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Thursday, January 19, 2017

Our Man In Marrakesh (aka Bang! Bang! You're Dead!) (1966)

Six passengers board an airport bus from Casablanca to Marrakesh. One of them is a diplomatic courier carrying $2 million to a local man (Herbert Lom) who has some secret documents for sale. No one, not even the documents seller, knows who the courier is. But when one of the passengers (Tony Randall) finds a dead body in his hotel room, it's just the beginning of a cat and mouse game and chase as he and a beautiful journalist (Senta Berger) go on the run. Directed by Don Sharp (KISS OF THE VAMPIRE), this is one of the more enjoyable 1960s international spy spoofs although the film's last 10 minutes are positively lame. As the innocent American who finds himself in the middle of a spy caper, Randall is efficient but one wishes he had more chemistry with the lovely Berger. A more unlikely romance is hard to imagine but then, Randall was never at his best as a leading man, he was a character actor at heart. But there's no getting around that Hitchcock did this kind of thing better (THE 39 STEPS, NORTH BY NORTHWEST). On the plus side, the Moroccan locations are nicely lensed by Michael Reed (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE). With Terry Thomas, Wilfrid Hyde White, Klaus Kinski, Gregoire Aslan, Margaret Lee, Burt Kwouk and John Le Mesurier.

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