Le sursis

This movie is awful. I gave it a 4, could have been a 2 or a 3 as well. The cast and the location offer potential, but the story makes virtually no sense, the script is awful, etc. I tried to follow the story and give it a chance, but there is never any coherence or reason given for why anyone is doing anything. Just avoid this one.

Awful, wretched account of spies converging in Jerusalem in order to either aid or obstruct the departure of double-agent Oliver Reed after a contract is put out on him by both CIA and KGB interests. Local former CIA spy turned antiquities dealer (Widmark) is approached by Reed (his former protégé) to assist his exit, but finds himself becoming implicated in a saga in which he wanted no involvement.

One could only assume that Reed, Widmark, Wanamaker, Hunnicutt & Sheybul agreed to appear in this movie for the opportunity to visit Israel. Perhaps that's why they titled it "The Sell Out". Hunnicutt looks good in a teasing negligee and Sheybul is suitably sinister (perhaps some residual good-will from his former Bond villain colours his performance - there is a mildly creepy moment where he nibbles on a slice of cucumber while passively threatening Hunnicutt), but everyone and everything else associated with this picture is pure bunkum.

Endless double cross, incessant car chases, inane dialogue and woeful attempts at patriotic sympathy are just a few of the fault-lines that permanently fracture this would-be thriller. The film's meandering, incoherent narrative loses its way quickly and never recovers; the climax is an absolute non-event (and so dimly lit as to be virtually invisible), but to be disappointing, there would have needed to have been something better anticipated, and that was never an expectation after enduring the first 85 minutes of this abject failure.

Poor old Ollie Reed is having a bit of an holiday in Israel when someone tries to kill him... It turns out that he used to run the CIA operation in Lebanon, and that his former employers and the KGB have decided to eliminate some loose ends that might come back to haunt them - he is their current target! In desperation, he turns to his former colleague Richard Widmark ("Sam"), now retired to an antiques business with Gayle Hunnicutt ("Deborah") in Jerusalem. What ensues is a pretty lacklustre espionage thriller, with neither star really bothering. There is quite a funny scene with Reed before the wailing wall looking as if he is about to vomit - a scene that rather sums the whole thing up. It's largely devoid of jeopardy, what action there is has an inevitability about it that isn't at all helped out by a pretty formulaic script. It has some nice photography of the City of David (the bits folks are not trying to blow up) but otherwise is something you will soon forget.

Typical (and typically complex) Cold War spy saga, not the best in the genre by far – but still counting among its admirers film-geek supremo Quentin Tarantino!

The narrative deals with hounded KGB man Oliver Reed who's wanted by one side and deemed expendable by the other; the only one who can help him is Richard Widmark, recently retired from the C.I.A. and currently living with Reed's ex-flame (Gayle Hunnicutt) in Israel! On Reed's trail are Sam Wanamaker of the C.I.A. and Vladek Sheybal of the KGB; an Israeli agent, who's trying to keep the situation under control, is sympathetic to Widmark but ends up paying for the interest with his life. As a film, It's watchable enough but hardly outstanding, despite a plethora of action sequences set to a pounding score and culminating in a desert trek fraught with peril. Even so, the star combo works surprisingly well (watching them dressed up in Jewish garb "praying" beneath the Weeping Wall is an unintentionally comic highlight), the supporting cast all pull their weight (particularly Sheybal's sleek but ruthless hit-man), and the overly-hysterical Hunnicutt is ultimately exposed as a femme fatale.

THE SELL OUT is available on a budget DVD containing two other espionage titles (all under the dubious name of "Great Spy Movies"): these are the obscure THE INSIDE MAN (1984) – which, at least, offers some interest due to the presence in the cast of Dennis Hopper and Hardy Kruger – and the distinctly unappetizing HANGMEN (1987) with Sandra Bullock and Jake LaMotta!

Spy escapades riddled with double crosses and triple crosses were all the rage in the '60s and '70s, and this is Peter Collinson's belated addition to the genre. An uninspired and very routine espionage yarn, set (and filmed) in Israel, The Sell-Out is preposterously hard-to-follow at times but it would be wrong to dismiss it as a complete failure. It may not be especially good, but the performances are competent enough and the climactic chase sequence is moderately exciting.

Elderly ex-spy Sam Lucas (Richard Widmark) lives in Jerusalem with the much younger Deborah (Gayle Hunnicutt). He likes to think he has left the spy business behind, and he now runs a successful antiquities store. However, he is forced back into action when he receives a call for help from his old protege Gabriel Lee (Oliver Reed). Lee defected to the East some years previously, but has now become the target on a clandestine CIA-KGB death list. His only chance of getting out of Israel alive is to plead for the help of his old pal Lucas, even though it will mean re-igniting long-buried tensions and emotions.

There have been so many films of this ilk that The Sell-Out struggles to come up with anything fresh or interesting. Widmark is likable as the reluctant hero and Reed gets to put in some moody posturing as the enigmatic defector. Director Collinson cuts back on the hard-hitting violence that characterises many of his earlier films (there's violence in this one, but nothing in the same league as Fright or Open Season). The Sell-Out is a very formulaic film, never so bad that you feel like turning it off but never so good that you feel the urge to watch it again. Everyone involved has done better.... and worse.