aramis-112-804880 Two actors not known for comedy, Rod Taylor and Trevor Howard, lead a cast of British comic stalwarts in this sometimes clever, sometimes dopey, James Bond spoof. Taylor takes the part of "L" (the Liquidator) who actually is what Bond pretends to be: an assassin paid by the British government (i.e., taxpayers). The catch? Taylor's character (curiously named Boysie Oakes) can shoot pretty well (trained in WW2) but he can't kill a fly. So he hires a hit-man (Eric Sykes) to do all his murderous handiwork. Then he takes off for the weekend with the boss' secretary (the Miss Moneypenny role, here called Iris--Jill St. John, who never looked lovelier) and all heck breaks loose.Fine supporting work by Akim Tamiroff, the always watchable Wilfred Hyde-White, and David Tomlinson (not long off "Mary Poppins") playing . . . well, more or less against type. Though the laughs are few and far between the movie never takes itself seriously, and it starts off with Shirley Bassey belting out a ridiculous theme song over the credits, sounding suspiciously like "Goldfinger" only more so.So why didn't Taylor make more comedies? Well, watch "The Glass Bottom Boat" and you'll see. His humor is pretty ham-handed, and he himself gets nary a smile until the airplane-flying climax. Still, it's worth a peek for anyone obsessed with Bond and its many duplicates. That's what the sixties was really all about: spies, spies, and more spies, on tv and the big screen.

DKosty123 Rod Taylor play the exact reverse of James Bond here. The film starts with him doing an F-Troop style rescue of a British Spy in Paris liberation during World War 2 (in black and white no less). Then we move to modern day (1965) type British Spys where the guy he rescued is now a handler of spies.His Chief (the underused here) Wilfred Hyde White orders him to come up with a professional assassin to kill the other sides spies without causing media scandals. This is where Trevor Howard (Mostyn) remembers Taylor (Boysie Oakes) who rescued him. So he comes to America and finds him not doing much in a back water store he runs with an attractive woman. Somehow he convinces Boysie to come to London and sign on as an assassin. Boysie then crosses up Motyn by sub contracting out his hits. (Yes, another 1960's example of Americans practicing free trade). After 12 successful contracts, Boysie decides to take a week-end off and take Iris, Mostyn secretary (Jill St. John) on a week-end jet trip to France and Monacco.This is where complications happen. Seems Boysie (Code named L) has developed a 12 accident contract killing reputation and some folks think he is in France for reason other than whop-pee with Iris posing as his wife.When the MGM Logo starts the credits and Shirley Bassey kicks up the theme song, it reminds one much of the Bond movies it is spoofing. The cast is pretty top notch and considering John Gardener wrote the script and would later take over writing the Bond novels, to confusion is complete. The difference is Taylor plays the Bond who is totally not aware of what is going on around him.Plenty of girls and plenty of fun here. Watch for one of Dudley Moore's ex-wives in the cast of women's flesh. At the end credits, there is a Bond Type Eye and a deflated gun in it. As Shirley sings the ending, the viewer has found a pleasant film and since it was filmed in England under MGM, it does feel like a true Bond spoof though a little shorter than many of the Bond films.

blanche-2 Rod Taylor is "The Liquidator" -- well, his superiors think he is, anyway -- in this 1965 spoof of the spy genre, directed by Jack Cardiff.The '60s was certainly an interesting time for films - spy films, spoofs of spy films, caper films, big historical films, and sex comedies. Here we have a spoof of the James Bond films, with Rod Taylor playing Boys Oaks, a war acquaintance of Colonel Mostyn (Trevor Howard). The British Security Services is frustrated and embarrassed as they have a number of spies in their midst. It's time to liquidate them, so The Chief (Wilfrid Hyde-White) orders Mostyn to find someone.Mostyn remembers Boys and his impressive actions during the war and drafts him. Of course, he doesn't exactly tell Boys what he wants. He offers him a gorgeous apartment, beautiful women who hang around, a nice car, and after Boys signs his life away, Mostyn drops the bomb. Boys tries but he fails in his first assignment and instead saves the subject from the train tracks he was just about to throw her onto. The other thing is all the travel - Boys really doesn't like to travel. So Boyd has to come up with a solution or lose the perks.I thought this was an okay comedy, nothing special. Jill St. John plays Mostyn's beautiful, sexy secretary, Wilfrid Hyde-White plays the bureau chief; the film also features Akim Tamiroff. There are some funny moments and I like the premise. Entertaining.

MartinHafer 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!