cult film freak: PAUL MASSIE STARS IN 'ORDERS TO KILL' FEARTURING EDDIE ALBERT

Written by James M. Tate / 3/20/2024 / No comments / british , edward albert , espionage , fifties , irene worth , john crawford , leslie french , lilian gish , paul massie , world war II

PAUL MASSIE STARS IN 'ORDERS TO KILL' FEARTURING EDDIE ALBERT

3/20/2024 | No comment

Title: ORDERS TO KILL Year: 1958 Rating: ****

It's after forty-five minutes when first-billed American actor Eddie Albert sees second-billed Canadian actor Paul Massie off to France in this British anti-war film that really begins with Massie's Gene Summers on a central mission to kill a French Resistance double-crosser, who had sold out the last five spies to the Germans...

So after the initial training sessions where a somewhat robotic Massie (originally ordered by John Crawford with a cameo by Lilian Gish as his mother), trained by Albert to be as cold-blooded as possible (without being too glib about it), ORDERS TO KILL becomes a kind of Hitchcock style suspense flick with mousy Leslie French as the target, so downright friendly and affably neurotic, the inevitable moral dilemma finally kicks into gear...

Hunted and Hunter Leslie French with Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL

Summers can't believe this man with a daughter, a wife, and a protective affinity for cats could possibly be a turncoat... underlined in scenes between our man with inside-source Irene Worth, feeling like a topnotch stage play about the difference between murder and war-time ambiguity...

Peaking with what's the central flashpoint involving the emotionally-torn Massie, whose performance accelerates with the moment-of-truth tension underlined neatly between director Anthony Asquith and his one true cinematic lead, who deserved top-billing since it's not only his mission, it's his movie.

Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL

Paul Massie and Eddie Albert in ORDERS TO KILL

Irene Worth in ORDERS TO KILL

Sandra Dorne in ORDERS TO KILL

Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL

Irene Worth in ORDERS TO KILL

Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL

John Crawford in ORDERS TO KILL

Paul Massie and John Crawford in ORDERS TO KILL

Miki Iveria and Lillie Bea Gifford in ORDERS TO KILL

Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL with Lilian Gish

Paul Massie in ORDERS TO KILL

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Tags : british , edward albert , espionage , fifties , irene worth , john crawford , leslie french , lilian gish , paul massie , world war II

James M. Tate

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