Journey Into Fear

The cast of this movie is utterly amazing. From Sam Waterston, to Zero Mostel. From Joseph Wiseman to Donald Pleasance. Vincent Price. And yet, it seemed much less than it could've been, due to some VERY poor editing...

The story, briefly, is about a U.S geologist (Sam Waterston) who discovers something about Oil that proves VERY threatening to the Turkish and Arab business people...so, we spend 90 more minutes, watching Sam in absolute terror, while several people try to kill him.

Sam Waterston is WONDERFUL in it - but all the other big names seem to be really uninterested. Price is good - but what else is new? Zero Mostel, usually referred to as a genius, is so annoying you want to knock out his teeth. Ian McShane, believe it or not, has a rather significant part, but NO LINES...strange. The very worst of it is Yvette Mimieux. If you liked her as Weena in the original Time Machine, don't even bother to watch her here. She is simply awful. She does a song in a nightclub, with a voice-over, and she makes nearly NO attempt to synchronize her lips to the words. It's downright comical.

But, she does do a good job of seducing Mr. Waterston. And, so would I!

If it wasn't for Sam Waterston, this movie would be almost comical. But Sam, you know...he's the only one who cares enough to put his heart into it...what else is new?

I was apparently one of the few people who saw this movie on its brief release in 1975. I knew about the 1942 Orson Welles film but had yet to see it. I went to see this version because of Vincent Price and he does not disappoint. Other big name cast members added to the fun. Zero Mostel recycles his PRODUCERS persona and Donald Pleasence adds another of his quirky characters to his resume'. Joseph Wiseman from DR NO is on hand along with Yvette Mimeux as a chanteuse who can't sing and a young Ian McShane who never says a word. The protagonist is Sam Waterston fresh from THE GREAT GATSBY and years before LAW & ORDER. Incidentally the Jackie Cooper listed in the cast is not the former child actor but the film's stunt coordinator.

The plot, which is updated from Eric Ambler's 1940 novel, concerns a petroleum engineer named Graham whose discovery of oil deposits in Turkey leads to several murder attempts to keep his discovery from becoming known. Most of the movie takes place aboard a tramp steamer where Graham tries to evade his pursuers without knowing who they really are. It eventually leads to a final and memorable confrontation in Genoa involving Waterston, McShane and Vincent Price. Waterston is very good as a man who knows that he's out of his depth but manages to stay one step ahead thanks to luck rather than skill.

Director Daniel Mann was a big name in the 1950s and 60s with COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA and BUTTERFIELD 8 but by 1975 he was basically a director for hire. He works well with the actors but seems unsure what to do when it comes to dealing with the story elements or pacing the film. There's also evidence of post-production intervention as the editing is a little ragged in places but that's mostly in the beginning. After years of being unavailable JOURNEY INTO FEAR has made it to Blu-Ray and while its good to see it again, the print used is an old one complete with a PG rating before the credits which evokes a certain nostalgia. It's also probably the only print available. However the picture is clear and the sound is good although subtitles would have been appreciated. My thanks to Dark Force Entertainment for resurrecting this forgotten title which, although flawed, is definitely worth revisiting...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

I saw this movie when it first showed on TV in 1975 and watch it now and then. The story of the "man with endless lives" never gets old. Many people try and kill him but he just escapes every time. It tries hard to be a tense thriller but just ambles along with one exciting sequence after another. When I saw it for the first time, Jose tells Sam, as he is trying to PIMP her off to him, "Yvette Mimieux has smelt a lot of balls". I distinctly remember that line in the 1975 showing but it seems to have been cut from all the recent releases. Maybe the Blu-Ray, (yes, there is a Blu-Ray coming out), release will include that spicy line. During the end explosion at the gas station, the man in the front seat of the car is Nello Pazzafini, star of many Italian action movies in the 1960s. You name it, he was in it. Click on his name and be amazed by the list of credits he has raked up. Watch this great suspense movie if you get a chance. The ship captain keeps taunting Sam with his "bang bang, you're dead" line. Someone should have made him dead.

The main interest of the plot here is that you never really are informed of what it is all about. Sam Waterston as Howard Graham gets into deep trouble from the beginning and is persecuted hard throughout the film, without his ever understanding why everyone wants to kill him. As the audience you are as bewildered and confused as he, you eagerly wait for some explanation which never comes, and like Howard Graham you just learn to think the worst of everyone, as even the one murderer who appears visible never says anything but only waits for him everywhere. This was according to Hitchcock a capital sin in a thriller movie, who was always meticulous about keeping the audience in the clear about everything. Here you are kept confused even beyond the end. It's an efficient thriller though, there are many moments of truth of sustained suspense, and all kinds of great actors walk by as in a parade, like even Shelley Winters and Stanley Holloway as a displaced American couple. Zero Mostel in the beginning makes a wonderful impression, and so does Joseph Wiseman as a very strict and correct Turkish officer. Yvette Mimieux is a relief between all the manhunts and massacres, and fortunately she at least is innocent. The film ends abruptly in Genoa with the story unfinished, and we shall never learn what it really was all about.

Swap a train for a boat, oil for some bullets and we have a rehash of the 1943 Orson Welles version of this story - only this is nowhere near as good. It doesn't really help that the casting lacks for any great clout. Sam Waterston is weak in the lead as "Graham" - the scientist who gets caught up in a Turkish conspiracy after he discovers that there might just be oil in them thar desert. This information is proving quite dangerous for the man and he needs to get out before he succumbs to one of the plentiful - but not very efficient - assassins out to kill him. He manages to make it onto a train on which he hopes to escape - but are the passengers all they seem to be? We know from fairly early on that "Banat" (Ian McShane) is his biggest danger and therein lay my first problem. He has all the menace of a cucumber sandwich. Zero Mostel's duplicitous "Kopelkin" fares little better and though the supporting cast boasts some A-list names, they feature too sparingly to make much difference with this rather far-fetched and procedural attempt at a thriller that's just, well, very light on thrills. I did quite like the last few scenes as things flare up, but otherwise this is a pretty unremarkable television movie that you'll very readily forget.