Buying... selling... and zapping your friends... It's all part of the game.
1976-05-01
N/A
88 min
This action drama centers on a former CIA operative who grudgingly rejoins the spy game due to the machinations of his one-time student - a screw up who goes to work for the Soviets. As his job drags him deeper into a dangerous and under-handed world, the student wants out of the agency and oout of the U.S.S.R. But the man's choices have made him a target and now both the United States and Russia want him dead, sending their mos able hit men to do it.
Poor old Ollie Reed is having a bit of an holiday in Israel when someone tries to kill him... It turns out that he used to run the CIA operation in Lebanon, and that his former employers and the KGB have decided to eliminate some loose ends that might come back to haunt them - he is their current target! In desperation, he turns to his former colleague Richard Widmark ("Sam"), now retired to an antiques business with Gayle Hunnicutt ("Deborah") in Jerusalem. What ensues is a pretty lacklustre espionage thriller, with neither star really bothering. There is quite a funny scene with Reed before the wailing wall looking as if he is about to vomit - a scene that rather sums the whole thing up. It's largely devoid of jeopardy, what action there is has an inevitability about it that isn't at all helped out by a pretty formulaic script. It has some nice photography of the City of David (the bits folks are not trying to blow up) but otherwise is something you will soon forget.
