This Blu-ray title from Arrow Video has just been released at retailers everywhere.
If you have never heard of the feature film The Assassination Bureau (1969), you certainly aren’t alone. Despite being released by Paramount Pictures in the late 1960s, the film tanked at the box office and disappeared from view (at least, in this part of the world). Arrow Video have recently rescued this picture and are debuting it on Blu-ray. This is a unique effort that combines the Victorian era with elements of James Bond spy thrillers and adventure films with a fascinating production backstory. It’s great to see it salvaged and brought to Blu-ray.
Sonya Winter (Diana Rigg) is a woman striving to be a journalist. After discovering an organization called The Assassination Bureau Ltd. that has carried out hits of major figures throughout history, she decides to offer her story to a major paper in order to advance her career. She pesters newspaper publisher Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas) until he agrees to fund her mission. After tracking down the mysterious leader of the bureau, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed), she presents the proper paperwork and cash and orders his group to carry out a killing. As it turns out, he is the target. She explains that she wants peace and that their business is horrible – she believes that fulfilling this contract will end his organization.
Surprisingly, he admits when The Assassination Bureau was founded that they had a strong moral code, but that he has lost faith in the other members. He okays the offer and allows his team to try and hunt him down. As Dragomiloff goes on the run across Europe, he is targeted by various assassins, and followed by Winter who writes about his exploits. It soon becomes clear that Lord Bostwick is actually the Vice President of the Bureau and wants Dragomiloff dead so that he can take over the organization and control the world. The figure on the run and the writer ultimately fall in love and try to foil Bostwick’s plan.
The tone is comedic, which today comes across as a bit strange given that the humor comes from Dragomiloff murdering villains by setting off bombs and other creative methods. One supposes that this is to be expected given the character’s line of work, but everyone including writer Winter is very flippant and unconcerned about the bloodshed and collateral damage occurring around them. It’s particularly strange for the journalist, who earlier professed to be against all forms of violence. There are a couple of interesting debates early on, but her character isn’t well developed. And, since she eventually falls for Dragomiloff’s charms, she ultimately fades into the background during the climax.
While that aspect doesn’t work well, the movie is well-paced and features plenty of memorable moments as the lead is pursued, then outsmarts and eliminates his cohorts in a variety of ways (sometimes costumes, other times traps or elaborate ruses, and sometimes figuring out where a bomb is coming from and returning it to the sender). It’s all played with a light touch and some of the humor works. A bit in Venice involving a singing gondola man disposing of a body is amusing. Dragomiloff sneaks around a Parisian bordello and setting a trap for one assassin (who happens to also run the establishment), and there’s a memorable scene at a Swiss bank in which the owner/killer can’t determine whether a grizzled figure is a real customer or Dragomiloff in costume. It all helps that Reed is an entertaining lead, smiling devilishly while committing crimes against even nastier persons.
The sets are elaborate and impressive throughout, no more so that during the climax set upon a zeppelin. It’s genuinely exciting, with overhead shots presenting characters plunging from the airship down to the ground below. While it’s tonally bizarre, it is an impressive production with some good moments. It may be of its specific time, but there are plenty of scenes that do linger in the mind after the credits roll.
The extras on the disc are fascinating to listen to. They include a 30-minute video appreciation of the film with historian Matthew Sweet detailing the production history and a commentary track with Kim Newman and Sean Hogan sharing their thoughts on the picture. Both note all the strange aspects of the film and the tonal issues, but admit to appreciating the film (both are from the UK, where the movie aired regularly on television). They are fun to listen to and offer plenty of valuable insight into how the strange period setting (just prior to the start of World War I) and the inclusion of historical figures influenced their work personally. Newman admits that the picture may have in some way subtly influenced the creation of his 1992 book Anno Dracula, which intersects various literary characters in a similar narrative manner.
The highlight may be the production history, which explains the film’s odd development. Believe it or not, the movie was based on the novel The Assassination Bureau by Jack London (Call of the Wild, White Fang). While experiencing writer’s block, he bought a few story ideas off of a fellow author and friend that became the story for the book. After finishing two-thirds of it, he gave up and shelved it. After his estate found the unpublished manuscript and notes on how to finish it, they hired author Robert L. Fish to finish the book. He ignored London’s suggestions. Curiously enough, the story was contemporary to the time it was written (the 1910s) and set entirely in the US. The book was relatively successful upon its release in 1963, but John F. Kennedy’s assassinated shortly thereafter may have dampened enthusiasm for it.
The movie rights were purchased and the film was produced by a production designer (which may be why so much attention to detail was put into the sets). United Artists were going to finance the movie with Burt Lancaster as the star, but they pulled out. After Paramount stepped in, the cast changed and the story setting was moved to Europe during the Victorian era (due to the fact that Victorian era epics like The Great Race were very popular at the time). It’s all remarkable to hear how the film changed completely from the original written book to the very different final version.
The disc also includes fun publicity materials like a trailer and image gallery. The Assassination Bureau is a flawed but fascinating effort that makes for a fun watch. It makes one want to read the novel and also wonder what a redo of the concept might be like. The disc’s image quality is quite sharp and the sets, costumes and action scenes look great thanks to the fine work at Arrow Video. Those who appreciate period oddities or movies in the mold of James Bond should definitely give it a look.