Orders to Kill

source: Orders to Kill

Moviecut—Orders to Kill

ORDERS TO KILL looks and feels like a straightforward wartime thriller at the outset. It features Paul Massie (the Canadian actor best known for playing the lead in THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL, a role he no doubt got on the strength of his fine conflicted performance here) as an American agent who is parachuted into occupied France to take down a French traitor whose association with various resistance fighters has seen many of them die. During his early training scenes with the delightfully gruff James Robertson Justice, Massie seems like the ideal man for the job. Things are a little different in the field: he soon finds himself questioning the man's guilt, and ORDERS TO KILL becomes a very different type of film all of a sudden: an intense 'moral dilemma' movie which puts the protagonist and the viewers through the ringer. The only fault I can find with this film is that it's slightly overlong and some of the early scenes drag a little. Otherwise, it's a delight, and a surprisingly mature and brutal effort for the era. Some of the scenes are so suspenseful and disturbing that they're almost unwatchable. An exemplary supporting cast really add to the authenticity of the piece, but the whole thing hangs on Massie's shoulders and he doesn't disappoint; I think it's fair to say that he peaked early in his career and was never better than here. ORDERS TO KILL is a fine thriller without a single action scene in it to distract from the storyline.

This movie ,in spite of its tragic plot,shows Asquith's infatuation with France :not only the hero is served a delicious quiche Lorraine in one of the first scenes ,but he also used an old French song from long ago;besides, the stand out of his work is arguably English actor Leslie French(!) ,really admirable in the scenes with his pussycat,the victim who can ask why ,unlike the people who die during the bombings . There is also a strange use of this old French folk song from 1792 ,"Cadet Rousselle":no,it's not a Chanson about Revolution;it actually makes its hero an object of ridicule:the first lines go like this: "Cadet Rousselle A Trois Maisons Qui N'Ont Ni Poutres Ni Chevrons " "Cadet Rousselle has got three houses which have neither beams nor rafters (...)it's to put up the swallows..)This choice may be bewildering for a French viewer who may wonder whether they did not choose stuff like " Auprès De Ma blonde" ;probably because the dear lady who taught our hero the FRench language taught him this song and to both of them ,it's a dear memory. That said ,it's disappointing that French is almost never used in France ,even when the Parisians speak between them.The first third,including training with James Robertson Justice ,is a bit slow-moving ,and Mrs Lilian Gish is wasted ;but the movie hits its stride in the second third and grabs the viewer till the end .The principal,Paul Massie, gets good support from Irene Worth as Leonie ,a woman war has hardened ,and particularly Leslie French,whose very moving performance was hailed by French critic Jean Tulard . The screenplay puts the blame on the absurdity of war ;the victim loves cats ("but so does Himmler" Leonie hastens to add).The famous proverb " you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" does not give a meaning to what he did .You will not forget the little girl who played Cinderella's wicked sister ,and ,in real life ,had to play the part of an orphan of the war.

During World War II, American-born bomber pilot Paul Massie (as Gene Summers) is sent from Boston to England, then German-occupied Paris. His mission is to assassinate a man secretly spying for the Nazis. In the event he is captured, Mr. Massie is trained in the art of interrogation and undercover work, by Eddie Albert (as Major "Mac" McMahon) and James Robertson Justice. His training complete, Massie is given the French identity "Jean Doumier" and arrives in Paris via parachute... When Massie meets his target, small-time lawyer Leslie French (as Marcel Lafitte), he has second thoughts. The suspected Nazi informant turns out to be a friendly family guy who loves cats. Massie thinks Mr. French may be innocent and shares his reservations with French resistance fighter Irene Worth (as Leonie). She reminds Massie of his "Orders to Kill"... Some of the build-up is tedious, but this turns out to be an intelligent drama about the morality of war... Note that the American stars' billing is exaggerated; top-billed Eddie Albert is a supporting actor to Massie, who is the star of the film. Moreover, Lillian Gish (as Mrs. Summers) appears in only two scenes. It would have been nice to see Ms. Gish become involved during the latter portions, inquiring about and/or visiting her son; this could have tied in with the parts of the opening which appear to signal flashbacks. The adaptation by Paul Dehn, direction by Anthony Asquith, and cast are excellent. ******* Orders to Kill (7/25/58) Anthony Asquith ~ Paul Massie, Eddie Albert, Irene Worth, Lillian Gish

Ordre d'execution – 1958 There has been a leak in a French Underground network ran by the U.S. Army intelligence service. Several agents have been killed after meeting with a member of the network. The U.S. decides that the man, Leslie French, must be a double agent working for the Germans. They decide that the leak needs to be sealed and Mr. French eliminated. It is only a month till D-Day and the Allies cannot take any chances. They draft in a French speaking pilot from the Air Force. The man, Paul Massie, just happens to have lived in the same area of Paris where French lives. They give Massie a crash course on how to act etc once he is dropped in country. They also teach him various ways of killing quietly. One of training officers, Eddie Albert, is not quite sure that Massie is the right man. While dropping bombs on a more or less unseen enemy is OK, will Massie be able to do the deed, face to face? Albert's boss, Johnny Crawford sees no problem and orders the training to carry on. "Lives are at risk!" Crawford says. Massie is soon ready and dropped outside Paris. He is to meet with an Underground contact, Irene Worth, who will put him up etc. He as papers as an electrical engineer which allows him more or less free movement through the streets. He then spends several days casing the run down building where French has his lawyer offices. While having a drink in the downstairs café, Massie bumps right into French. French seems like a nice sort, and warns him not to order the rabbit stew as it is really cat. French then warns him that the Police and the Germans will be raiding the area in an hour. Massie best hideout, or he will be grabbed up and shipped to Germany as forced labour. French offers the man a room in his office upstairs to hide in. Sure enough, the raid happens and several men are grabbed up and hauled away. Massie spends the night in French's office looking for evidence he is a turncoat. He finds none. French returns the next morning and invites Massie to dine with his wife and daughter that evening. Massie accepts the invite. Massie is finding that the more time he spends with his target, the more convinced he is that French is innocent. Massie contact's Worth and asks what he should do?. ''Do your job!'' Is her response. The next morning Massie returns to French's office. When French turns his back to brew up some tea, Massie, belts him with a handy blunt object on the back of the head. The blow was not hard enough and Massie is forced to make a mess of the job with a knife. He cleans up as best he can and takes off into the streets. Several days after the Allies have liberated Paris. A MP patrol brings in a drunken man who says he is a U.S. pilot. The name is run through the records and Eddie Albert gets the call. He visits Massie in the hospital and finds that the man is being eaten up by guilt over killing French. He has been drunk ever since the hit. Now Col. Crawford shows up, he tells Massie that he is a hero and his actions saved hundreds of lives. Once Crawford has left, Massie asks Albert for the truth. He can't go the rest of his life wondering about it. Albert tells him that French turned out to be innocent. Also in the cast, are James Robertson Justice, Sandra Dorne, Lionel Jefferies and Lillian Gish. Canadian Paul Massie won a BAFTA Award for his role in this film. Though the film builds slowly, it is worth staying till the pay off. The film was nominated for the Palme dÒr at the Cannes Film Festival. The director was Anthony Asquith. His work includes, THE BROWNING VERSION, COTTAGE TO LET, FANNY BY GASLIGHT, THE WOMAN IN QUESTION, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, CARRINGTON V.C. and LIBEL.

This wartime tale directed by Anthony Asquith confronts full-on the essential moral dilemma of the necessity to commit murder in the cause of war. It does not take place on a battlefield, but in the starker situation of a covert assassination of a man believed to be compromising the Resistance Movement in occupied Paris. The man chosen to kill the suspected person is played by the young actor Paul Massie, aged 26. It was his first credited screen role, and he does an excellent job. For some reason, this highly talented and promising young actor never achieved the prominence in his career which he would seem to have deserved. After 1973, he only worked four times (the last time in 1996), and he died in 2011. The other film for which he will be remembered is SAPPHIRE (1959, see my review). The most powerful performance in this film was delivered by Irene Worth, as the character Léonie. Massie is sent to Paris to kill the suspect man, and Worth is his contact, with whom some very tense scenes indeed transpire. Worth's embittered intensity is very convincing and deeply disturbing. Lillian Gish appears briefly early on in the film as Massie's mother, but it is not a significant part. Eddie Albert is very good as a commanding officer, and James Robertson Justice has immense gravitas and a suitably ominous quality as the man who trains Massie how to kill an individual quietly and quickly by taking off a pair of long socks and turning them into a murder weapon. Leslie French is superb as the unfortunate Marcel Lafitte, who is wrongly suspected of having betrayed the Resistance, whereas he is not only innocent but a gentle, caring soul who loves his family and his cat and would not hurt a fly. The film is based on a novel by the American author Donald Downes, another of whose novels was filmed as THE PIGEON THAT TOOK ROME (1962). This film starts very slowly because Asquith and his writers are so keen to make their moral point that they dwell on the minutiae of Massie's recruitment and training to carry out his assignment. Today that would be sketched in a couple of minutes, but in this film it takes a long time. Once the action gets going, the film becomes very tense indeed, and finally it becomes very grim, as we face the moral dilemma. Asquith was clearly determined to make this film in this way because he was trying to examine the dilemma and drive home its insolubility. In a sense, we could call this fifties film a true existentialist film, in keeping with the prevailing philosophy of that Heidiggerian decade. It explores 'what a man must do' and the 'nausea' following his actions. It bears some resemblance to the concerns of André Malraux, who in the novel MAN'S FATE contemptuously says that anyone who has not killed someone face to face is 'a virgin'. One wonders if Jean-Paul Sartre visited the set, steeped in nausea, and whispered existential doubts into the ear of the director. Much of it is filmed on location in Paris, and there are some very fine and atmospheric location shots. This film evidently meant a great deal to Anthony Asquith, who had a social conscience which he wore somewhat on his sleeve, and we owe him the consideration of listening to his message, which after all is a very worrying one, even if we find it deeply disquieting.

I can recommend this little war thriller which has brains and heart behind it. Within the broad theatre of war it focuses on the moral impact of "orders" on a sensitive personality. Production values are good within the scope of the film and there are plenty of clues about the developing issue. We start to have reservations about the main character, who is clearly immature and not suited to the mission he is sent on. His behaviour is inept, but it is not hard to relate to his dilemma. The denouement winds up the story gracefully without weakening the horror of what has occurred, and in a way that the viewer does not expect, dignity is restored to the hero. I had not previously encountered the lead actor who is a little-known Canadian actor. I dislike the way he looks in this, with a neatly combed 1950s blonde quiff on which a ridiculously small beret is perched. He looks about as "French" as a bacon burger. But in a way that fits in with his feeble performance in the role of assassin. The film never goes into an examination of who was responsible for the false intelligence behind the mission. That is where the blame for the fiasco rests. But no doubt this sort of thing occurred and the people in the field never got to find out who was the author of the blunder.

I saw this move perhaps 40 years ago, during the height of my interest in espionage and spy tradecraft. I remember being mesmerized by the gritty reality of this movie and the fine portrayal of the agent/assassin as played by Eddie Albert. It remains what is perhaps one of his most serious roles, and the film reveals a side of his talent rarely revealed in his other movies. Every detail of the film, from mission preparation through to the conclusion, was exceptionally well done. I would love to find a copy of this somewhere; it remains a personal favorite.

I saw this film years ago and was struck by the difference in killing by pressing a button and dropping bombs or by one-to-one combat. I would dearly love to see it again. A brilliant message. Thank you ever so much. I am a musician and would love to compose a musical of this film. There is so much passion and so many different passions and emotions. Music would only enhance an already great story. Come on film producers, let's have a go. Although I am not really a pacifist, I do believe that this film makes you think very hard about the futility of war and about how one's actions can desecrate the lives of others. If anyone knows of this film being on DVD or video, please let me know.