- Source: A Man Could Get Killed
A Man Could Get Killed is a 1966 American adventure comedy film directed by Ronald Neame and Cliff Owen, shot on various locations in Portugal and starring James Garner, Melina Mercouri, Sandra Dee, Anthony Franciosa, and Robert Coote. Filmed scenes with Jenny Agutter, then 14, did not appear in the final cut.
The screenplay was written by Richard L. Breen, and T. E. B. Clarke and David E. Walker based on Walker's novel Diamonds for Moscow (American title Diamonds for Danger), published in 1956. The film introduced the melody of "Strangers in the Night" by German composer Bert Kaempfert, which won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Song in a Motion Picture" of 1967.
Plot
A search is on for stolen diamonds and a government agent has been killed trying to recover them. When an unsuspecting William Beddoes arrives in Lisbon on behalf of an American bank, he is mistaken for the dead agent's replacement.
Hatton-Jones of the British embassy comes to Beddoes' aid. Also taking an interest is Aurora Celeste, the dead man's lover, as well as Steve Antonio, a smuggler, who is being pursued by Amy Franklin (a woman who, as a young girl, had a crush on him).
All of the above end up aboard a yacht belonging to Dr. Mathieson, who appears to be the mastermind of the crime but doesn't know where the hidden diamonds are. Beddoes ends up engineering an escape for all and the gems wind up safely in the hands of Hatton-Jones, the dead agent's actual successor.
Beddoes books a flight for home, assuming he will never see any of these people again, but Aurora steals his passport so that he cannot leave.
Cast
James Garner as William Beddoes
Melina Mercouri as Aurora Celeste
Sandra Dee as Amy Franklin
Tony Franciosa as Steve Antonio
Robert Coote as Hatton-Jones
Roland Culver as Dr. Mathieson
Grégoire Aslan as Florian
Cecil Parker as Sir Huntley Frazier
Dulcie Gray as Mrs. Mathieson
Martin Benson as Politanu
Peter Illing as Zarik
Niall MacGinnis as Ship's Captain
Virgílio Teixeira as Inspector Rodrigues
Isabel Dean as Miss Bannister
Daniele Vargas as Osman
Ann Firbank as Miss Nolan
John Bartha as Ludmar
Production
The cast had a falling out with director Cliff Owen, who was replaced by Ronald Neame in July 1965. Neame recalled that co-stars James Garner and Tony Franciosa did not get on well and their fight in the film became a real brawl.
Garner calls the film "disappointing" although he says he enjoyed playing backgammon with Melina Mercouri and her husband Jules Dassin. He did admit to punching Tony Franciosa, claiming it was because he "kept abusing the stunt men" and would not pull his punches in fight scenes.
It was the last film Sandra Dee made under contract to Universal. According to a 1965 interview with the actress, she "begged [the producers] not to make [her] do the picture. So I spent a miserable four months in Lisbon, little fishing villages and in Rome, making a picture that should have taken eight weeks. We had two changes of directors, and I ended up playing Come September all over again."
Soundtrack
The score for A Man Could Get Killed was composed by Bert Kaempfert, with the assistance of Herbert Rehbein, and recorded under the musical direction of Universal's Joseph Gershenson. It introduced the melody of the song "Strangers in the Night", which was initially to be sung by Melina Mercouri, but she insisted that her voice would not fit to the melody and it should be given to a man. Eventually, the version by Frank Sinatra became a global number one hit and is now considered a standard of easy listening music. The tune, listed in the original sound track as "Beddy Bye", permeates the movie and won the 1967 Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Song in a Motion Picture", beating "Un homme et une femme" by French orchestra leader Francis Lai, "Born Free" by John Barry, which won the 1966 Academy Award for Best Original Song, "Alfie" by Burt Bacharach, and "Georgy Girl" by Tom Springfield, all from the eponymous movies, the latter two also having been Oscar nominees in 1966.
The overall score of the movie, often resorting to Latin and even seemingly Greek influenced imagery, had a more mixed reception. The soundtrack LP - in fact a rerecording of the score - was produced by Milt Gabler and recorded at Polydor Studios in Hamburg, Germany. It was originally released on an LP by Decca (Decca DL 74750) and on a CD in 1999 by Taragon Records, then combined with Bert Kaempfert's LP Strangers in the Night, originally released in 1966 (Decca DL 74795).
References
External links
A Man Could Get Killed at IMDb
A Man Could Get Killed at AllMovie
James Garner Archived 3 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine interview on the Charlie Rose Show
James Garner interview at Archive of American Television
[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL19705551M/Diamonds_for_Moscow/
[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6137593M/Diamonds_for_danger/
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