Attentat à Téhéran

Teheran which would be a B film in America on the other side of the pond is called a quota quickie. It's about an assassination attempt the Nazis made at FDR while he was in Teheran to meet for the first time with Churchill and Stalin.

All the ingredients of a good action/adventure thriller are missing here. No memorable name players, no good script, and a lack of direction.

Derek Farr who is a British war correspondent narrates this in flashback from VE Day. While stationed in Teheran he sniffs out the story of the plot because he runs into Marta Labarr a woman of mystery he helped out previously.

Farr isn't Humphrey Bogart and Labarr ain't Ingrid Bergman. Not much else you can say,

Derek Farr shows up at La Scala in the closings days of the Second World War and noodles around on the piano. He reminisces about Russian-born Marta Lamarr and how, when he was a reporter, he got her out of jail, proposed to her, and she disappeared. Some time later, his wanderings bring him to Teheran, where she has become an adventuress. Something odd is going on, so he investigates, and...

This post-war British Italian production looks like someone had seen late-war programmers like THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS and said "I can do that too!" Unfortunately, they lacked a novel by Eric Ambler and the wonderful eccentric character actors that Jean Negulesco directed. Only Manning Whiley as the satanically-bearded and elegant villain and John Slater as the Russian military attache -- with the on-the-nose name "Soviesky" offer any flair; nor is there any sense of tension brought to this nominal thriller, just people wandering around, doing things.

Cinematographer Ubaldo Arata offers some nice film noir camera work, but this limp effort didn't do anything worthwhile for anyone's career --- or for its audience.

World War 2 is at its end. On the stage of an empty concert hall, British officer Pemberton Grant is playing absentmindedly piano, thinking back of the past... All of a sudden, a man working in this concert hall shows up to see who's playing the piano. Grant starts telling him about his meetings with Nathalie Trubetzin, a mysterious woman during crucial stages of his military intelligence career. They started out as lovers, but as time went by, their romance came to an end. When he met her again in 1943, she turned out to be married. Grant discovers that her husband is involved with Nazi arms smugglers. When he tries to persuade Nathalie with incomplete proof, she brushes it away, thinking he's just jealous of him. Grant though is sure her husband is up to something, and he discovers that the Nazi agents are plotting to kill US President Roosevelt, who's due to meet with Stalin and Churchill for a top conference. Nathalie, who dearly loves her husband is now faced with the facts, and with pain in her heart, she decides that this plot has to be stopped. She contacts the Soviet representatives in Teheran. Together, the Russians and the British manage to arrest these fifth columnists. At the time this movie was made, the Russians still were considered as Allies who had helped to crush down Hitler and his clique. Just as movies like 'North Star' (1943)or Tourneur's 'Berlin Express' (1948), this one still is quite friendly toward Moscow. Things would change under the McCarthy era, with titles such as Red Menace, Woman on Pier 13 or My son John.

Actually, the Germans did try to kidnap Roosevelt in Teheran in November 1943. The idea was to send a team of 40 men led by Otto Skorzeny and Walter Schellenberg to Iran. However, the Russians managed to do the unthinkable: ... to infiltrate in this SS-team... ! Their agent Nicolas Kouznetsov did send out a timely warning. So, when the German team arrived in Teheran, it all ended with a shoot out with the Russians in the streets of Teheran. Roosevelt later arrived with 70 bodyguards, and the top conference with Stalin and Churchill went on without further incidents.

It starts promising enough with a romance in Rome, a Russian ballerina gets sacked from the ballet for no obvious reason in 1938 under the fascist regime, and the smart correspondent Derek Farr is there to save her from the fascist hoodlums and wants to bring her to England, when she disappears. That's the first half hour of the film. Five years later he is a war correspondent in Teheran to watch the meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in November, but suddenly Natalia reappears at a night club in the middle of a brawl, and of course she becomes more interesting to Derek Farr than Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, but unfortunately she is mixed up with a double crosser who intends to blow up Roosevelt in his wheelchair, apparently just to keep the war going, since he is in the war business. The story and plot could have been made something of, but unfortunately, as a previous reviewer observed, there is neither a qualified script, direction nor acting here. Bogart, Greenstreet and Bacall could have made something of it with Michael Curtiz. The romance, that looked so promising in Rome, loses all credibility in Teheran, and although Derek Farr is good enough an actor, his main contributions here is to get more fights on his hands, since there are hoodlums also in Teheran. In brief, an awkward effort at an efficient thriller which only fizzles. It is mainly worth watching for the scenes of Roman street life and the exotic scenery of Teheran.

The first reviewer has given the details of the plot.When this film was made stories told in flashback where very much in fashion.It is difficult to know why.The premise of the story is interesting.It has been used many times since. However to do this sort of film well you need experienced actors,a script which is able to maintain tension and an effective director,sadly this film has none of them. This is an Italian-British co production made in Rome.The only British actor is Derek Farr.As for the rest they would appear to be continental actors who could speak English .Imagine this film starring Bogart ,Litre and Greenstreet and it would at least be watchable. There is no tension since you know that such a plot did not succeed.Maybe this contributes to the uninspired direction.