A romantic thriller starring Julie Andrews & Omar Shariff from 1974 & directed by Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's/Days of Wine & Roses). Andrews is in the Caribbean on vacation where she meets a Russian military attache (Sharif who was Egyptian in real life managed to play a Russian twice, along w/Dr. Zhivago, on screen) where they tentatively fall in love (she lost her husband years before in a car accident while his marriage in on the rocks). Meeting again in Europe, the governments of England & Russia take an interest in their burgeoning love affair w/Sharif assuring his people he's using Andrews as an asset while telling her the truth of the matter. Meanwhile a double agent, played by Daniel O'Herlihy, who's gay & in a loveless marriage has been funneling information to the other side for years but is discovered by Sharif's assistant at the embassy who lets Sharif know his existence (but not his name) which sets up the main conflict as both lovers are put in play w/a dossier containing the agent's identity is to be handed over to the Brits in exchange for asylum in Canada. Will the operation go off w/o a hitch? Edwards, known mainly for his wacky comedies (the Pink Panther films, 10, Victor/Victoria), is not given much credit for his other bodies of work & although this film has its espionage heart in the right place (using James Bond composer John Barry for the score & the title sequence designed by Maurice Binder who created the majority of the Bond opening credits), w/the meat of the crosses & double crosses real (most spywork is made up of contacts you can use to your country's advantage) but the start of the film is a bit slow w/the last action set piece a little clunky in its execution. The leads are however refreshing in their emotional & physical attraction (they're middle aged, not something you would see nowadays on the big screen) w/the romance being maybe a bit chaste for my taste (maybe Edwards, who was married to Andrews at the time, wanted the romance to stay behind closed doors). Co-starring Anthony Qualye as a British contact, Sylvia Sims as O'Herlihy's put upon wife & Oskar Homolka (who worked w/Hitchcock on Sabotage in 1936) as Sharif's boss.
Review of The Tamarind Seed
