A Man Could Get Killed
Encyclopedia
A Man Could Get Killed is a 1966 adventure comedy film directed Ronald Neame
Ronald Neame
Ronald Elwin Neame CBE, BSC was an English film cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director.-Early career:...

 and Cliff Owen
Cliff Owen
Cliff Owen, was a British film and TV director best known for his comedy The Wrong Arm of the Law which starred Peter Sellers; he also directed two of the three films celebrated double act Morecambe and Wise made in the mid 1960s, and the big screen version of the classic BBC sitcom Steptoe and...

, shot on various locations in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and starring James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

, Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...

, Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...

, Anthony Franciosa
Anthony Franciosa
Anthony Franciosa was an American actor, usually billed as Tony Franciosa during the height of his career.-Early life:...

, and Robert Coote
Robert Coote
Robert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.-Biography:Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...

, as well as the fourteen year old Jenny Agutter
Jenny Agutter
Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...

 in a minor role. The screenplay was written by Richard L. Breen
Richard L. Breen
Richard L. Breen was a Hollywood screenwriter and director. He began as a freelance radio writer. After a stint in the US Navy during World War II, he began writing for films and worked alone and in collaboration with such distinguished writers as Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.He won an Oscar...

, and T. E. B. Clarke
T. E. B. Clarke
Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke was a movie scriptwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies. His scripts always feature careful logical development from a slightly absurd premise to a farcical conclusion...

 and David E. Walker based on the Walker's novel Diamonds For Danger. The film introduced the melody of Strangers in the Night
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a popular song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. It was originally created under the title Beddy Bye as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed...

by German composer Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader and songwriter. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records, and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, such as "Strangers in the Night" and "Spanish Eyes".-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany - where he received his lifelong...

 which won the movie the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 for "Best Original Song in a Motion Picture" of 1967.

Plot

A search is on for stolen diamonds and a government agent has been killed trying to recover them. When an unsuspecting William Beddoes arrives in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 on behalf of an American bank, he is mistaken for the dead agent's replacement.

Hatton-Jones of the British embassy comes to Beddoes' aid. Also taking an interest is Aurora Celeste, the dead man's lover, as well as Steve Antonio, a smuggler, who is being pursued by the law's Amy Franklin.

Everyone ends up aboard a yacht belonging to Dr. Mathieson, who appears to be the mastermind of the crime and knows where the hidden diamonds are. Beddoes ends up engineering an escape for all once the gems are safely in the hands of Hatton-Jones, who turns out to be the dead agent's actual successor.

Beddoes collects reward money for his efforts. He heads for home, assuming he will never see any of these people again, but Franklin schemes to make sure he'll be back.

Cast

  • James Garner
    James Garner
    James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

     as William Beddoes
  • Melina Mercouri
    Melina Mercouri
    Melina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...

     as Aurora
  • Sandra Dee
    Sandra Dee
    Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...

     as Amy Franklin
  • Tony Franciosa as Steve
  • Robert Coote
    Robert Coote
    Robert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.-Biography:Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...

     as Hatton
  • Roland Culver
    Roland Culver
    Roland Culver OBE was a British stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:...

     as Dr. Mathieson
  • Grégoire Aslan
    Grégoire Aslan
    Grégoire Aslan was an Armenian actor.Born Krikor Aslanian in Switzerland or in Constantinople, according to different sources, Aslan made his professional debut at 18 as a vocalist and drummer with a Paris dance band, then launched an acting career under the name of Koko Aslan. His first film...

     as Florian
  • Cecil Parker
    Cecil Parker
    Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....

     as Sir Huntley Frazier
  • Dulcie Gray
    Dulcie Gray
    Dulcie Gray, CBE was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.-Early life and career:...

     as Mrs. Mathieson
  • Martin Benson
    Martin Benson (actor)
    Martin Benjamin Benson was an English character actor, who appeared in films, theatre and television. He appeared in both British and Hollywood productions.-Career:...

     as Politanu
  • Peter Illing
    Peter Illing
    Peter Illing was an Austrian born, British film and television actor.-Filmography:* Silver Darlings * The End of the River * Against the Wind * Traveller's Joy...

     as Zarik
  • Niall MacGinnis
    Niall MacGinnis
    Niall MacGinnis was an Irish actor who made 80 screen appearances.-Early life:MacGinnis was born in Dublin in 1913. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in England, and studied medicine at Dublin University. He qualified as a house surgeon...

     as Ship's Captain
  • Virgilio Teixeira
    Virgilio Teixeira (actor)
    Virgilio Delgado Teixeira was a Portuguese film, television and stage actor, known for roles in both Portuguese and American films. He was known as a Portuguese "hearthrob" and a leading actor during the 1940s and 1950s....

     as Inspector Rodrigues
  • Isabel Dean
    Isabel Dean
    Isabel Dean was an English film and television actress.Born as Isabel Hodgkinson on 29 May 1918 in Aldridge, Staffordshire. She studied painting at the Birmingham Art School and from 1937 joined the Cheltenham Repertory Company as a scenic artist...

     as Miss Bannister
  • Daniele Vargas as Osman
  • Jenny Agutter
    Jenny Agutter
    Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...

     as Linda Frazier

Soundtrack

The score for A Man Could Get Killed was composed by the German Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader and songwriter. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records, and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, such as "Strangers in the Night" and "Spanish Eyes".-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany - where he received his lifelong...

, partially with the assistance of Herbert Rehbein
Herbert Rehbein
Herbert "Herb" Rehbein was a German songwriter, composer and arranger of light orchestral music. Together with his friend and collaborator Bert Kaempfert, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.He was born in Hamburg, and studied classical violin and composition as...

 and performed by his orchestra. It introduced the melody of the song Strangers in the Night
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a popular song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. It was originally created under the title Beddy Bye as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed...

, which in version by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 became a global number one hit and by now is considered a standard of easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

 music. The tune, listed in the original sound track as Beddy Bye, permeates the movie throughout and won the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 for "Best Original Song in a Motion Picture" of 1967, beating the other nominated compositions Un homme et une femme by French orchestra leader Francis Lai
Francis Lai
Francis Lai is a French accordionist, and composer noted for his film scores.While in his twenties, Francis Lai left home and went to Paris where he became part of the lively Montmartre music scene...

, Born Free
Born Free (song)
"Born Free" is a popular song with music by John Barry, and lyrics by Don Black. It was written for the 1966 film of the same name and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song....

by John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...

, which won the 1966 Academy Award for Best Original Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...

, Alfie by Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

, and Georgy Girl
Georgy Girl (song)
"Georgy Girl", written by Tom Springfield and Jim Dale , is the title song performed by The Seekers for the the film of the same name. Across late 1966 and early 1967, the song became a #1 Australian hit and a #3 UK hit...

by Tom Springfield
Tom Springfield
Tom Springfield is the brother of Dusty Springfield and an important figure in the 1960s folk and pop music scene...

 from the eponymous movies, the latter two also having been Oscar nominees of 1966.

The overall score to the movie, often resorting to Latin and even seemingly Greek influenced imagery, found a more mixed reception. The soundtrack was produced by Milt Gabler
Milt Gabler
Milton Gabler was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century.-Early life:...

 and recorded at Polydor Studios, Hamburg, Germany. It was originally released on a LP by Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 (4750) and on a CD in 1999 by Taragon Records, then combined with Bert Kaempfert's LP Strangers in the Night (original release 1966, Decca (4795)).

External links

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