Il nostro uomo a Marrakesh

`I think there's been some foul play' says Tony Randall upon discovering a dead body with a knife in its back stashed in the closet of his hotel room. Comedy is hard and although this one spends too much time as a chase movie, it is still largely successful thanks to a great cast and good script.

Director Don Sharp, in his only spy outing, has crafted an enjoyable and funny film that doesn't resort too often to slapstick or other forms of cheap laughs. It manages to tread the line between humor and danger keeping the viewer interested enough to evoke plenty of hearty chuckles. A light and entertaining spy comedy, this is one of the best of the bunch.

So..... Andrew Jessel (T. Randall) checks into a hotel in Marrakesh, and we see a (dead) body fall out of his closet. Some chick barges into his room, and talks him out of calling the cops. Kyra Stanovy (Senta Berger) is involved in this somehow, and we have to figure out how. For Randall, this was still a couple years before Odd Couple. Also in here is Herb Lom, you will recognize as Commissioner Dreyfus from all the Pink Panther films. Look for Brit actors Wilfrid Hyde-White and Terry Thomas (from the hilarious Mad Mad World....). A lot of talking and posturing, but not a lot of action for the first half. SOMEONE here has two million dollars in a suitcase to buy a vote. Jessel seems to be caught up in some spy trap. When confronted by the bad guys, we see him in one of the more "tough" roles he played. The fancy hotel at which he stays also seems to be the same hotel that Patsy & Eddy stay at in Ab-Fab. More dead bodies. And for a while, we can't tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Pretty entertaining film. Dr. No and Russia with Love had already been made into movies, so this was kind of a knock off of those. Randall had just made all those films with Doris Day & Rock Hudson. Written by Harry Towers, who had produced and written the screen plays for Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians".

British-made film (released under a variety of different titles around the world) concerns an American hotel-builder, newly-arrived in Morocco, who becomes involved in a $2M plot to change votes at the United Nations. Despite poster art designed to look like a spy spoof (with Randall an unlikely substitute for James Bond), this minor, droll offering is more in keeping with the latter-day Hitchcock films ("North by Northwest", in particular), with the dryly-resolved star getting deeper into hot water with every plot turn. Senta Berger is a very attractive mystery woman, and she matches up surprisingly well with Randall (grounded and more affable than usual), but the supporting cast of old pros is never given anything especially exciting to do. Director Don Sharp, working from a wayward, rudderless screenplay by Peter Yeldham, does decent work, yet the finale is confusing instead of suspenseful, and the overall air of familiarity is wearing. ** from ****

Quickie producer Harry Alan Towers had a set routine when making films in the 1960s: he'd assemble an all-star cast, whisk them off to an exotic (typically hot) location and proceed to film a sub-par story designed to make maximum use of the familiar faces he'd gathered together. Such films are invariably disappointing, although film fans will probably want to watch them for the casts alone.

OUR MAN IN MARRAKESH is a case in point, a quirky caper that mixes together three different genres. The first is a spy flick, with the rubber-face Tony Randall playing a man mixed up with scheming villains and beautiful femme fatales (Senta Berger). The second is a Hitchcock 'wrong man' thriller, with plenty of nods to the director's output a la THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Finally, Towers can't resist adding a little 'whodunit' aspect to make the most of his famous cast members, although technically this is more of a 'who is it' as identity plays a key part.

Inevitably the script is disappointing and the various action sequences are routine to say the least, but the cast members make this worthwhile. Herbert Lom is the villain and Klaus Kinski his creepy henchman; also along for the ride are an out-of-place Wilfrid Hyde-White, Terry-Thomas, and John Le Mesurier, their upper lips stiff and quivering with indignation. OUR MAN IN MARRAKESH isn't particularly bad - although the comedy has certainly dated - but in comparison to Bond or Hitch it just looks dumb.

This was much to my surprise quite entertaining.Maybe its the cast.As usual a real mix of nationalities,to satisfy the distributors in each country.Much of the film shot on location including echoing hotel bedrooms.