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Assignment K

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Assignment K
Directed byVal Guest
Screenplay byVal Guest
Bill Strutton
Maurice Foster
Based onDepartment K
1964 novel
by Hartley Howard
Produced byMaurice Foster
Ben Arbeid
StarringStephen Boyd
Camilla Sparv
Michael Redgrave
Leo McKern
Robert Hoffmann
Jeremy Kemp
CinematographyKen Hodges
Edited byJack Slade
Music byBasil Kirchin
Color processTechnicolor
Production
companies
Gildor Productions
Mazurka Productions Ltd.
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • 18 February 1968 (1968-02-18)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Assignment K (also known as Department K) is a 1968 British spy thriller film directed by Val Guest in Techniscope and starring Stephen Boyd, Camilla Sparv, Michael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Robert Hoffmann and Jeremy Kemp.[1][2] The film was based on the 1964 novel Department K by Hartley Howard.

Plot

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A British spy has his cover blown, leading to the East German Stasi kidnapping his girlfriend to try to extract information about his double agents' activities.[3]

Cast

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Production

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Val Guest said "We shot it all out in Kitzbuhel, great cast: we had my Leo McKern again, and Michael Redgrave who was a very sick man, had terrible difficulties with his lines... Stephen [Boyd] was a wonderful person, a great giggler, a great professional, very nice guy."[4]

Critical reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Routine spy thriller, unimaginatively scripted and directed. The entirely conventional settings include the inevitable night clubs, expensive hotels and ski slopes (where the travelling matte is much in evidence). Stephen Boyd is bland and wooden as the toy tycoon/spy; Camilla Sparv has little to do but look alluring; and Leo McKern and Michael Redgrave appear fleetingly and to little effect. The plot meanders from dull beginning to dull end with nothing of interest in between."[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Assignment K". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Assignment K(1968)". Yahoo Movies. Retrieved 31 May 2012. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Assignment K(1968)". TCM. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  4. ^ Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
  5. ^ "Assignment K". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 35 (408): 39. 1 January 1968 – via ProQuest.
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