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.