Better than most people think

Absolutely Fantastic

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I read the other 17 reviews and was thankful that someone noticed that Eric Sykes was in the movie. It is massively disappointing to read reviews by people who have no inkling about the quality of the cast as well as pathos and irony ...if you had seen Sykes in The Plank you might have some idea of his talent. Though I must admit that Brit humour is often beyond some of our contributors. In his autobiography Eric said that Tony Curtis was the biggest plonker he met in Hollywood and that got my attention (The Great Race).He certainly got my attention again in this movie. I do like Rod Taylor and was taken aback by how well he underplayed this role and of course a cinema legend like Trevor Howard sending himself up was an utter joy . Please watch some of their movies (Clouded Yellow for Trevor) and maybe (No-one Runs for Ever for a rustic Rod)you will see much more in this comedy.

Unfortunately his back was turned when Trevor Howard was helped out of a bad jackpot during the liberation of Paris by Rod Taylor. If he had actually seen just how Taylor saved his life, he might never have thought of him as a perfect candidate for being The Liquidator.It's what British Secret Service needs as Wilfrid Hyde-White tells his number 2 who is now Howard and 20 years later after the end of World War II. At that time the British government was getting embarrassed routinely with the number of defections and the number of spies caught. The answer is forget those democratic trivialities like due process. When you have a suspect, just shoot them, no questions asked. And Howard thinks is wartime savior is the perfect candidate for the job.Not that Taylor is all that hip to the idea. He's a bar owner in some rural part of the United Kingdom. But he reads those James Bond novels and sees those movies and he knows what perks come with being an operator. Certainly Howard knows them too and he provides generously even overlooking the fact that his secretary Jill St. John is being tapped by Taylor. Taylor finds an interesting way of subcontracting the work which I won't go into. But in the end he finds he's being beautifully set up for a major score by the other side. If the bad guys succeed the United Kingdom will really learn what embarrassment is all about.In the James Bond tradition with title song sung by Shirley Bassey, The Liquidator is an amusing spy spoof. Howard does a nasty slow burn in the tradition of Edgar Kennedy. Jill St. John who is also a Bond girl in good standing is just as beautiful with a role a lot more substantive.Folks who like the espionage genre should like The Liquidator.

Rod Taylor is always a likable actor, with his curled-up ears, big rolling eyes, and cocky demeanor. Like Cary Grant or Sean Connery, he's a little hard to take seriously. And there's a good supporting cast in this spy spoof as well -- Wilfred Hyde-White, Trevor Howard, David Tomlinson, the succulent Jill St. John.Taylor is recruited as a temporary James Bond figure, so outside the usual frame of spyhood that he must be trained from the start. Certainly no one would suspect him of anything except hustling young ladies.There's an amusing scene at the climax with a terrified Taylor all alone at the controls of a British bomber, knowing nothing of flying, and being talked down by a droll Richard Wattis. It was all directed by Jack Cardiff too.Yet it fails. Maybe it seemed still fresh in 1964. But there have been so MANY send ups of James Bond since the early 60s, and after all, with Sean Connery as the central figure, the series was bound to be a spoof of itself. Some of the imitations were relatively earnest and were entertaining in themselves, like Charles Vine in "The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World." But then there was an argosy of others like "Our Man Flint." By 1967, the genre seemed to have run its course and the green-lighters gave up and came out with the frankly absurd and sometimes hilarious "Casino Royale," with a dozen different Bonds. The original franchise continues to gasp and lurch unsteadily forward, a marathon runner out of steam, refreshed by the occasional draught of viewers too young and too incurious to know they're watching the spectacle of a living corpse.I like Rod Taylor, but this just isn't worth it.

"The Liquidator" was such an amusing film. I loved the fact that Shirley Bassey sang the theme song a la James Bond. It was great to see a spy whose hormones were far more potent than his efforts with a gun. A particularly funny part occurs when Trevor Howard is rescued by Boysie, as Paris is being liberated. Howard thinks that Boysie is a killing machine when, in fact, he is a hopelessly clumsy young man. Rod Taylor is deliciously sexy in the film and displays his flair for comedy.