Historically, the 1946 Dick Powell movie "To The Ends of the Earth" kicked off the drug smuggling movie genre when the old Production Code Administration amended the infamous Motion Picture Code in 1946 to allow the depiction of narcotics traffic. Previously, the PCA refuses in most instants to let filmmakers name the narcotics in their movies, much less show people abusing these substances. "The French Connection" captured the most awards with a Best Picture Oscar in 1971, and then the Alistair MacLean heroin thriller "Puppet on a Chain" came out in 1972. The formulaic "Puppet on a Chain" is not half as exciting as either "The Satan Bug" or "When Eight Bells Toll," two superior MacLean sagas. This ranks one of the lesser MacLean melodramas.

Since Dutch authorities in Amsterdam cannot get a fix on the folks in their fair city who are smuggling tons of heroin to the United States, a dapper but divorced narcotics agent from Washington, Paul Sherman (Sven-Bertil Taube of "The Eagle Has Landed"),heads to the city of canals and barrel organs to see what he can do. Alistair MacLean astonished everybody with his dynamic "Where Eagles Dare" screenplay, but nobody will be astonished by this lethargic thriller that spins more time with talk instead of action. For example, sixty-four minutes elapses before director Geoffrey Reeves stages a decent hand-to-hand combat fight. Okay, the earlier fight scene at 21 minutes into the action in the hotel room where our hero stays qualified as a one-sided, disposable scuffle, even though the intruder died. Anyhow, this respectable mystery unfolds after three people are gunned down by a mustached hit-man wearing gloves and armed with a silenced automatic pistol. Dude drives up, walks in, and guns them down in the living room.

The next thing we see is our handsome hero aboard a jet landing in Amsterdam. A man is shot at the airport where Sherman was supposed to have made a rendezvous with him. Anyway, Amsterdam authorities are not happy with the arrival of Sherman and the interference of a Yankee narco man in their backyard. The only remnant of "Where Eagles Dare" here is the use of a back-up agent, Maggie (Barbara Perkins of "Valley of the Dolls"),who does a bit of her own snooping without arousing suspicion. Yes, like the Mary Ure character in "Where Eagles Dare," nobody is supposed to know that Maggie is a part of the plan. Maggie investigates a suspicious looking church where Bibles are passed out to nuns wearing fishnet hose. Naturally, Maggie and Sherman have an intimate moment to smooch before he proves his action hero chops against a thug who loves to strangle his victims.

Meegeren (Vladek Sheybal of "From Russia with Love") serves as the minister but you know that he is up to no good. Hmm! Meanwhile, Amsterdam Police Chief Colonel De Graaf (Alexander Knox of "You Only Live Twice") resents the cooperation that he has to extend to the troublesome Sherman. Things grow more interesting after the heroine is murdered by the evil villain who wraps a chain around her neck and strangles her. Of course, we are not shown the entire strangulation, but Barbara Parkins does a great job of begging for mercy before she winds up dangling next to a doll whose facial features resemble her. Eventually, our hero shows up at the castle where the villains hide out. Not only does Sherman discover a heroin laboratory with dolls neatly arranged for packing, but he also stumbles into Maggie hanging from the ceiling. The villain tries to dispose of him initially by piping the deafening sounds of clocks chiming into his ears via a headset. Fifteen minutes of this will drive a man crazy, the villain warns, but twenty will kill him. Lenser Jack Hildyard does a good job of enhancing the agony that our hero feels by photographing him with wide-angle lens. The resourceful Sherman escapes.

Eight-one minutes into the action, Don Sharp takes over from Reeve and helms an outstanding power boat speed chase through the canals of Amsterdam that concludes with the villain smashing into a gate. The villain wearing a white suit and fedora is a nice touch. Anyway, Sherman tracks down the villains behind the villain and a neat revelation occurs when they surprise our hero. Yes, there is a dirty cop involved in these hijinks. The chief villain explains that each doll can pack up to $60-thousand dollars in heroin. The finale includes a brief gunfight at a shadowy warehouse where the hero takes a slug in the shoulder and the villain takes a fatal plunge.

Puppet on a Chain is a tedious hard boiled Euro thriller shot in Amsterdam. It could had done with some actual American stars and some more thrilling action. By the time we get to the end speedboat chase scene the damage has been done.

After a hit-man has killed some people and stole some heroin, cop Paul Sherman (Sven-Bertil Taube) is sent to Amsterdam to investigate the murders and the drugs trade. As soon as he sets foot he is being followed and his contact is killed at the airport. Sherman doggedly pursues his investigation in a city where drugs has inflicted a great deal of damage.

Taube is an uncharismatic lead, the film goes at a lethargic pace, the mystery person with drug dealing nuns and who goes about dressed as a minister is easy to identify as a bad guy, it lacks thrills until the boat chase scene which then leads to a few twists but we expected those given someone tipped of the bad guys that Sherman was arriving.

Swedish actor Sven-Bertil Taube plays a US narcotics agent (by way of the Netherlands!) assigned by the government to track down the source of a heroin-smuggling ring in Holland, one whose main assassin has already caused bloodshed on American soil. Upon the American's arrival at the Amsterdam airport, a fellow agent is shot dead by the assassin, who manages to get away. The police frown upon the interloper and resent his help, so he reconnects with an undercover agent (and former flame) to ferret out the drug dealers and their base of operations. Alistair MacLean crime story with a nasty streak of sadism. The results are not unlike the 007 adventures, though the wayward good humor of James Bond is entirely missing. Taube is somewhat of a liability: he isn't in Sean Connery's league--he's all business but without the panache--and his fight technique consists of two special moves, a powerful right hook and a flip over his head. Geoffrey Reeve directed (apart from "special material" and an exciting canal race, which were completed by Don Sharp),and the pacing is lean and mean. Terrific cinematography by Jack Hildyard in the final reel; dated but enjoyable music score by Piero Piccioni. Everything is here, actually, except for a bit of personality. ** from ****