Permission to Kill

1975 film by Cyril Frankel

20 November 1975 (1975-11-20) (UK)

Running time

93 minutesCountriesAustria
United Kingdom
United StatesLanguageEnglish

Permission to Kill (also known as The Executioner and Vollmacht Zum Mord) is a 1975 Austrian/American/British spy thriller film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Dirk Bogarde, Ava Gardner and Bekim Fehmiu with Timothy Dalton, Nicole Calfan and Frederic Forrest.^[3] It was produced by Paul Mills from a screenplay by Robin Estridge, made by Sascha-Verleih and distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures. The film had original music by Richard Rodney Bennett and the cinematography was by Freddie Young.

Plot

British agents try to stop a communist returning home from the West.^[4]

Partial cast

Dirk Bogarde as Alan Curtis
Ava Gardner as Katina Petersen
Bekim Fehmiu as Alexander Diakim
Timothy Dalton as Charles Lord
Nicole Calfan as Melissa Lascade
Frederic Forrest as Scott Allison
John Levene as Adams
Klaus Wildbolz as Muller
Anthony Dutton as Jennings
Peggy Sinclair as Lily
Dennis Blanch as Brewer
Alf Joint as MacNeil
Vladimir Popovic as Kostas
Ratislav Plamenac as Pavlos
Oliver Schott as François
Erna Riedl as Mme Diderot
Paul Maxwell as American
John Serret as Frenchman
Anthony Forwood as Englishman
François Baudet as Dr. Giraud
Bob Sessions as Pete
Peter Garell as Carlo
Friedrich Mönnig as Cliff
Fritz von Friedl as 1st security man
Erwin Fischer as 2nd security man

Production

The film was shot at the Sievering Studios in Vienna and on location in Gmunden, Austria.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A suspense thriller entirely devoid of tension since Robin Estridge, from whose novel it is adapted, has failed to provide his protagonist Diakim with an authentic political identity. Lacking the vaguest idea who Diakim is or what he stands for, audiences can hardly be expected to feel strongly about his life or his death. The plot's overall lack of definition is not improved by the tritely ominous secrecy surrounding the character of Curtis, an agent of implausible efficiency and ruthlessness who would have been more at home in a fantasy thriller than in this pretentious political mishmash. ... The film reaches its melodramatic nadir when Lord, his bloody chest uncovered, is laid prominently on a table in the bustling HQ of Western Intelligence Liaison, studiously ignored by the hard-hearted Curtis while a secretary dabs ineffectively at the wound with a minuscule piece of cottonwool. Bogarde, at his best for some time recently in roles requiring understated menace, here shields behind his poker-face and occasionally twitching upper lip. The tousled but still good-looking Ava Gardner, in the thin supporting role of Katina, emotes heavily in a style of acting more suited to the star vehicles of an earlier age."^[5]

References

^ "Permission to Kill / 30x40 / USA".
^ "Permission to Kill (1975)". BBFC. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
^ "Permission to Kill". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
^ "TV guide from 1988" (JPG). Retrieved 29 September 2016.
^ "Permission to Kill". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 42 (492): 266. 1 January 1975 – via ProQuest.