Mandat d'arrêt

One can't help but think that at some times the story is a little stretched. A high percentage of Taylor's dialogue is un-needed, which isn't to say he doesn't perform well.

Taylor plays an outback police-sergeant sent by the Premier of New South Wales to place an indictment on the Australian Ambassador in London and bring him safely to custody. However, his arrival in London coincides the same time as the ambassador (chris plummer) seems to be making a breakthrough in middle-eastern diplomacy. Taylor is persuaded by Plummber to wait until the summit is completely before talking him back. However, predictably there are certain foreign powers at play who would not want to see the summit reach any peaceful negotiations. And so the ambassadors life is at risk. Of course, Taylor is there to make sure that he is brough safely back to Australia - to stand trial and face the allegations which even he begins to find a bit suspect.

Yeah, rent it watch it on tv. It's enjoyable. Nothing brilliant. The end is particularly reminiscent of Sabotage, when you think of it.

This gets off to a cracking start with Rod Taylor's no-nonsense outback cop, Scobie Malone, engaged by the New South Wales premier - played by an oddly uncredited Leo McKern - to arrest Australia's High Commissioner in London, a former political rival, accused of murdering a former wife.

The stage is set for a taut political thriller, but once Malone reaches London the tension gradually dissipates as he finds himself acting as Commissioner Christopher Plummer's bodyguard in a meandering cold war plot involving a peace conference and assassination attempts. The sort of thing you could see regularly in second-rate episodes of the likes of The Saint or Jason King back in the day. Hard to figure how the Calvin Lockhart character fitted in, nor Franchot Tone in his final film, in a brief cameo as an ambassador confined to bed. Among the baddies are the familiar faces of Burt Kwouk and Derren Nesbitt, the latter with hardly a word of dialogue.

True, Rod Taylor is very good in the lead, and it was a shame he was never given another chance to reprise the character. Plummer and Lilli Palmer are convincing under the circumstances, Camilla Sparv and Daliah Lavi provide plenty of glamour and there's a fitting score from Georges Delerue, but all these hardly compensate for what seems a missed opportunity.

Not terrible but not good either. "Nobody Runs Forever" is a 1968 British thriller involving international politics and murder in a reasonably tortuous plot. It's also a Betty Box/Ralph Thomas picture which means it was never likely to set the world on fire; workmanlike is about the best you can say for it. What distinguishes it is the cast. The usually reliable Rod Taylor is the Australian policeman sent to London to arrest Christopher Plummer's Australian High Commissioner for the murder of his first wife and finding, when he gets there, that Plummer isn't the villian he's been painted. Lilli Palmer is Plummer's current wife. (she's the best thing in the picture), Camilla Sparv is his secretary and Daliah Lavi, a very fatale femme. Franchot Tone even pops in for a cameo appearance as does an uncredited Leo McKern. It's not particularly exciting and it is rather far-fetched and it will never rank in any list of decent conspiracy thrillers but at least it passes an entertaining couple of hours.

This is certainly not a bad film: the script maintains an air of uncertainty as to who is and who is not in the conspiracy to kill Plummer, there are some frantic fight scenes, a nice elegiac score, the performances are fine, putting in more emotion than usual for the genre, and the Goddess-like Daliah Lavi & the beautiful Camilla Sparv more than fill out the required "babe quotient" (as I've said before, these 60's spy thrillers are almost always a sure bet if you want to see some incredibly beautiful women). However, there is not much here that you have not seen before. Perhaps it says something about the greatness of Hitchcock that even one of his widely considered "lesser" pictures ("Topaz") is still better than this movie. (**1/2)

Amiable Aussie icon Rod Taylor ("The Time Machine") plays Scobie Malone, a police detective from the Outback who is sent on special assignment. He's to retrieve high-ranking Australian politician Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer, "All the Money in the World"), who's wanted for a 15-year-old killing, and must go to London to do it. However, after some botched attempts on Quentins' life, Malone is obliged to act as a bodyguard for the man while trying to figure out who wants him dead.

I really don't think this is as bad as all that. Based on a novel by Jon Cleary, it tells a decent, reasonably entertaining story. It's mostly plot-driven, with some action scenes here and there, and the plot really doesn't stand up to scrutiny, but it's all perfectly watchable, if not distinguished.

It's the wonderful international cast that makes the difference. Taylor is in fine form, and Plummer is smooth as always - and importantly, he also makes his character likeable enough instead of making him some pompous jerk. The women are truly gorgeous: Daliah Lavi ("The Whip and the Body"), Camilla Sparv ("Downhill Racer"), and the classy Lilli Palmer ("The Boys from Brazil"). Also putting in appearances are Clive Revill ("Avanti!"), who's amusing as a stuffy butler, Calvin Lockhart ("The Beast Must Die"), Derren Nesbitt ("Where Eagles Dare"), Edric Connor ("Moby Dick" '56), Burt Kwouk (the "Pink Panther" series), Russell Napier ("A Night to Remember"), Charles 'Bud' Tingwell ("Dracula, Prince of Darkness"), and, in his last film appearance, Franchot Tone ("Advise & Consent").

Bolstered by a great score by Georges Delerue, "Nobody Runs Forever", a.k.a. "The High Commissioner" entertains adequately in the end, coming across as a decent but unremarkable entry in the espionage / international intrigue genre.

Six out of 10.