Powerful

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

In my opinion, a previous reviewer, Charles Joe Agnes, submitted a splendid account of this movie. I agree with his conclusions entirely and have little to add. Based on an excellent thriller by Jon Cleary, his detective, Scobie Malone, was most engagingly brought to the screen by Rod Taylor in "The High Commissioner" (1968). Also known as "Nobody Runs Forever", the movie failed to impress the traditional press and magazine reviewers. In fact, the film earned an unwarranted but almost universal thumbs down from critics on both sides of the Atlantic and even in Australia itself on first release.But in my opinion, the film actually stands up rather well on the M- G-M DVD. Admittedly, I think the movie is even better than the book, thanks to a number of factors, but particularly its superior support cast led by Christopher Plummer, Clive Revill and Lilli Palmer. Director Ralph Thomas also contributes to what I regard as the film's success. Thomas keeps the action moving fast enough to keep interest alive through all the plot's unlikely twists and turns. They come so fast, only professional critics would have the time and audacity to suggest that they lacked verisimilitude!Also contributing - at least in my view - to the film's success as a tense thriller are a number of other factors, including Ernest Steward's bright-as-night color cinematography, Tony Woollard's dripping-with-opulence sets and Yvonne Caffin's glorious costumes. These factors reinforce each other and, in my opinion, they give the movie not only just the right over-luxurious setting but contribute to its wholly engaging atmosphere.

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".

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)