Adjust the Graham Greene novel in which this was based on wasn't so fascinating either. They moved the location from Sweden to early Nazi Germany, and the result is a film about ethics in a dying world that could have been so much more interesting. I would rather watch Michael York and Peter Finch again in the musical triumph of 1973, "Lost Horizon", then have to sit through this one again. Young York is a young and ambitious businessman who goes to work for Peter Finch in his company in Germany and discovers that business ethics do not exist, at least how he was taught them. Finch and his colleagues do their best to make sure that York doesn't leave the country, and politics behind the scenes play out in a way that ensures that York wll remain. The beautiful Hildegard Neil plays an important part and everything going on behind the scenes, at times, her ethics are questionable as well.
The best part of this film outside of the lavish sets and interesting location footage is the supporting character played by Michael Hordern, but he is one of the great scene-stealing character actors of all time. There was also a very pretty musical score, almost like a waltz, and considering the time in which this is set, a waltz about dying. Made the year after "Cabaret" where York played an Englishman visiting Nazi Germany (orriginally an American in the novels, play and original musical), this is quite an antithesis of that artistic triumph. Having played brothers the same year in "Lost Horizon", York and Finch were better off in the mountains of Tibet than they are here. There is a reason why certain films get forgotten, and this one simply won't last in my memory past this viewing.
The best part of this film outside of the lavish sets and interesting location footage is the supporting character played by Michael Hordern, but he is one of the great scene-stealing character actors of all time. There was also a very pretty musical score, almost like a waltz, and considering the time in which this is set, a waltz about dying. Made the year after "Cabaret" where York played an Englishman visiting Nazi Germany (orriginally an American in the novels, play and original musical), this is quite an antithesis of that artistic triumph. Having played brothers the same year in "Lost Horizon", York and Finch were better off in the mountains of Tibet than they are here. There is a reason why certain films get forgotten, and this one simply won't last in my memory past this viewing.