Il seme del tamarindo

This movie is not highlighted in any discussion of the careers of either Julie Andrews or Omar Sharif, but it's a jewel. It has romance (the subtleness of which is very effective without constant bedroom scenes), intrigue, espionage, exotic locations, a multi-layered plot and plenty of suspense. You do have to pay close attention to keep up with the rather complicated story, but it pays off. The '70's clothing and hair styles are amusing, and the Russians are no longer the "bad guys," but those facts don't detract from the great storyline. Andrews and Sharif make a very attractive couple, and play their parts perfectly. In fact, everyone turns in a fine performance in this, one of my favorite movies.

"The Tamarind Seed" is sometimes classified as a spy thriller, however it doesn't really belong to that category. This is essentially a romance, make no mistake about that.

Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif are very good in this film and make a highly believable screen couple. The pacing is slow and deliberate, but the plot should be intricate enough to keep you interested. I kept waiting for Andrews to burst out singing, but that never happened.

Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Syms are excellent in supporting roles.

Overall, "The Tamarind Seed" is a good movie for a Sunday afternoon.

I'm a huge Julie Andrews fan, which was why I saw this movie. I now understand spy storylines much better than I did when I watched it, so if I saw it again, I may be able to actually follow the plot. It does drag, which is always a pet pieve of mine, but the romance between Julie and Omar Sharrif is the heart of the film and lets you see that the Cold War was between governments, not necessarily people. The ending makes up for almost everything else, as most good endings tend to do, and it was just what the characters and audience wanted. If you want a lot of action, this may not be the right movie, but if you want a romance masquerading as a spy thriller, this is your film.

I liked this one very much. Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif bring a very sober and realistic screenplay to life about real human beings involved/kept apart by the Cold War. I very much liked the Julie Andrews character who doesn't fear speaking about morality to a Communist likely to scoff, nor fear falling for that Communist with ehr eyes wide open, despite all the difficulties that would bring. Julie Andrews is just wonderful in this role - rather lonely, quite real, with warring feelings between head and heart about caring for someone who is dangerous to know - and in his work, dangerous to the Free World.

Omar Sharif is excellent - charming, quick-witted, falling for Andrews (and who wouldn't - she looks fantastic) despite himself, and finally making the life-changing decision to defect.

I can understand why some find the movie plodding - it certainly is by most spy movie standards. But it's trying to do something different - and admirably succeeding - one just feels the existence of the Iron Curtain here, and one feels the Andrews character making her point that at the heart of the Cold War are questions about the value to be given an individual human being by the state, the value of truth as capturing measurable facts, the value of allowing people to live by their own goals and values rather than those determined by the state.

And the over-arching question is an interesting one of emotional involvement despite world tensions.

You'll like its gradual unfolding - just don't look for James Bond.

Blake Edwards' "The Tamarind Seed" falls into the "lost" category, more specifically the era spanning 1968-1974, when Edwards released a series of films, ranging from good to great, that died a bloody box-office death. That doesn't mean that any of these films were bad. You can't account for audience taste.

Anyway, "The Tamarind Seed" is a different film for Edwards: an international spy thriller. I think the reason for the film not being well received by the public was that Edwards was stereotyped as a comedy director. Indeed, many of his best films ("10", "S.O.B.", "Victor/Victoria", and "The Pink Panther Strikes Again") are in this genre. But during this period, Edwards made many fine straight films such as "Experiment in Terror", "Darling Lili", "Wild Rovers", "The Carey Treatment" and "Gunn". These films are lost today, thanks to clueless studio executives who didn't know how to market them and the clueless moviegoers who stayed away in droves.

Lucky for us, cable TV still remains the forum to catch some of these lost treasures (except "Gunn" which seems lost forever) and AMC has been playing "The Tamarind Seed" frequently. Early video copies distributed by Magnetic Video and Embassy Home Entertainment still exist in used video stores around the country.

Now, about the film itself. Edwards has crafted a pretty skillful thriller here. Spy movies often die a quick death because most directors think they have to be either T&A fests or relentlessly talky. What makes the Bond films so much fun is that there's a sly sense of humor and Edwards understands that. But Edwards maintains a smooth control over his material here and doesn't play this material for monster laughs (rightly).This is a real good story, which I will not reveal, because the film's success is dependent on Edwards' surprises. The acting is great (with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif in the lead roles, how could it be bad?), the cinematography (by the great Freddie Young in Panavision)is dazzling as it would be from that great talent, and the script gets involved enough in the story that we can follow it without getting confused.

"The Tamarind Seed" is very much worth the effort to find. Once you see it, it will be hard to forget it.

**** out of 4 stars