The High Commissioner

The High Commissioner finds Rod Taylor playing as is native Australian for once on screen. He's an Australian cop who is pulled off regular duty by the Prime Minister of New South Wales played by Leo McKern and asked to arrest the Australian High Commissioner in London on an old charge of murder. The High Commissioner is Christopher Plummer and the victim was his first wife who died under mysterious circumstances.

It's pretty obvious to Taylor that McKern has a political agenda and Plummer is an old rival of his. Even though this extradition seems to stink on ice, Taylor does have a job to do.

Once in London there is an attempt on Plummer's life that Taylor foils and Plummer is involved in some high level negotiations with non-aligned countries that someone doesn't want to succeed. We're left pretty much in the dark as to exactly who so our imaginations can run the gamut from the Communists to some Ian Fleming type entity like SPECTRE.

The women in this film are something to see. Plummer has a devoted second wife in Lilli Palmer who would do anything to see her husband succeed, ditto his embassy secretary Carmilla Sparv. The bad girl here in the story is alluring and mysterious Daliah Lavi who runs a gambling house in London. A lot of secrets are traded here as this seems to be a kind of neutral ground in the Cold War. Lavi was one of the sexiest women of her time back in the day and she's enough to lure people back from the dead.

This film with a brief appearance in a hospital bed from Franchot Tone was his farewell role. This could have been a real hospital bed because Tone didn't look too good. A sad farewell to one of the screen's most debonair players who was always fighting for roles to display his acting rather than good looks and sense of style.

One other role that does have a sense of style involved is that of Plummer's butler Clive Revill. He finds Taylor's Aussie ways somewhat uncouth, but Revill has more to him than a sense of manners.

The High Commissioner although somewhat murky is a fast moving action flick with a surprise ending and yes as another reviewer says, similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage.

This gets off to a cracking start with Rod Taylor's no-nonsense outback cop, Scobie Malone, engaged by the New South Wales premier - played by an oddly uncredited Leo McKern - to arrest Australia's High Commissioner in London, a former political rival, accused of murdering a former wife.

The stage is set for a taut political thriller, but once Malone reaches London the tension gradually dissipates as he finds himself acting as Commissioner Christopher Plummer's bodyguard in a meandering cold war plot involving a peace conference and assassination attempts. The sort of thing you could see regularly in second-rate episodes of the likes of The Saint or Jason King back in the day. Hard to figure how the Calvin Lockhart character fitted in, nor Franchot Tone in his final film, in a brief cameo as an ambassador confined to bed. Among the baddies are the familiar faces of Burt Kwouk and Derren Nesbitt, the latter with hardly a word of dialogue.

True, Rod Taylor is very good in the lead, and it was a shame he was never given another chance to reprise the character. Plummer and Lilli Palmer are convincing under the circumstances, Camilla Sparv and Daliah Lavi provide plenty of glamour and there's a fitting score from Georges Delerue, but all these hardly compensate for what seems a missed opportunity.

What a disappointment! I've enjoyed the Jon Cleary books about Scobie Malone, but there's little resemblance between him and the cinematic Malone. In the books he's a city detective, who is devoted to his wife and doesn't get involved in fisticuffs. For the film the character has been spiced up, into an outback copper who uses his fists and isn't averse to jumping into bed with a gorgeous girl, though quite what she and the film's other sex interest see in him I don't know; Taylor was 39 at the time and his face was getting puffy.

But his character's stamina is remarkable; he flies in from Australia, apparently goes straight to the Commissioner's house (rather unwisely seeking to arrest him during a black-tie reception), saves him from assassination (getting into a fight in the process), goes to a casino with one girl, leaves with another and takes her to bed. So much for jet lag! On the way back to the Commissioner's house (showing a good knowledge of London back streets), he gets beaten up by the baddies, but is still first down to breakfast! It's also remarkable that the commissioner's limo has its windscreen and headlights miraculously repaired within minutes of the assassination attempt and that one character has a touching faith in the precise timekeeping of a clock-activated bomb.

The best thing is Joseph the Butler's disdain for the uncouth Malone. And at least the film avoids being a London travelogue, though some scenes take place during the Wimbledon tennis week.

An air of mystery permeates this Cold War thriller, set mostly in London. Rod Taylor plays Scobie Malone, a rough and tough, and slightly uncultured Australian security man. His assignment is to bring back to Sydney a VIP diplomat named Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer), charged with the murder of a young girl many years earlier, long before he became The High Commissioner.

Initially, the question the plot asks is: what kind of man would kill a young woman, then vanish, then later turn up as a government diplomat? Is there some twist here? Maybe the diplomat was not really the murderer. Or, maybe he did it, but his personality has changed.

Sir James agrees to return to Sydney with Malone, but first wants to wrap up an important peace conference, to which Sir James seems genuinely devoted. His work on behalf of world peace seems conspicuously inconsistent with the mindset of a murderer. Malone agrees to the delay, but quickly learns that someone, or some entity, is trying to kill Sir James. The plot then switches to the vexing question: who wants to bump off Sir James, a man intent on fostering world peace?

Less spy adventure than elegant mystery, "Nobody Runs Forever" keeps viewers guessing, both about Sir James' past and about the threat that now surrounds him.

My only real complaint is that the motivation of Sir James' enemy (or enemies) is glossed over. Very little is actually explained at the end, except for the specific question of whodunit.

Otherwise, this is a fine mystery. The haunting, vaguely depressing score by Georges Delerue enhances the cloak and dagger atmosphere. Casting and acting are above average. I especially like the performance of Lilli Palmer as Lady Quentin. And dazzling Daliah Lavi is quite beautiful. Costumes are expensive and regal.

I'm baffled as to why this film is so seemingly obscure. It's not that old. It certainly does not lack for star power. And it's a quality production, all the way. Maybe its because the IMDb title is inconsistent with what U.S. viewers remember as "The High Commissioner".

Amiable Aussie icon Rod Taylor ("The Time Machine") plays Scobie Malone, a police detective from the Outback who is sent on special assignment. He's to retrieve high-ranking Australian politician Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer, "All the Money in the World"), who's wanted for a 15-year-old killing, and must go to London to do it. However, after some botched attempts on Quentins' life, Malone is obliged to act as a bodyguard for the man while trying to figure out who wants him dead.

I really don't think this is as bad as all that. Based on a novel by Jon Cleary, it tells a decent, reasonably entertaining story. It's mostly plot-driven, with some action scenes here and there, and the plot really doesn't stand up to scrutiny, but it's all perfectly watchable, if not distinguished.

It's the wonderful international cast that makes the difference. Taylor is in fine form, and Plummer is smooth as always - and importantly, he also makes his character likeable enough instead of making him some pompous jerk. The women are truly gorgeous: Daliah Lavi ("The Whip and the Body"), Camilla Sparv ("Downhill Racer"), and the classy Lilli Palmer ("The Boys from Brazil"). Also putting in appearances are Clive Revill ("Avanti!"), who's amusing as a stuffy butler, Calvin Lockhart ("The Beast Must Die"), Derren Nesbitt ("Where Eagles Dare"), Edric Connor ("Moby Dick" '56), Burt Kwouk (the "Pink Panther" series), Russell Napier ("A Night to Remember"), Charles 'Bud' Tingwell ("Dracula, Prince of Darkness"), and, in his last film appearance, Franchot Tone ("Advise & Consent").

Bolstered by a great score by Georges Delerue, "Nobody Runs Forever", a.k.a. "The High Commissioner" entertains adequately in the end, coming across as a decent but unremarkable entry in the espionage / international intrigue genre.

Six out of 10.