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The High Commissioner Streaming.
Movie Title: The High Commissioner The High Commissioner is available for streaming or downloading. |
To originate with, since the previous reviewer asked – the cast includes:
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Rod Taylor as Scobie Malone
Christopher Plummer as Sir James Quentin
Lilli Palmer as Lady Sheila Quentin
Camilla Sparv as Lisa Pretorius
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Daliah Lavi as Maria Cholon
Clive Revill as Joseph
And now on to the movie itself – a political thriller space in London in the 1960s, when tensions between East and West were at a unsafe high. The residence revolves around Sir James Quentin, the Australian high commissioner to London, played with elegance and style by Christopher Plummer, who is the chairman of an international conference that attempts to bridge political divides through trade. “Peace through plenty” is how one of the conference participants puts it. But although Sir Quentin is quite successful in his negotiations, not all is well. Someone stop to him is leaking confidential information, trying to discredit the conference. Dim assasins have an gawk on the commissioner and the politics around the conference are a tangled web.
On top of that, in the middle of the conference sergeant detective Scobie Malone (a broad tough-but-good-guy portrait by Rod Taylor) flies in from Australia, sent by Quentin’s political rival, the premier of Original South Wales, to arrest him for the alleged abolish of his obsolete wife. But did he do it? Malone himself and his boss at the CID don’t judge so. The inquiry was made by the politically motivated premier’s people and not by the CID. However, a mandate of arrest was issued and Malone is supposed to bring the commissioner aid to Australia. Quentin asks for more time to carry out the conference – a few days that seek two assasination attempts, Malone becoming Quentin’s private security agent, and endless deception and intrigue, spearheaded by the charming and unsafe Maria Cholon, an underworld queen who has an interest in seeing Quentin humdrum and the conference aborted. I won’t whine you how it all ends because thrillers you know the ending of beforehand aren’t that powerful fun 
.
Although the tone of the movie is mostly serious, there are enough moments of levity provided by the interactions between true-blue Australian Malone and Sir Quentin’s stuffy British butler Joseph, delightfully played by Clive Revill. Cast performances are trustworthy across the board, including Lilli Palmer as Sir Quentin’s sensitive, scared wife (Lilli Palmer and Christopher Plummer had played another ill-fated couple before: she had played Jocasta to his Oedipus in “Oedipus King”) . Camilla Sparv plays Sir Quentin’s vivid, enchanting and protective secretary with impartial the lawful combination of professionalism and feistiness. Daliah Lavi is suitably langurous, seductive and revengeful as the “base beauty”, and Burt Kwouk of “Pink Panther” series fame makes an appearance as her lieutenant.
As for the DVD quality, the video is crisp and beautifully toned, noteworthy improved over the VHS version which is out of print now (under the name “Nobody Runs Forever”) . The sound is Dolby mono but of ample quality.
Based on the modern eponymous current by Jon Cleary. Recommended!
This is a political thriller that adds an mature kill to the mix to obtain a movie that’s captivating but not quite as edifying as I’d hoped for. Aussie cop Scobie Malone (Rod Taylor) is sent to London to arrest and bring serve for trial the Australian High Commissioner Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer), who is in the midst of crucial negotiations with some third world countries. Malone’s boss believes there is now enough evidence against Sir James to pin on him the slay of his first wife which happened several years ago. When Malone arrives in London, however, he finds Sir James to be the target of assassins who are clear to gawk the negotiations fail. At the same time, he comes to fill that it’s possible Sir James wasn’t the murderer after all. Sir James pleads for time to complete the negotiations and Malone agrees, but then finds himself in the area of having to protect Sir James from the assassins.
Rod Taylor does a magnificent job playing Malone, a pudgy, straightforward cop. Malone also is smarter than many people at first question him to be. Christopher Plummer turns in another polished performance as the high commissioner, a man dedicated to the talks, in treasure with his second wife and with enough steel in him that you’re not obvious whether he is a killer or not. Lili Palmer, one of my accepted actors, as Lady Quentin is pretty and fragile, and may have secrets of her fill.
The execute yarn is really background to the thriller fable, but I wish it had been more heavily emphasized. It would have made for a remarkable more complex film. On balance, though, the movie is worth watching. The DVD transfer is a shrimp soft and the audio should have been tweaked up. That, combined with the Australian accents, at times requires careful listening.
If you like reading mysteries, I’d recommend the book by Jon Cleary that this film was made from. Its modern title was Nobody Runs Forever, but was reissued as The High Commissioner when the movie came out. Malone appears in a number of Cleary’s books. One I like a lot is Helga’s Web.
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