Journey Into Fear

Top-notch cast, nice scenery (in Turkey, Greece and Italy), a dazzling car stunt at the very start and a memorable dispatching of the final villain are the main virtues of this otherwise pedestrian chase yarn which plays like an elongated episode of a TV series of its time. There is very little story - just the pretext of a McGuffin (everybody is after Sam Waterston for some "information" he has - which we never learn what it is). Vincent Price and Ian McShane fare best in the name-packed cast; Waterston is a rather bland lead, Zero Mostel is annoying as a "Turkish" agent, and Yvette Mimieux gets to show us her washboard abs, which are a definite plus, but has little else to do. *1/2 out of 4.

This is one of those thrillers from back in the day which tried to incorporate various European locales into the plotline to inject a bit of colour and variety. To that end, the story of this one begins in Turkey, fires over to Greece and then takes a boat to Genoa. Its constantly on the move, as we progress from car to train to boat to running around. This may sound pretty fluid stuff but, unfortunately, in practice it's really none-too-thrilling. The basic storyline is one of the issues - a petroleum geologist discovers a major oil field in Turkey leading to rival oil people hiring assassins to silence him, so they can move in and get the black gold themselves. Oil deals are not the most interesting ideas to base a thriller around to be perfectly honest, so the filmmakers had their work cut out right from the start to make this one involving. But to make matters worse, the direction is flat as a pancake as well, meaning that the whole enterprise never really gets out of third gear at any point. The best thing about this one is its cast. I am a big fan of Vincent Price and Donald Pleasence, who appear here improbably as respectively a Turk and an Arab! But even the best efforts of those two stalwarts can only do so much with the material and it did seem like they were going through the motions in this one.

I was apparently one of the few people who saw this movie on its brief release in 1975. I knew about the 1942 Orson Welles film but had yet to see it. I went to see this version because of Vincent Price and he does not disappoint. Other big name cast members added to the fun. Zero Mostel recycles his PRODUCERS persona and Donald Pleasence adds another of his quirky characters to his resume'. Joseph Wiseman from DR NO is on hand along with Yvette Mimeux as a chanteuse who can't sing and a young Ian McShane who never says a word. The protagonist is Sam Waterston fresh from THE GREAT GATSBY and years before LAW & ORDER. Incidentally the Jackie Cooper listed in the cast is not the former child actor but the film's stunt coordinator.

The plot, which is updated from Eric Ambler's 1940 novel, concerns a petroleum engineer named Graham whose discovery of oil deposits in Turkey leads to several murder attempts to keep his discovery from becoming known. Most of the movie takes place aboard a tramp steamer where Graham tries to evade his pursuers without knowing who they really are. It eventually leads to a final and memorable confrontation in Genoa involving Waterston, McShane and Vincent Price. Waterston is very good as a man who knows that he's out of his depth but manages to stay one step ahead thanks to luck rather than skill.

Director Daniel Mann was a big name in the 1950s and 60s with COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA and BUTTERFIELD 8 but by 1975 he was basically a director for hire. He works well with the actors but seems unsure what to do when it comes to dealing with the story elements or pacing the film. There's also evidence of post-production intervention as the editing is a little ragged in places but that's mostly in the beginning. After years of being unavailable JOURNEY INTO FEAR has made it to Blu-Ray and while its good to see it again, the print used is an old one complete with a PG rating before the credits which evokes a certain nostalgia. It's also probably the only print available. However the picture is clear and the sound is good although subtitles would have been appreciated. My thanks to Dark Force Entertainment for resurrecting this forgotten title which, although flawed, is definitely worth revisiting...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

The main interest of the plot here is that you never really are informed of what it is all about. Sam Waterston as Howard Graham gets into deep trouble from the beginning and is persecuted hard throughout the film, without his ever understanding why everyone wants to kill him. As the audience you are as bewildered and confused as he, you eagerly wait for some explanation which never comes, and like Howard Graham you just learn to think the worst of everyone, as even the one murderer who appears visible never says anything but only waits for him everywhere. This was according to Hitchcock a capital sin in a thriller movie, who was always meticulous about keeping the audience in the clear about everything. Here you are kept confused even beyond the end. It's an efficient thriller though, there are many moments of truth of sustained suspense, and all kinds of great actors walk by as in a parade, like even Shelley Winters and Stanley Holloway as a displaced American couple. Zero Mostel in the beginning makes a wonderful impression, and so does Joseph Wiseman as a very strict and correct Turkish officer. Yvette Mimieux is a relief between all the manhunts and massacres, and fortunately she at least is innocent. The film ends abruptly in Genoa with the story unfinished, and we shall never learn what it really was all about.

I saw this movie when it first showed on TV in 1975 and watch it now and then. The story of the "man with endless lives" never gets old. Many people try and kill him but he just escapes every time. It tries hard to be a tense thriller but just ambles along with one exciting sequence after another. When I saw it for the first time, Jose tells Sam, as he is trying to PIMP her off to him, "Yvette Mimieux has smelt a lot of balls". I distinctly remember that line in the 1975 showing but it seems to have been cut from all the recent releases. Maybe the Blu-Ray, (yes, there is a Blu-Ray coming out), release will include that spicy line. During the end explosion at the gas station, the man in the front seat of the car is Nello Pazzafini, star of many Italian action movies in the 1960s. You name it, he was in it. Click on his name and be amazed by the list of credits he has raked up. Watch this great suspense movie if you get a chance. The ship captain keeps taunting Sam with his "bang bang, you're dead" line. Someone should have made him dead.