The Liquidator

Taylor Made Bond Spoof
As soon as you hear the wonderful voice of Shirley Bassey behind the credits, you know you are treading on Bondian territory and unfortunately, Director Jack Cardiff's 'THE LIQUIDATOR'-1966 never got to see its own series due to poor box office. With a screenplay by Peter Yeldham based on a novel by John Gardner who would scribe future James Bond novels in the eighties, actor Rod Taylor plays Boysie Oakes , an average bachelor who gets recruited by British Intelligence represented and played by Trevor Howard to be an assassin eliminating rogue and problem agents. Turns out that Oakes can't stomach the job so he recruits another assassin to do his work. When that guy is killed and Oakes goes AWOL with actress Jill St. John who is drop dead gorgeous and lethal, things get complicated. What ensues is a series of vignettes which veer on the verge of slapstick but never enter into the crude shenanigans that bogged down a number of spy yarns such as Director Val Guest's 'WHERE THE SPIES...

Good fun for all
Having seen this movie but once, decades ago; it was so long ago i completely forgot about the beginning wartime episode, none the less, it remained firmly lodged in my memory as great entertainment. Rod Taylor is totally believable as a bumbling sort of hero or liquidator if you please. Trevor Howard is excellent as always as Colonel Mostyn. Jill St. John was good as Iris. Wilfrid Hyde-White who was excellent in "My Fair Lady" was equally so in this production.

The plot, direction and dialogue are well done and the film transfer is very good, no doubt a result of it being filmed in Panavison.

As a teenager when this came out my fondest memory from this film is of the bar in Boysie Oakes flat. I wanted one of those for years.

Other notable roles for Mr. Taylor include, Dark of the Sun, Bearcats (short lived TV series), Fate is the Hunter, Giant and of course the original Time Machine.

When serious spy movies such as the Bond...

A Great Movie
This is such a fun movie to watch & one that any Rod Taylor fan should add to the collection.

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