Sebastian

Oh, where did the 1960s ever go? What happened? (Sob.) Before it became distressingly violent the 1960s were informed by a light-hearted revolutionary spirit. The Beatles were breaking records, which was nice, and the skirts were tiny, which was also nice. Recreational highs were a pastime and the scent of flowers, hemp, or at least incense, was in the air, a pastel age. There was a Cold War going on too. That's not so nice. However even such a serious business was subject to frolicsome presentations, and this is a good example. The credits are irritating though. I wish "The Pink Panther" with its adorable credit sequences hadn't appeared four years earlier because everybody had to have a crack at it after that.

This movie is cute without being hilarious. Everyone is good natured, even the authorities who are not good natured. Among its virtues are the lanky, leggy Susannah York, all soft, pink, blond, and utterly beautiful. She looks dusted in talcum powder. Then there is the officious Dirk Bogarde, in his dark suit and umbrella, who hires her as a code breaker for some intelligence apparat in England. York is a whiz at it too, although her talent doesn't impress Bogarde that much. York sees Bogarde as a challenge and sets out to liberate him. It couldn't have been too hard. He had nowhere to go but up, and this is the London of "Blow Up," tastefully psychedelic.

The bossy Bogarde keeps a loose woman, Janet Munro, on the side but York soon seduces him and finds he is reluctantly but undeniably distracted from his blue notebook. It's a bad idea for Bogarde to be mixed up with Susannah York. I should have been mixed up with Susannah York instead of him. Somewhere in the background of all this is Sir John Gielgud, good as ever, simultaneously charming and disdainful, wearing a carefully pressed suit and what appears to be a Crescent tie. He's a delight but I believe his school tie should be Westminster, not Crescent.

Anyway it turns more serious as the Russians enter the picture, and the Americans too. Bogarde is assigned a big decoding job involving a Russian satellite. An incredibly young Donald Sutherland cheerfully plays a recording of the first Russian satellite ever. He claims it's sending Morse code but it's not. I was a radioman in the Coast Guard at the time and had to copy the signals. The thing just went beep beep beep.

Spies manage to lace Bogarde's champagne at one point with acid but it all ends happily. Bogarde also appeared in "Modesty Blaise" somewhere around this time. It made no more sense than "Sebastian" but was probably more fun. It had Bogarde stretched out on the sand, dying of thirst, and moaning, "Champagne . . . champagne." "Sebastian" isn't that absurd.

A rather inconsequential film with some rather now dated cinematic ideas is saved by the top line of British acting talent. You can't argue with the cast which includes Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Nigel Davenport and John Gieldgud in main roles. 'Sebastian' is also blessed with such an array of acting quality there's no wonder a lot of people really rate the film. The character players include a young Donald Sutherland, the always magnetic and taken from us too soon Janet Munroe (See The Day The Earth Caught Fire), the underrated Ann Beach, and the totally spiffing Ronald Fraser (if you know nothing else by this latter two then try to them together in the excellent Armchair Theatre TV presentation 'A Bit Of A Lift').

For these and other brilliant screen stars to be attracted to this film must mean that there was something in the script that I missed or was missed by the director, or I suppose arguably I just came upon in after it's view by date.

I found the film dated (although I do like British films from the 1960s) and lacking in any real story. I think Bogarde was wrong to say he was not right for the part, he performs well enough but I think a writer such as Le Carre would have fleshed out and nuanced the character and the film as a whole better. My view is that it falls between too many stools not knowing whether it wants to be a hip and happening psychedelic 60s movie, a tale of espionage, a romantic story involving the breaking down of walls, or a comedy farce much beloved of the time.

Despite all these factors I would still recommend a night in with the film if for nothing else than to see brilliant actors tackling greater or lesser roles.

The list of excellent actors and actresses in the film is endless and includes Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Sir John Gielgud, Lili Palmer and Nigel Davenport, with many more first-rate performers besides. Add to this the musical talents of Jerry Goldsmith and it is quite an achievement by the Director to create this piece of utter nonsense, especially as some of the screenplay is worthy and the settings very 60's and good. Is this meant to be a serious film? It could only have merit if it was a total send-up of it's decade and spy-films generally, but as Dirk Bogarde later described it as a "non-event," the meaning and intent was obviously lost on him; a big disadvantage as he was the star. This film must have begun with promise and potential for why else would such an array of talent include themselves in it's making? Something after that went radically wrong, but like your other contributors I would gladly purchase a DVD if only, in my case, for curiosity value.

This is a good film to watch if you like British films from the era and especially ones with Dirk Bogarde. It's made with some style but the script is a problem. Though it starts out intriguingly, in the end this espionage film is rather much ado about nothing. The main point of interest in this rarely seen movie now is the equally rarely heard Jerry Goldsmith score, which I rather like. I believe it got an LP release back in 1968, but has never been issued on CD. Perhaps one of the reasons for that, as I've recently read, is that Goldsmith didn't have a good experience doing the score and never had much to say about it or simply didn't want to discuss it at all. Unfortunate, because the score, though minor Goldsmith, does have merit. I hope someday to read just what Goldsmith's problems were with it.

At first encounter this would seem as a rather flimsy concoction of muddled espionage pastiche with Dirk Bogarde as a decoding expert surrounded by a league of only very pretty girls - and there are lots of them. One of them is more obtrusive than the others, Susannah York, who importunes on his private life to become his mistress - with complications. The film really becomes interesting, however, when he loses his job, and there the action starts with increasing thickening of the plot, as the espionage business moves into higher gear.

Everything is brilliant in this film, however limited it is to its times of the late 60s which makes it very outdated today, but the acting couldn't be better, by Dirk of course, always intelligent and interesting, Susannah York at her best, John Gielgud and Nigel Davenport in smaller but not less important parts, Lilli Palmer as the most experienced of them all and something of an odd key player, and even Donald Sutherland in one vital scene. Jerry Goldsmith is the name of the music vying with Johann Sebastian Bach as Dirk's only actual relief from his troubles, while it all ends with an odd twist, which neither Dirk, Susannah York nor the audience would have expected. It's not altogether a comedy, no thriller, although better than any later James Bond, no real spy thriller, but something of it all in brilliant combination.