle that pricks a much-needed hole in the gasbag of public-interest-tyranny's post modernistic pretensions. It is a film that deserves to be laughed with, applauded and considered carefully for its positive sense-of-life and all-around sparkling wit, dialogue and spirit of adventurous fun.
