Most of the spy action films of the 1960's really have very little plot, and this one has just a shell of one, dealing with a veteran spy Rod Taylor who has been hired to liquidate dangerous agents but can't bear to kill so he has hired someone else to do it. This leads to various other sinister activities going on, lots of beautiful women, exotic locations, car chases on very high European mountain tops on curvy roads and eventually, an assassination plotted for the Duke of Edinburgh. There's a montage at the very beginning of some of these assassinations, with one woman pushed onto a platform with a train arrive in, a man tossed out of the window, among others. Trevor Howard is Taylor's boss, and others involved in this very complicated shell of a plot include David Tomlinson, not very much like his "Mary Poppins" character, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Akim Tamiriff and Jill St. John.

I enjoyed the colorful photography, the lavish settings, some creepy looking sinister characters, the outrageous fashions on the women and a delightfully bad theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. They also do some new things with the credits, having them run in and out of each other in varying angles. You know that the opening is supposed to be set during World War II because it's in black and white where the rest of the film, set in the 1960's, is in Technicolor. Everybody is having a real good time, not even really caring that what there is of the plot is absurd, and obviously enjoying a free trip to these gorgeous ports. A typically fun distraction of 60's excesses, the loosening up of code rules, and a handsome leading man who's a lot of fun to watch.

It's really too bad that there was only one LIQUIDATOR film, as I really enjoyed it. That's because unlike most other spoofs of the James Bond genre, this one takes itself a little more seriously. While I know that there are people out there that think Matt Helm and the Flint movies were NOT total crap (sorry folk, they were),this film doesn't degenerate to smarminess and cheap jokes to make gentle fun of the genre. You see, instead of an obnoxious and over-sexed lead, Rod Taylor plays a secret agent and assassin who HATES the idea of killing anyone! In fact, this is so distasteful to him that he sub-contracts this out to a real assassin. He thinks this has solved his problems--but the problems are only about to begin!

Unfortunately his back was turned when Trevor Howard was helped out of a bad jackpot during the liberation of Paris by Rod Taylor. If he had actually seen just how Taylor saved his life, he might never have thought of him as a perfect candidate for being The Liquidator.

It's what British Secret Service needs as Wilfrid Hyde-White tells his number 2 who is now Howard and 20 years later after the end of World War II. At that time the British government was getting embarrassed routinely with the number of defections and the number of spies caught. The answer is forget those democratic trivialities like due process. When you have a suspect, just shoot them, no questions asked. And Howard thinks is wartime savior is the perfect candidate for the job.

Not that Taylor is all that hip to the idea. He's a bar owner in some rural part of the United Kingdom. But he reads those James Bond novels and sees those movies and he knows what perks come with being an operator. Certainly Howard knows them too and he provides generously even overlooking the fact that his secretary Jill St. John is being tapped by Taylor.

Taylor finds an interesting way of subcontracting the work which I won't go into. But in the end he finds he's being beautifully set up for a major score by the other side. If the bad guys succeed the United Kingdom will really learn what embarrassment is all about.

In the James Bond tradition with title song sung by Shirley Bassey, The Liquidator is an amusing spy spoof. Howard does a nasty slow burn in the tradition of Edgar Kennedy. Jill St. John who is also a Bond girl in good standing is just as beautiful with a role a lot more substantive.

Folks who like the espionage genre should like The Liquidator.