Quite a lot of movies on my wish-list are merely just there because of the impressive ensemble cast they have. "Journey into Fear", for example, has an amazing cast but I guess the lack of availability and solid fan base already suggests that the film isn't a hidden cult treasure. The plot is promising enough, adapted from an early 40's novel by Eric Ambler, and that same novel already got turned into a long-feature film in 1943. That film also has a terrific cast (like Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead) and presumably it's a lot better than this version, which suffers tremendously from lousy editing and an overall lack of tension and credibility. The opening minutes are downright terrific, with no less than two imaginative assassination attempts in a car and in a train. They're aimed at Howard Graham (Sam Waterston), an American engineer in Turkey who just made an important oil discovery in the mountains. Because of the information in his head, he becomes a walking bullseye, so the Turkish government subtly escorts him out of the country by boat. On board, he encounters a variety of individuals that might be allies, secret agents or hired killers. Once Sam Waterston board the ship, the excitement is exchanged for a dull and needlessly talkative middle-section and the only aspect to enjoy are the veteran actors in supportive roles. Appearing as the passengers are Shelley Winters, Yvette Mimieux, Ian McShane, Donald Pleasance and Vincent Price. Especially the last two names convinced me to obsessively track this film down, simply because you know one of them (or maybe even both) will depict a formidable villain. The opening and finale are more than entertaining, but the rest of "Journey into Fear" lacks pace, suspense and integrity. The main issue is that few of the characters appear to believe the roles they play. The hero, for instance, never truly seems to have the titular "fear" for his life. He remains rather calm even though murderers may lure behind every corner and he joyously socializes with everyone on board. This is definitely a disappointment, partially also because the copy I own has bad picture quality and the sound is nearly inaudible, but hey
I can scrap another Vincent & Donald movie off my list!
Add a Review
-
Coventry4 July 2014
-
tomsview27 May 2023A dusty old Eric Ambler story in 1975?
Just look at the crime and spy dramas that were around either side of this film in the 1970s. There was Gene Hackman disconnecting the French from their drugs in "The French Connection", Marlon Brando and Al Pacino making the streets safe for The Family in "The Godfather" and Edward Fox changing his identity more often than his underwear in "The Day of the Jackal". Then there was Laurence Olivier performing unnecessary dental work on Dustin Hoffman in "Marathon Man".
1975s "Journey into Fear" just doesn't fit into the decade.
The 1943 version was a moody-looking number shot mostly on studio sets with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles warming up for their roles in "The third Man".
An American geologist, Graham, played by Sam Waterston, with information about a secret natural resource in Turkey is hunted by those who want the secret to stay secret. And so it goes even after the head of the Turkish police smuggles him out of the country on an old freighter full of bizarre passengers.
Eric Ambler stories have made good films. I can always watch Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet peeking behind "The Mask of Dimitrios" and Jules Dassin's witty and clever "Topkapi" with its brilliant robbery sequence.
But the key to those was the vision of the filmmakers. This "Journey into Fear" has an interesting location, good action and an interesting cast of actors hovering just below star status, but script and direction are leaden. Only Vincent Price gets close to the urbane and suave villain the film needed more of.
Yvette Mimieux has a role that just fizzles out half way through. A fond movie memory is of her as Weena in George Pal's "The Time Machine". I stayed loyal through the decades finding any movie she was in better for her inclusion although even in a midriff top she has a hard time lifting this one.
The stodgy script of "Journey" doesn't measure up to TV crime shows of the 1970s such as "The Rockford Files", "Banecek" and "Columbo" to name a few.
I agree that the cast is the most interesting aspect of the film. However even composer Alex North seemed uninspired. The maestro who gave cinema some of its mightiest music gave this film a score that is surprisingly harsh and atonal. -
Red-Barracuda20 September 2023This is one of those thrillers from back in the day which tried to incorporate various European locales into the plotline to inject a bit of colour and variety. To that end, the story of this one begins in Turkey, fires over to Greece and then takes a boat to Genoa. Its constantly on the move, as we progress from car to train to boat to running around. This may sound pretty fluid stuff but, unfortunately, in practice it's really none-too-thrilling. The basic storyline is one of the issues - a petroleum geologist discovers a major oil field in Turkey leading to rival oil people hiring assassins to silence him, so they can move in and get the black gold themselves. Oil deals are not the most interesting ideas to base a thriller around to be perfectly honest, so the filmmakers had their work cut out right from the start to make this one involving. But to make matters worse, the direction is flat as a pancake as well, meaning that the whole enterprise never really gets out of third gear at any point. The best thing about this one is its cast. I am a big fan of Vincent Price and Donald Pleasence, who appear here improbably as respectively a Turk and an Arab! But even the best efforts of those two stalwarts can only do so much with the material and it did seem like they were going through the motions in this one.
-
studiojudio13 January 2004The cast of this movie is utterly amazing. From Sam Waterston, to Zero Mostel. From Joseph Wiseman to Donald Pleasance. Vincent Price. And yet, it seemed much less than it could've been, due to some VERY poor editing...
The story, briefly, is about a U.S geologist (Sam Waterston) who discovers something about Oil that proves VERY threatening to the Turkish and Arab business people...so, we spend 90 more minutes, watching Sam in absolute terror, while several people try to kill him.
Sam Waterston is WONDERFUL in it - but all the other big names seem to be really uninterested. Price is good - but what else is new? Zero Mostel, usually referred to as a genius, is so annoying you want to knock out his teeth. Ian McShane, believe it or not, has a rather significant part, but NO LINES...strange. The very worst of it is Yvette Mimieux. If you liked her as Weena in the original Time Machine, don't even bother to watch her here. She is simply awful. She does a song in a nightclub, with a voice-over, and she makes nearly NO attempt to synchronize her lips to the words. It's downright comical.
But, she does do a good job of seducing Mr. Waterston. And, so would I!
If it wasn't for Sam Waterston, this movie would be almost comical. But Sam, you know...he's the only one who cares enough to put his heart into it...what else is new? -
CinemaSerf5 June 2023Swap a train for a boat, oil for some bullets and we have a rehash of the 1943 Orson Welles version of this story - only this is nowhere near as good. It doesn't really help that the casting lacks for any great clout. Sam Waterston is weak in the lead as "Graham" - the scientist who gets caught up in a Turkish conspiracy after he discovers that there might just be oil in them thar desert. This information is proving quite dangerous for the man and he needs to get out before he succumbs to one of the plentiful - but not very efficient - assassins out to kill him. He manages to make it onto a train on which he hopes to escape - but are the passengers all they seem to be? We know from fairly early on that "Banat" (Ian McShane) is his biggest danger and therein lay my first problem. He has all the menace of a cucumber sandwich. Zero Mostel's duplicitous "Kopelkin" fares little better and though the supporting cast boasts some A-list names, they feature too sparingly to make much difference with this rather far-fetched and procedural attempt at a thriller that's just, well, very light on thrills. I did quite like the last few scenes as things flare up, but otherwise this is a pretty unremarkable television movie that you'll very readily forget.
-
Top-notch cast, nice scenery (in Turkey, Greece and Italy), a dazzling car stunt at the very start and a memorable dispatching of the final villain are the main virtues of this otherwise pedestrian chase yarn which plays like an elongated episode of a TV series of its time. There is very little story - just the pretext of a McGuffin (everybody is after Sam Waterston for some "information" he has - which we never learn what it is). Vincent Price and Ian McShane fare best in the name-packed cast; Waterston is a rather bland lead, Zero Mostel is annoying as a "Turkish" agent, and Yvette Mimieux gets to show us her washboard abs, which are a definite plus, but has little else to do. *1/2 out of 4.
-
HotToastyRag29 October 2022In this pretty crummy adventure flick, Sam Waterston stars as an American who becomes the target of an assassination when he discovers oil in Turkey. It's a remake of the 1943 Orson Welles movie, but you're far better off sticking with the original. Sam comes across as remarkably awkward as he runs for his life. He saunters around in wide open spaces, then seems surprised when bad guys start shooting at him. And worst of all, he trusts everyone! Someone around him has to be a bad guy, right? Either Yvette Mimieux, his beautiful and unlikely love interest who doesn't mind his ineptness; Zero Mostel, his guide from the Turkish embassy, Vincent Price, an art aficionado, Shelley Winters, who's basically playing a five-second stereotype of her character in The Poseidon Adventure, Donald Pleasance, Ian McShane, Stanley Holloway, or Jackie Cooper. Someone has to be out to get him, or else why is his life in danger?
If you're the type of person who likes to watch bad movies and chuckle, you might like this one. But if you're looking for a quality thriller or on-location adventure flick, stick with Death on the Nile. For me, the best part of the movie was seeing Vincent Price act out his real-life persona of appreciating great art. -
An American geologist Mr. Graham, played by Sam Waterston accidentally discovers oil in Turkey. Several assassins are sent to eliminate him, but they all fail. He eventually boards a passenger boat to try to escape. However, one of the passengers is an undercover assassin.
Movie has a great cast with an extremely young Ian McShane (DEADWOOD) as Banat the hitman who does not have a single line in the movie but carries menace like Aldo Ray's character in WELCOME TO HARD TIMES. Vincent Price makes a great turn as Banat's employer named Dervos. Donald Pleasance plays Turkish undercover officer Kuvetli , posing as a Turkish cigarette salesman who does not smoke and works for a company no one has ever heard of. Yvette Mimieux plays Josette who is being pimped out by her husband Jose played by Scott Marlowe. She is the love interest or bait for the Sam Waterston character Mr. Graham. Joseph Wiseman plays Colonel Haki who is trying to protect Mr. Graham from getting killed. Stanley Holloway and Shelly Winters play a married couple. Shelly plays a racist gossipy woman named Mrs. Mathews and Stanley Holloway in his final movie appearance plays her kindly husband Mr. Mathews.
Movie has super exciting opening and start, it kind of bogs down in the middle then jumps back into action towards the end.
Ripe for a remake. -
myriamlenys16 April 2023Having survived a number of disquieting incidents, an engineer specialized in international oil field research arrives in Istanbul. After yet another incident, authorities tell him the truth, to wit that he's become a wanted man - and not in a "most popular bachelor" kind of way. In spite of his misgivings, the engineer is ordered to embark upon one of the first ships leading away from Turkey...
Boasting a tremendous cast, "Journey into fear" is a blend of thriller and action/adventure. There is also comedy - Zero Mostel, for instance, is in delightful form - but some of the merriment seems too merry for what is essentially a tale about a long and violent pursuit. The ending is pretty violent, too.
Part of the story is set in Turkey, another part is set on a passenger ship travelling first to Greece and thence to Italy. The movie makes good use of the near-universal anxiety felt by travellers and tourists. Indeed, much of the events read like a black-hearted comment on typical tourist worries. ("Does that policeman understand my language ? Why is he shouting at me ? What is he saying ? Is this, dunno, the gate to the presidential garden ? Should I tell him about that guy who bothered me in the park or is that more likely to land ME in prison, although I did nothing wrong ?")
This, the 1975 "Journey into fear", was my first acquaintance with the material ; I gather there's a source novel and an earlier movie adaptation, but I'm unfamiliar with both of them. I liked the movie well enough, mainly for the magnificently threatening performances given by Ian McShane and Vincent Price. Both collectively and individually, McShane and Price could make a rottweiler slink away in fear. Talk about two characters one would not like to meet in a dark alley... -
robert-temple-129 April 2023This film of the novel JOURNEY INTO FEAR by Eric Ambler, published in 1940, is its second adaptation for the screen. The first was in 1943, with Joseph Cotton playing the young victim hero Mr. Graham, whereas in this version that role is played by Sam Waterston. In the 1943 version, the role of Colonel Haki of the Turkish secret police is played by Orson Welles, whereas Joseph Wiseman plays that role in this version, and does an admirably restrained and effective job of it. The original story commenced in Istanbul at the beginning of the War, with young Mr. Graham negotiating the supply to Turkey of naval artillery. Naturally, the Nazis are after him and keep trying to kill him, to prevent Turkey from acquiring those arms, and Colonel Haki tries to protect him. But for the 1975 version, a decision was taken to set the story in the 1970s instead, so that much of the point of the film and the justification for its paranoia and constant assassination attempts was lost. Instead Mr. Graham is a petroleum geologist and engineer who is the only person with full knowledge of a major oil find in Turkey. He is eager to travel back to America to inform his bosses at a big oil company of the details so that they can land the contract. A rival oil company from another nation has hired assassins to kill him and prevent this, so that they can grab the contract. Once again, Colonel Haki tries to protect him. But the new situation is a rather tepid one, hardly justifying all the desperate drama and mayhem which made perfect sense when the story involved the Nazis and a looming world war. Oil profits just don't have quite that same zing. The film has lots of good character actors strewn throughout like raisins in a fruitcake. Zero Mostel, Ian McShane (who does not speak once), Shelley Winters, Stanley Holloway, Donald Pleasance, and Vincent Price, they are all there. But they can't save the film. The love interest is lovely Yvette Mimieux. She is required to be a singer in an Istanbul nightclub, and the singing is very obviously dubbed by someone with an entirely different voice, so that lends an air of falsity to the proceedings. Yvette is meant to be French, and she manages that well with a French accent and one place in the film where she bursts into French. Presumably she learned how to do all that because her father was French. But despite best efforts and lots of talent all around, the story is hokum, being an entirely improbable and unconvincing yarn. Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance, and Zero Mostel all deliver excellent performances. But it is no use. The film was highly budgeted and there was colourful location shooting in Turkey, Greece and Italy. It is eerie to see Sam Waterston roaming around a totally deserted ancient agora in Athens, with not a tourist in sight. There are some wonderful old buildings in Genoa where dramatic events take place. All of that is fine. But the film is not convincing, because something as boring as an oil deal just does not justify the action. Nevertheless, the film is still worth watching for other reasons. And there is one amazing scene in a train where the elderly woman opposite Sam Waterston, who had changed seats with him, is sitting quietly doing her knitting when a spear is thrust into her back from the adjoining compartment. Things like that just keep happening.
-
Deciding to get rid of a box of old papers that have been left in the loft for years, I discovered a parcel I got from an eBay seller of Finland of an obscure film,with this being a parcel I've been trying to find, since misplacing it, in 2013. Finding it after a decade,I decided it was time to finally go on the journey into fear.
View on the film:
Becoming the first big Hollywood production to be filmed in Vancouver, director Daniel Mann & Not Tonight, Darling (1971-also reviewed) cinematographer Harry Waxman skillfully bind location shooting in Greece, Turkey,Italy and Canada together, via rough and ready hand-held tracking shots keeping up with Mr. Graham running down every side street, towards brittle, delightfully vicious fighting set-pieces.
Side-stepping the Film Noir origins, Mann and Waxman instead grill a sleazy Thriller atmosphere, sizzling on close-ups of skin on display, and panning shots over the grubby locations where Mr. Graham takes on the assassins without fear.
Following the Euro cut of the 1943 original by not having a narration, Trevor Wallace and Stuart J. Byrne's adaptation of Eric Ambler's novel disappointingly sails over all the moments of paranoid tension that were in the first filmed version, instead presenting Mr. Graham's time on the ship in a kitsch, comedic light, which leaves moments when the writers attempt to heighten the Thriller element bone dry, due to how poorly the threat level those targeting Mr. Graham, has been established.
Despite having a target on his back, Sam Waterston gives holds the flat Mr. Graham with a tired performance which fails to express any of the pressure Mr. Graham is under, whilst Ian McShane jolts the film to life as the gruff Banat, and Vincent Price wonderfully cackles as "Good Arab" Dervos, who is travelling on a journey into fear. -
I saw this movie when it first showed on TV in 1975 and watch it now and then. The story of the "man with endless lives" never gets old. Many people try and kill him but he just escapes every time. It tries hard to be a tense thriller but just ambles along with one exciting sequence after another. When I saw it for the first time, Jose tells Sam, as he is trying to PIMP her off to him, "Yvette Mimieux has smelt a lot of balls". I distinctly remember that line in the 1975 showing but it seems to have been cut from all the recent releases. Maybe the Blu-Ray, (yes, there is a Blu-Ray coming out), release will include that spicy line. During the end explosion at the gas station, the man in the front seat of the car is Nello Pazzafini, star of many Italian action movies in the 1960s. You name it, he was in it. Click on his name and be amazed by the list of credits he has raked up. Watch this great suspense movie if you get a chance. The ship captain keeps taunting Sam with his "bang bang, you're dead" line. Someone should have made him dead.