Maroc 7
(1966/Network U.K./PAL Region 2 DVD Import)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C Film: C
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on
machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Two/2 PAL format
software and can be ordered from our friends at Network U.K. at the website
address provided at the end of the review.
I am
always happy to see any spy thriller of any kind from the 1960s that has not
been available for what is usually decades, no matter how weak or dated it might
be, especially when the stars are interesting.
Gene Barry had just come off of a hit run as Amos Burke (a lawyer who
was eventually a spy!) when he made took the lead in Gerry O’Hara’s Maroc 7, a 1966 attempt by Rank Studios
to cash in on the James Bond films and darker thrillers like those of Hitchcock
and his imitators.
Undercover
to spy on a fashion editor (Cyd Charisse in one of her several spy films in a
row at the time) who may be up to something seriously fraudulent to the point
that he goes with her to Morocco. Then it becomes a game of who is telling the
truth, who is lying, who is hiding something and who will be killed next. The supporting cast including Elsa
Martinelli, Leslie Phillips, Denholm Elliott, Angela Douglas, Alexandra
Stewart, Eric Baker and Tracy Reed is very interesting.
Unfortunately,
the screenplay by David D. Osborn wants to be Hitchcock, above James Bond,
Donen’s Charade and does not know
where to go. There are some interesting
moments, but the film never adds up to what it could have. At the time, Osborn had written the
underrated 1961 Agatha Christie/Jane Marple film Murder She Said and penned a Bulldog Drummond revival with Deadlier Than The Male (1967, both
reviewed elsewhere on this site) so he seemed a good choice to go with, but
this did not work, his second Drummond script (Some Girls Do in 1969) ended that franchise and this film was lost
in the shuffle.
O’Hara
genre credibility came from helming two good black & white Diana Rigg
episodes of The Avengers and he brings
some of that to this film, but that was not enough to make this film exceed its
screenplay. Barry was the only one who
benefited, moving on to two more TV shows that were very well made, even if
they were not huge hits: Name Of The
Game and The Adventurer
(reviewed elsewhere on this site).
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in real anamorphic 35mm Panavision by Director
of Photography Kenneth Talbot and the compositions are not bad, but not as
fancy as Donen’s Arabesque (1966,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) but the color here is impressive. It is EastmanColor and though the transfer
can be soft, the color makes up for that.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age however and that includes some
compression. Be careful of volume levels
and audio switching.
Extras
include several stills sections, DVD-ROM accessible PDF of the original
publicity book and the original theatrical trailer, which makes for an
interesting comparison to the final film.
You see, the makes shot many scenes in what is called day-for-night
shooting where they either use a filter to make it look dark or darken it in
the lab, which looks phony either way.
Here, the
trailer shows how great the daylight-shot climax looks, but in the final cut of
the film, it is darkened, looks fake and only hurts the final film. Glad we got some interesting extras, though.
As noted
above, you can order this DVD import exclusively from Network U.K. at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
