This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It is a performances centric movie

Fantastic!

Brilliant and touching

A powerhouse cast (well, for the time) was put in play for "The High Commissioner" (as I saw it) or "Nobody Runs Forever." Rod Taylor (using his native Australian accent and making it sound phony) chases fugitive (for murder--allegedly) Christopher Plummer, who is now some bigwig politico in London. The catch? Plummer's character has a wonderful new idea for peace in the world and if he goes to jail it may be lost.Taylor and Plummer only scratch the surface. Dahlia Lavi, who seemed to be in every Bond-imitation going (especially the spoofs, since she had a flair for comedy) shows up with lots of decolletage; hers is the only character that gives the piece any life and she seems to have mistaken it for another comedy role. Clive Revill does a turn as a butler whose bona fides may be shaky, but though he has a few good double-takes he doesn't pull out all his stops. Camilla Sparv (who got lots of meaty roles about this time, and always seemed out of her depth in them) plays . . . well, a pretty face who keeps showing up.Unfortunately, the whole shebang is fairly run of the mill, slow and talky with it. Even the explosive climax takes its time to unfold, and it's telegraphed far too early in advance. I saw this in a double feature with Taylor's spy spoof "The Liquidator" and that seems to be the best way to approach it. Hung out to dry on its own, it doesn't amount to as much as it might have been.

Not terrible but not good either. "Nobody Runs Forever" is a 1968 British thriller involving international politics and murder in a reasonably tortuous plot. It's also a Betty Box/Ralph Thomas picture which means it was never likely to set the world on fire; workmanlike is about the best you can say for it. What distinguishes it is the cast. The usually reliable Rod Taylor is the Australian policeman sent to London to arrest Christopher Plummer's Australian High Commissioner for the murder of his first wife and finding, when he gets there, that Plummer isn't the villian he's been painted. Lilli Palmer is Plummer's current wife. (she's the best thing in the picture), Camilla Sparv is his secretary and Daliah Lavi, a very fatale femme. Franchot Tone even pops in for a cameo appearance as does an uncredited Leo McKern. It's not particularly exciting and it is rather far-fetched and it will never rank in any list of decent conspiracy thrillers but at least it passes an entertaining couple of hours.

Nobody Runs Forever is based on a best-selling Jon Cleary novel entitled The High Commissioner, by which name the film is sometimes referred to in other countries. A low-key minor thriller with a stronger cast than it probably deserves, the film is perfectly watchable without ever really setting the screen alight.A rough and ready policeman from rural Australia, Scobie Malone (Rod Taylor), is selected to go to London on a delicate assignment. The Australian High Commissioner, Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer), has been exposed as a murderer responsible for killing his first wife many years previously, and is to be escorted back to Oz to face justice for his crime. Malone isn't totally convinced that Sir James is actually guilty but nevertheless intends to carry out his duty to the best of his ability. All this coincides with some high-powered diplomatic talks being chaired by Sir James. When Sir James is granted extra days to see these talks to their conclusion, Malone finds himself with a little extra time to pry into his quarry's past. And when a number of assassination attempts are made on Sir James's life, Malone finds himself involved in something much darker than the simple extradition of a wanted man… Perhaps best known for his Doctor In The House comedies, director Ralph Thomas doesn't really invest this thriller with enough thrills. It's all very stolid, and deliberately understated, but it doesn't manage a sufficiently suspenseful undercurrent and the dialogue often falls flat. Taylor and Plummer are OK in the main roles, though the script doesn't give them enough to do, while the supporting characters consist of the usual mix of glamorous, shady and dastardly types. The film is quite professionally put together – good score by Georges Delerue, pleasing photography by Ernest Steward, chic costumes, interesting sets and locations, etc - but throughout there is a continual impression that something is lacking. Nobody Runs Forever is best summed up as routine – it never lapses into total tedium but it doesn't exactly get the pulse racing either.

This is certainly not a bad film: the script maintains an air of uncertainty as to who is and who is not in the conspiracy to kill Plummer, there are some frantic fight scenes, a nice elegiac score, the performances are fine, putting in more emotion than usual for the genre, and the Goddess-like Daliah Lavi & the beautiful Camilla Sparv more than fill out the required "babe quotient" (as I've said before, these 60's spy thrillers are almost always a sure bet if you want to see some incredibly beautiful women). However, there is not much here that you have not seen before. Perhaps it says something about the greatness of Hitchcock that even one of his widely considered "lesser" pictures ("Topaz") is still better than this movie. (**1/2)