{"id":26372,"date":"2023-04-25T02:33:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T09:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=26372"},"modified":"2023-04-25T02:33:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T09:33:18","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-assassination-bureau-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=26372","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray title from Arrow Video has just been\nreleased at retailers everywhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you have never heard of the feature film The\nAssassination Bureau<\/em> (1969), you certainly aren\u2019t alone. Despite being\nreleased by Paramount Pictures in the late 1960s, the film tanked at the box\noffice and disappeared from view (at least, in this part of the world). Arrow\nVideo have recently rescued this picture and are debuting it on Blu-ray. This\nis a unique effort that combines the Victorian era with elements of James Bond\nspy thrillers and adventure films with a fascinating production backstory. It\u2019s\ngreat to see it salvaged and brought to Blu-ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonya Winter (Diana Rigg) is a woman striving to be a\njournalist. After discovering an organization called The Assassination Bureau\nLtd. that has carried out hits of major figures throughout history, she decides\nto offer her story to a major paper in order to advance her career. She pesters\nnewspaper publisher Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas) until he agrees to fund her\nmission. After tracking down the mysterious leader of the bureau, Ivan\nDragomiloff (Oliver Reed), she presents the proper paperwork and cash and\norders his group to carry out a killing. As it turns out, he is the target. She\nexplains that she wants peace and that their business is horrible – she\nbelieves that fulfilling this contract will end his organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly, he admits when The Assassination Bureau was\nfounded that they had a strong moral code, but that he has lost faith in the\nother members. He okays the offer and allows his team to try and hunt him down.\nAs Dragomiloff goes on the run across Europe, he is targeted by various\nassassins, and followed by Winter who writes about his exploits. It soon\nbecomes clear that Lord Bostwick is actually the Vice President of the Bureau\nand wants Dragomiloff dead so that he can take over the organization and\ncontrol the world. The figure on the run and the writer ultimately fall in love\nand try to foil Bostwick\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The tone is comedic, which today comes across as a bit\nstrange given that the humor comes from Dragomiloff murdering villains by\nsetting off bombs and other creative methods. One supposes that this is to be\nexpected given the character\u2019s line of work, but everyone including writer\nWinter is very flippant and unconcerned about the bloodshed and collateral\ndamage occurring around them. It\u2019s particularly strange for the journalist, who\nearlier professed to be against all forms of violence. There are a couple of interesting\ndebates early on, but her character isn\u2019t well developed. And, since she\neventually falls for Dragomiloff\u2019s charms, she ultimately fades into the\nbackground during the climax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While that aspect doesn\u2019t work well, the movie is well-paced\nand features plenty of memorable moments as the lead is pursued, then outsmarts\nand eliminates his cohorts in a variety of ways (sometimes costumes, other\ntimes traps or elaborate ruses, and sometimes figuring out where a bomb is\ncoming from and returning it to the sender). It\u2019s all played with a light touch\nand some of the humor works. A bit in Venice involving a singing gondola man\ndisposing of a body is amusing. Dragomiloff sneaks around a Parisian bordello\nand setting a trap for one assassin (who happens to also run the\nestablishment), and there\u2019s a memorable scene at a Swiss bank in which the\nowner\/killer can\u2019t determine whether a grizzled figure is a real customer or\nDragomiloff in costume. It all helps that Reed is an entertaining lead, smiling\ndevilishly while committing crimes against even nastier persons.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The sets are elaborate and impressive throughout, no more so\nthat during the climax set upon a zeppelin. It\u2019s genuinely exciting, with\noverhead shots presenting characters plunging from the airship down to the\nground below. While it\u2019s tonally bizarre, it is an impressive production with\nsome good moments. It may be of its specific time, but there are plenty of\nscenes that do linger in the mind after the credits roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The extras on the disc are fascinating to listen to. They\ninclude a 30-minute video appreciation of the film with historian Matthew Sweet\ndetailing the production history and a commentary track with Kim Newman and\nSean Hogan sharing their thoughts on the picture. Both note all the strange aspects\nof the film and the tonal issues, but admit to appreciating the film (both are\nfrom the UK, where the movie aired regularly on television). They are fun to\nlisten to and offer plenty of valuable insight into how the strange period\nsetting (just prior to the start of World War I) and the inclusion of\nhistorical figures influenced their work personally. Newman admits that the\npicture may have in some way subtly influenced the creation of his 1992 book Anno\nDracula<\/em>, which intersects various literary characters in a similar\nnarrative manner.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The highlight may be the production history, which explains\nthe film\u2019s odd development. Believe it or not, the movie was based on the novel\nThe Assassination Bureau by Jack London (Call of the Wild, White Fang<\/em>).\nWhile experiencing writer\u2019s block, he bought a few story ideas off of a fellow\nauthor and friend that became the story for the book. After finishing\ntwo-thirds of it, he gave up and shelved it. After his estate found the\nunpublished manuscript and notes on how to finish it, they hired author Robert\nL. Fish to finish the book. He ignored London\u2019s suggestions. Curiously enough,\nthe story was contemporary to the time it was written (the 1910s) and set\nentirely in the US. The book was relatively successful upon its release in\n1963, but John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassinated shortly thereafter may have dampened\nenthusiasm for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie rights were purchased and the film was produced by\na production designer (which may be why so much attention to detail was put\ninto the sets). United Artists were going to finance the movie with Burt\nLancaster as the star, but they pulled out. After Paramount stepped in, the\ncast changed and the story setting was moved to Europe during the Victorian era\n(due to the fact that Victorian era epics like The Great Race<\/em> were very\npopular at the time). It\u2019s all remarkable to hear how the film changed\ncompletely from the original written book to the very different final version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disc also includes fun publicity materials like a\ntrailer and image gallery. The Assassination Bureau<\/em> is a flawed but\nfascinating effort that makes for a fun watch. It makes one want to read the\nnovel and also wonder what a redo of the concept might be like. The disc\u2019s\nimage quality is quite sharp and the sets, costumes and action scenes look\ngreat thanks to the fine work at Arrow Video. Those who appreciate period\noddities or movies in the mold of James Bond should definitely give it a look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[99,1836,1900,2933,2939,3073,3849,4660,5836,7103,10101,15330,18907,19704,19933,19934,23771],"class_list":["post-26372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-99","tag-arrow-video","tag-assassins","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-2","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-caper","tag-comedy","tag-diana-rigg","tag-europe","tag-jack-london","tag-oliver-reed","tag-spy","tag-telly-savalas","tag-the-assassination-bureau","tag-the-assassination-bureau-blu-ray-review","tag-victorian"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}