Verdict
Summary
Fun for James Bond fans and retro spy movies, A Man Could Get Killed has almost everything fans of the genre would want.
Plot:
A banker is mistaken for a spy in Lisbon.
Review:
William Beddoes (James Garner), a banker on business, steps off a plane in Lisbon and is approached by a man who yammers on about his “mission,” and before he has a chance to contradict anything the man says, he is whisked off in a car and given the run down: He is a secret agent, sent by American Intelligence, to intercept a diamond smuggling deal that is supposed to go down in Lisbon in the next few days. Still somehow thinking that his banking job is involved in all this, Beddoes goes along with it, but he’s completely over his head! Mistaken for someone else, but not having the wherewithal to contradict everyone who is certain he is this other person, he becomes a passenger in his own life, going along with beautiful women, with one in particular (played by smoky-voiced Melina Mercouri) who falls in love with him while they’re being tailed and chased by bad guys who think he has smuggled diamonds (he doesn’t), and intersecting paths with the actual diamond smuggler, a con man named Steve (Tony Franciosa) who comes into possession of the payment intended for the diamonds, while trying to shake loose a cute young woman (played by Sandra Dee) who has a crush on him.
A very loosey-goosey riff on the just-becoming-popular 007 movies, A Man Could Get Killed is a spoofy, but sprightly chase movie with pretty girls, gorgeous scenic locations of Portugal, and a great theme song that was new at the time (you may have heard of it) called “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra. The movie never takes itself seriously and is all about meeting cute and falling in love rather than dodging danger, and so if you’re in the mood for a retro spy romantic comedy, this might fit the bill. From director Ronald Neame.
Kino Lorber has just released a Blu-ray of A Man Could Get Killed, and it comes in a nice high definition transfer, plus two audio commentaries by two different sets of film historians, and the trailer.
