Assignment K
1968 British film by Val Guest
- 18 February 1968 (1968-02-18)
Running time
Assignment K (also known as Department K) is a 1968 British spy thriller film directed by Val Guest in Techniscope and starring Stephen Boyd, Camilla Sparv, Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Robert Hoffmann and Jeremy Kemp.[1][2] The film was based on the 1964 novel Department K by Hartley Howard.
Plot
A British spy has his cover blown, leading to the East German Stasi kidnapping his girlfriend to try to extract information about his double agents' activities.[3]
Cast
- Stephen Boyd as Philip Scott
- Camilla Sparv as Toni Peters
- Michael Redgrave as Harris
- Leo McKern as Smith
- Robert Hoffmann as Paul Spiegler
- Jeremy Kemp as Hal
- Jane Merrow as Martine
- Carl Möhner as Inspector (as Carl Moehner)
- Vivi Bach as Erika Herschel
- Werner Peters as Kramer
- Dieter Geissler as Kurt
- John Alderton as George
- Jan Werich as Dr. Spiegler
- David Healy as David
- Ursula Howells as Estelle
- Basil Dignam as Howlett
- Geoffrey Bayldon as The Boffin
- Joachim Hansen as Heinrich Herschel
Production
Val Guest said "We shot it all out in Kitzbuhel, great cast: we had my Leo McKern again, and Michael Redgrave who was a very sick man, had terrible difficulties with his lines... Stephen [Boyd] was a wonderful person, a great giggler, a great professional, very nice guy."[4]
Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Routine spy thriller, unimaginatively scripted and directed. The entirely conventional settings include the inevitable night clubs, expensive hotels and ski slopes (where the travelling matte is much in evidence). Stephen Boyd is bland and wooden as the toy tycoon/spy; Camilla Sparv has little to do but look alluring; and Leo McKern and Michael Redgrave appear fleetingly and to little effect. The plot meanders from dull beginning to dull end with nothing of interest in between."[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Assignment K". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "Assignment K(1968)". Yahoo Movies. Retrieved 31 May 2012. [dead link]
- ^ "Assignment K(1968)". TCM. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- ^ Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
- ^ "Assignment K". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 35 (408): 39. 1 January 1968 – via ProQuest.
External links
- Assignment K at IMDb
- Assignment K at AllMovie
- Assignment K at the TCM Movie Database
- Assignment K then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
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Films directed by Val Guest
- Miss London Ltd. (1943)
- Bees in Paradise (1944)
- Give Us the Moon (1944)
- I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945)
- Just William's Luck (1947)
- William Comes to Town (1948)
- Murder at the Windmill (1949)
- Miss Pilgrim's Progress (1949)
- Mister Drake's Duck (1951)
- Penny Princess (1952)
- The Runaway Bus (1954)
- Life with the Lyons (1954)
- Dance, Little Lady (1954)
- The Body Said No! (1954)
- The Men of Sherwood Forest (1954)
- The Lyons in Paris (1955)
- Break in the Circle (1955)
- The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
- They Can't Hang Me (1955)
- It's a Wonderful World (1956)
- Carry On Admiral (1957)
- The Weapon (1957)
- Quatermass 2 (1957)
- The Abominable Snowman (1957)
- The Camp on Blood Island (1958)
- Up the Creek (1958)
- Further Up the Creek (1958)
- Yesterday's Enemy (1959)
- Expresso Bongo (1959)
- Life Is a Circus (1960)
- Hell Is a City (1960)
- The Full Treatment (1960)
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
- Jigsaw (1962)
- 80,000 Suspects (1963)
- The Beauty Jungle (1964)
- Where the Spies Are (1965)
- Casino Royale (1967)
- Assignment K (1968)
- Toomorrow (1970)
- When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
- Au Pair Girls (1972)
- Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974)
- Killer Force (1976)
- The Boys in Blue (1982)
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