La ruta del peligro

This is another movie from the mid 1960's that sought to leap on board the Bond -wagon but for the most fell lamentably short.Richard Johnson - a talented actor deserving of better material-plays a British agent Jonas Wilde who is ordered by his superiors to kill a Czech scientist being held captive by the Americans in Dorset ,Southern england.the reasons are never wholly clear . The over complicated plot sees him getting involved with a senior British civil servant( Harry Andrews ), who vanishes mysteriously ; a double agent (Gordon Jackson)and 4 women who all -quite unaccountably fall for his charms .These are played by Diana Dors ,Sylvia Syms ,Barbara Bouchet and Carol Lynley

Wilde is ambivalent about his profession and would love to quit but his bosses will not let him The plot is twisty and too complex and while the odd scene is exciting and the acting is solid, mostly this is confusing and dull with none of the gloss and style of the Bond movies it aspires to be like

Dors, Sims, Lynley. Sitar soundtrack. What's not to like?

A Richard Johnson flick is never a bad thing, especially in this mid to late 1960s era. Daft plots of charming British Bondish agents risking it all for Queen and Country, up against ne'er-do-well foreigners bent on global hoo-har, at all times charming the Kings Road Popsies.

John Mayer provides a cool as you know what soundtrack, niiiiice.

Watch this film and look back at the good times back in the day or have your suspicion that you were born to late confirmed.

An Amicus Masterpiece.

To compare this film to 007 Bond films would to be lead readers astray.

Bond films don't have tight plots - this film is far closer to the films and series based on John Le Carré's works. The film is never boring and seems to finish too soon - one would have liked more time for the denouement.

And that is a sign of a good tight plot - when the viewer feels that the film has ended too soon.

The film shows how without any gadgets and spectacular action a good plot can still hold the viewers' attention.

There is action - fights and murders - but they are not spectacular - nor are they intended to be. They are cold, quick and quiet.

It is an enjoyable secret service film from the 1960's - a predecessor for the excellent Le Carré films and series.

Enjoy it!

. But worth noting for its star Richard Johnson and director Seth Holt. A former Royal Shakespeare Company actor, Johnson was Bond director Terence Young's original choice to play 007 and might have proved much closer to author Ian Fleming's concept of him. Indeed, Johnson was briefly groomed by the Rank Organisation in the late Sixties as their answer to Sean Connery, hoping to ride the Bond slipstream (but the two films Deadlier Than the Male and Some Girls Do were too cynically packaged to work as either imitation or spoof).

Johnson's brand of worried suavity found a better vehicle here. A minor addition to the murkier side of the genre, it remains most notable for Holt. A former editor, Holt's deft cutting room skills had made two suspense films he directed for Hammer (Taste of Fear and The Nanny) unusually seamless and subtle.

Alas, in Danger Route, even his assured touch failed to enliven an intractable plot about Cross-Channel espionage. But an exceptionally strong support cast - Harry Andrews, Diana Dors and Gordon Jackson - and a certain casual ruthlessness, lift this film above the totally routine. And Carol Lynley and Barbara Bouchet are truly gorgeous.

Trite cynicisms and a trashy title-song date Danger Route unsympathetically. But Holt's admirers will discern enough in its minor virtues to compensate.

The title song for this movie reminds one of the middle James

Bond films--a catchy title woven into an incomprehensible song. Happily, things improve quickly. Jonas Wilde, the licensed killer, is dour and taciturn, but I was empathizing with him before too long. Jonas uses no outrageous stunts, no silly gadgets, and the movie was almost over when I was struck by the realization that there was not a single chase scene. Jonas does not even use a weapon, killing rather with a sharp blow to the neck (I would call it a Judo Chop, except I know nothing of Judo) This film was written so as to leave the way open for sequels; it is a loss none were made.