Permission to Kill

Permission to Kill
Original film poster by Robert Tanenbaum
Directed by	Cyril Frankel
Written by	Robin Estridge
Produced by	Paul Mills
Starring	Dirk Bogarde Ava Gardner Bekim Fehmiu
Cinematography	Freddie Young
Edited by	Ernest Walter
Music by	Richard Rodney Bennett
Production company	Sascha Film
Distributed by	AVCO Embassy Pictures (in the United Kingdom through Columbia-Warner Distributors)
Release date	20 November 1975 (1975-11-20) (UK)
Running time	93 minutes
Countries	Austria United Kingdom United States
Language	English

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. 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.

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.

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."

External links

• Permission to Kill at IMDb