This 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.
