The Sell-Out

In this work filmed entirely in Israel, Richard Widmark gamely portrays Sam Lucas, a "retired" CIA operative who discovers that he is involuntarily back in action due to the sudden urging of his former initiate Gabriel Lee (Oliver Reed) who has been turned by the Soviet Union and now wants to come back into the American fold, not realizing that both players in the game have sent assassins to Israel to eliminate him, and Lucas as well. The direction is flabby with undue emphasis being placed upon silly and, naturally, superfluous stunts and car chases, with an inappropriate free hand being given to Gayle Hunnicut, playing the wife of Lucas and former lover of Lee, whose melodramatism proves distortive for what should be the critical scenes in this leaden affair, while the pudgy Englishman Reed, ill-advised to strip to the waist, has his lines dubbed in order to present an acceptable American accent.

A pretty good cast with lots of delightful bad guys. But what's the point. Who's who and what do they want? That's the problem. This is a mishmash of intrigue and espionage where we can't tell the characters without a program. We assume we are pulling for Richard Widmark and Oliver Reed, but we can't be sure. What makes a real spy story work is knowing the real milieu that is put forward. If everyone is flip-flopping back and forth within the story and if we don't have an identifiable end, we can't sense the suspense. I just couldn't get into this film. I like Reed and Widmark; they are two wonderful actors, but this must have been thrown together. The pyrotechnics are laughable. They use the old rule, if you can't come up with a plot, use a bunch of car chases. When all is said and done, who are these people answerable to. Is he CIA corrupt or is there a visible entity for us to fear. If there is, it's never brought forward in this film.

"The Sell Out" has an overall rating of 4.9 on IMDB...indicating it's NOT a very good film. However, something needs to be taken into account...nearly HALF the ratings for this film are 10s!!! Clearly, when a bad or even mediocre movie gets this many 10s, someone or group of people are messing with the ratings. IMDB must have realized this and weighted the scores, as with so many 10s I cannot explain why the movie still has such a low overall score.

"The Sell Out" is an international production with a couple past their peak big-name actors, Richard Widmark and Oliver Reed. Otherwise, you won't recognize most of the actors...and as I watched, I could understand why they won't be recognized...they, like the director, just aren't very good.

The story is a convoluted and talky story about a former CIA agent (Widmark) and a double-agent (Reed). The double-agent says he wishes to return to the NATO fold...but for some reason both sides want to kill him and the former CIA agent. Why and what are they hiding?

This is an extremely cheap and low energy film...despite being about spies and murder. It's not bad enough to merit scores like 1 or 2...but isn't much better than that. I REALLY found myself struggling to pay attention or even care about this film...and it's interesting how dull they managed to make the production.

Despite seeing one of my dear actors, Oliver Reed, the film didn't go down well. It is extremely predictable and boring. The whole movie repeats the same thing, the request that Gabriel Lee, Reed's character, is handed over. We don't have great acting performances. Vladek Sheybal as The Dutchman tries to be cool but it's more ridiculous. Better are Sam Wanamaker as Harry Sickles and Richard Widmark as Sam Lucas is even better.

The Sell-Out finds Oliver Reed as an American agent who's turned and become a double agent for the Soviets. Now he wants out of their system because he's found it's not all it's cracked up to be. Unfortunately both sides want to see him taken out.

What to do for Ollie. When you've got a friend like Richard Widmark who was your original sponsor at the Central Intelligence Agency and now retired to Israel with your former mistress Gayle Hunnicutt you go there for more than one reason. Widmark agrees to help him flee, but as it turns out comes at a terrible price.

This Israeli made feature had the distinct aroma of tax write off around it. Everyone just walks through their parts and collects their salary. Especially Oliver Reed who it seems had to have his entire performance dubbed so he could sound convincingly American. Seems like you could have gotten another American or made him British and saved a lot of money.

The cinematography in and around Jerusalem was nice to see, it took your mind off a very trite spy story.