DANGER ROUTE (THE ELIMINATOR) (director: Seth Holt; screenwriters: Meade Roberts; Camera Harry Waxma, .based on the novel The Eliminator by Andrew York; cinematographer: Harry Waxman; editor: Oswald Hafenrichter; music: John Mayer; cast: Diana Dors (Rhoda), Sylvia Syms (Barbara Canning), Richard Johnson (Jonas Wilde), Sam Wanamaker ( Lucinda), Harry Andrews (Canning), Barbara Bouchet (Mari), Carol Lynley (Jocelyn), Gordon Jackson (Stern), Maurice Denham (Ravenspur); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky; United Artists; 1967-UK)
“Thrilling and thoughtful, but convoluted adventure film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Seth Holt (“The Nanny”/”Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb”/”Monsieur Lecoq“) directs this thrilling and thoughtful, but convoluted adventure film. It aims for a mix of levity and action, ala James Bond. The writer Meade Roberts goes far afield from the central plot with many subplots, and thereby the narrative never recovers enough to make sense. It’s based on the popular spy novel The Eliminator by Andrew York.
After successfully completing a mission, British secret agent, the karate expert, Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson), tells his boss, Canning (Harry Andrews), he will resign. Canning talks him into one more mission, to eliminate a Soviet scientist defector that the Americans have in their custody before he can pass on his secrets to them.
Wilde is helped by his housekeeper Rhoda (Diana Dors), and eliminates the target. But the CIA capture him, and its agent Lucinda (Sam Wanamaker) grills him. Then Wilde escapes, but can’t locate his boss. Now accompanied by Barbara (Sylvia Syms), Canning’s wife, they go to the Channel Islands, the boss’s home base. Brit agent Stern (Gordon Jackson) informs Wilde that not only has Canning vanished but British agent Peter Ravenspur (Maurice Denham) has been murdered. Running into a nest of double-agents, Wilde must kill them before returning safely to London, where he also must kill his untrustworthy girlfriend Jocelyn (Carol Lynley) who is in cahoots with the traitors. Canning reappears when things return to normal and urges Wilde to not resign but go undercover, flattering him by saying he’s too valuable for the agency to lose.
REVIEWED ON 3/11/2016 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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