Whatever happened to the intelligent "adult" comedy movie? Well, my theory is that they made one too many like "A Man Could Get Killed."
The movie starts out well: Garner is a banker examining some sort of prospects near Lisbon (that part doesn't matter in the slightest, it's just an excuse to get him there) and from the moment he disembarks from the airplane it's assumed by everyone he's an American spy and no one will listen to the truth, thinking it's a clever cover story.
This includes the dunderheads at the British embassy (Robert Coote, Cecil Parker) an American smuggler posing as Portugese (Anthony Franciosa) and a collection of spies working in groups of twos and threes who are more like Keystone Kops.
Garner plays "comically frustrated" as well as or better than anyone in the business and I've never seen Franciosa better. And the movie has some fine comic moments. I even laughed out loud and I'm pretty jaded.
But as the movie drags on it seems to run out of ideas. It gets bogged down in fish and rice scenes (if you must know what that means, see the flick). Though it does keep trying new (rather, familiar) plot twists right up to the climax, i'd trade a plot twist or two for something funny.
In fact, one of the best things about "A Man Could Get Killed" is a trial run of music for what became "Strangers in the Night," a chart-topping hit for Sinatra in the age of the Beatles. It's lovely.
If the writers (or whomever) had been able to sustain the ideas and energy propelling its first half-hour "A Man Could Get Killed" might've been a spy-spoof classic. Garner is certainly good enough and has range enough as an actor to carry it off, as he did in the comic-western "Support Your Local Sheriff " But at some point someone decided the way to proceed was with boring scenes of fish and rice and that's what we're left with.
(James Coburn's unfortunately dated spy spoof "The President's Analyst" nailed the genre better and despite a third-act lull ultimately sustains itself to the end.)
I like Sandra Dee but she's just awful. Rumor is, she didn't want to go to Lisbon and was forced to do the movie contractually. I never "got" Melina Mercori and that's probably my own blind spot, but I can provide, under separate cover, a list of actresses I'd prefer cast as the women who bedevil Garner and Franciosa (as if Coote, Parker and the spies didn't bedevil them enough).
Overall, a worthy try until it runs out of steam. Despite a wonderful title, good music, and fine performances by Garner and Franciosa, "A Man Could Get Killed" is not a must-see classic you've missed all your life. Too bad.
The movie starts out well: Garner is a banker examining some sort of prospects near Lisbon (that part doesn't matter in the slightest, it's just an excuse to get him there) and from the moment he disembarks from the airplane it's assumed by everyone he's an American spy and no one will listen to the truth, thinking it's a clever cover story.
This includes the dunderheads at the British embassy (Robert Coote, Cecil Parker) an American smuggler posing as Portugese (Anthony Franciosa) and a collection of spies working in groups of twos and threes who are more like Keystone Kops.
Garner plays "comically frustrated" as well as or better than anyone in the business and I've never seen Franciosa better. And the movie has some fine comic moments. I even laughed out loud and I'm pretty jaded.
But as the movie drags on it seems to run out of ideas. It gets bogged down in fish and rice scenes (if you must know what that means, see the flick). Though it does keep trying new (rather, familiar) plot twists right up to the climax, i'd trade a plot twist or two for something funny.
In fact, one of the best things about "A Man Could Get Killed" is a trial run of music for what became "Strangers in the Night," a chart-topping hit for Sinatra in the age of the Beatles. It's lovely.
If the writers (or whomever) had been able to sustain the ideas and energy propelling its first half-hour "A Man Could Get Killed" might've been a spy-spoof classic. Garner is certainly good enough and has range enough as an actor to carry it off, as he did in the comic-western "Support Your Local Sheriff " But at some point someone decided the way to proceed was with boring scenes of fish and rice and that's what we're left with.
(James Coburn's unfortunately dated spy spoof "The President's Analyst" nailed the genre better and despite a third-act lull ultimately sustains itself to the end.)
I like Sandra Dee but she's just awful. Rumor is, she didn't want to go to Lisbon and was forced to do the movie contractually. I never "got" Melina Mercori and that's probably my own blind spot, but I can provide, under separate cover, a list of actresses I'd prefer cast as the women who bedevil Garner and Franciosa (as if Coote, Parker and the spies didn't bedevil them enough).
Overall, a worthy try until it runs out of steam. Despite a wonderful title, good music, and fine performances by Garner and Franciosa, "A Man Could Get Killed" is not a must-see classic you've missed all your life. Too bad.