Operation Diplomat (1953) Online

A lot happens in this fast-paced thriller from 1953, apparently condensed down from a popular TV series which may go some way in explaining the lightning-fast plotting. The storyline involves a respected surgeon who is waylaid one night and paid to perform an operation on a mysteriously ill old man. The next day it soon transpires that his actions were the part of some nefarious criminal plan. He learns that the criminal gang haven't finished with him yet, so with the police hot on his tail he must both prove his innocence and bring the criminal plot to a close.

It's familiar stuff indeed, but OPERATION DIPLOMAT works thanks to the above-average execution. The use of Nettlefold Studios is done in such a way as to make this look like a respectably-budgeted film, even if it wasn't. There are murders a-plenty here, alongside some well-directed action from TOWERING INFERNO director John Guillerman; a rooftop chase is a particular standout. I love the choice of lead in this one, the incredibly tall and impossibly gaunt Guy Rolfe, an actor who was to finish his career making PUPPET MASTER sequels for Charles Band in America but who acquits himself very well here. The supporting cast has also been well picked, with the lovely Patricia Dainton never failing to disappoint and Ballard Berkely having fun as one of his stock detective characters. A youthful Anton Diffring appears too, and I spotted a cameo from Desmond Llewellyn in the closing scenes.

The writers must have had their work cut out adapting the original six episode BBC TV series into just seventy minutes of film. No wonder the story starts at such a cracking pace. As soon as the opening credits fade, hospital consultant Mark Fenton is abducted to operate on a mysterious patient in a secret location. Fenton appeared in another adaptation of a Francis Durbridge TV series, THE BROKEN HORSESHOE (see my review). Here he's played by the gaunt figure of Guy Rolfe who proves ideal in the role. Fenton finds himself increasingly deeply involved in the affair of a missing diplomat in one of those thrillers where enigmatic remarks lead to sudden death and few people are quite who they seem. There's usually a sceptical copper to catch the hero in suspicious circumstances, and here Ballard Berkeley brings some character to the slightly sardonic Inspector Austin; his dealings with Fenton include some enjoyable dry humour between the pair. There's a brief uncredited appearance by William Franklyn as a colleague of Fenton's; it sounded as if he was addressed as Doctor Gillespie! It's a cleverly plotted, taut mystery, with a Cold War background, and Guillermin just about glosses over one or two inconsistencies in the narrative, caused, no doubt, by having to jettison so much of the original material.

OPERATION DIPLOMAT - 1953

A doctor, Guy Rolfe, is grabbed up from a London street and driven to a secret location. Once there he is offered 500 pounds to do a operation on a very sick man. He balks but changes his mind when a pistol is shoved in his face. He saves the man's life. He is then handed an envelope with the 500 pounds and a large whiskey.

Needless to say the drink is drugged and Rolfe wakes up hours later dumped on a park bench somewhere in the city. Soon bodies start to show up everywhere Rolfe goes and the police are of course less than pleased.

MI-6 is called in and it seems the commies are kidnapping important scientists and shipping them to the east bloc. This film just roars along at almost a Keystone Cops pace for it's 70 minute runtime! Guns, beatings, murders and several well done chases keep it zooming along.

A very enjoyable thriller. Director Guillerman would go on to direct films such as THE BLUE MAX and DEATH ON THE NILE.

Surgeon Guy Rolfe is stuck into an ambulance and taken to a mysterious location to operate on a mysterious patient. Then he is clunked on the head, wakes up at home. As the bodies start piling up wherever he is to be found, he comes to realize that an important industrialist is being kidnapped. Trouble is that Scotland Yard won't believe him. For some reason they think he has something to do with the deaths.

This movie is a well-acted, exciting, thoroughly muddled thriller with a bunch of loose threads. Officials give false names for no reason, the police leave important witnesses unguarded and let a surgeon indulge in the rough-and-tumble while they stand around gawping, for no reason I could see except to increase the fog. Even the movie's title refers to the randomly-named "Operation" the government institutes when they realize that the industrialist is missing.

It's pretty good for a thorough piece of shoddy nonsense. I was having a fine time until the Mysterious Foreign Woman (Lisa Daniely) is running away from the bad guys. They were so slow about that sequence, it gave me time to review and count the unpatched holes.

Like Portait Of Alison and The Broken Horseshoe this thriller was originally made as a BBC television drama and was based on a story by popular crime writer Francis Durbridge. It was remade as a feature film to gain a wider audience. It starts off with Dr Fenton (Guy Rolfe) being asked to perform an operation in secret on a mysterious patient. But after performing the operation the doctor is drugged and dumped in a municipal park. He has no idea who the patient was and where the operation was carried out, and no one will believe his story, least of all the Police (Ballard Berkeley playing one in a long line of cynical inspectors). The patient turns out to be a British Diplomat who has been kidnapped by Russian agents and is waiting to be smuggled out of the country. With the help of nurse Lisa Durand (Lisa Daniely) the doctor manages to uncover some details of the plot, and after he is asked to carry out a further operation on the patient he works out where the agents' hideout is. But the Russians are always one step ahead of him, and the police, and avoid capture until the very end, when the meaning of a mysterious clue (which I won't reveal here) becomes all too apparent in a thrilling climax at the London docks. All-in-all a superb and exciting thriller, typical Durbridge material with a lot of twists to keep you guessing. Two small observations: Doctor Fenton and fellow surgeon William Franklyn smoke a surprising amount which even at the time surely wasn't advisable for those in the medical profession. And watch out for the scene where female agent Avice Landone turns up in Fenton's flat. I thought for a moment that she had adopted an unusual hairstyle with an exaggerated 'Mallon' streak until on closer inspection I realised that she was wearing a close fitting white fur hat (presumably to prove to the audience that she was Russian because, of course, all Rusians wear fur hats).

Brilliant thriller by the inimitable Francis Durbridge, the man behind the Paul Temple series, always sophisticated intrigues impossible to figure out with atmospherical ingredients as the plots always thicken. Guy Rolfe is perfect as the surgeon who is kidnapped to operate on a patient unknown, who appears to have been a kidnapped top diplomat and security chief whisked away to Berlin, but naturally there are complications. The tempo is high, the suspense constantly increases, but there will be no disappointments, although it will be impossible to get the hang of all of it. Another marvel adding to the intensity of the film is the very suggestive music by Wilfred Burns - I never saw his name in another film.