Review: Target Harry

 

Vic Morrow stars as a taciturn pilot hired by English businessman Stanley Holloway to fly him to Istanbul. After reaching the destination, Holloway is rubbed out by an assassin. Soon Morrow finds himself in the company of various parties all very interested in procuring some money printing plates they believe Holloway was in possession of and thus assume Morrow has obtained. These interested parties include a grinning American woman (Suzanne Pleshette) and an overweight Turk (Victor Buono), the latter of whom is flanked by two henchmen; an Albanian (Michael Ansara) and a Turkish wrestler (Milton Reid). Charlotte Rampling turns up as Holloway’s daughter, whilst Cesar Romero appears briefly as an investigating lieutenant.

 

Apparently director Roger Corman (“A Bucket of Blood”, “Tomb of Ligeia”, “The Intruder”) originally shot this 1969 film with the intention for it to be the pilot to a possible TV series. The series never eventuated, so with a little bit of added nudity and violence (shot by his editor Monte Hellman) it was turned into a feature film instead. Welcome to perhaps the most obscure directorial effort of Corman’s career (for starters, he uses a pseudonym). Oddly enough, it’s more enjoyable than it might sound and doesn’t deserve its obscure status.

 

It’s certainly a very 1960s film, with Les Baxter (“The Fall in the House of Usher”, “The Comedy of Terrors”, “The Beast Within”) offering up a pretty good John Barry imitation over some very Maurice Binder-esque titles. It’s really nicely shot with lovely location shooting. It’s pretty in keeping with the 60s spy genre both cinematically and on television, so if that’s your jam you’re likely going to enjoy this. It’s like an American James Bond with a touch of “The Maltese Falcon” thrown in.

 

Vic Morrow is perfect in the lead, he’s a real tough bastard who takes no shit from anyone and seems to be in a pretty foul mood a lot of the time. The majority of the cast here is rock-solid. Is Victor Buono believably Turkish? No. Do I care? Also no. He walks off with the film from moment one, and Michael Ansara is solid too as his Albanian henchman (he’s actually somewhat believably Albanian), as is Milton Reid as another henchman. Stanley Holloway and a young Charlotte Rampling are terrific, whilst Cesar Romero is never bad but he’s pretty wasted (And yes, King Tut and The Joker are in the same film here, “Batman” fans). The one weak link in the cast is a constantly smug smiling Suzanne Pleshette, who got on my nerves throughout. She also acts as if she has read the entire script, which of course she has but it makes things obvious that were meant to be kept under wraps. If the film had more Romero and less self-amusement from Ms. Pleshette it’d be even better. Look out for Corman himself in a nice little cameo on the telephone at a dock. Do the nude scenes mesh with anything else in the script? Absolutely not. Do I care? Absolutely not.

 

This isn’t a great film, but it’s a fun one that shouldn’t be so obscure. Seek this one out especially if you’re a Les Baxter fan, he provides some of his best work. The screenplay is by Bob Barbash who scripted Disney’s “The Black Hole” and a whole lotta TV.

 

Rating: B-