DANGER ROUTE

Diana Dors and Richard Johnson

DANGER ROUTE (1967). Director: Seth Holt.

British agent Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson) has apparently had a License to Kill for quite some time, and wants out of the game. He has a girlfriend, Jocelyn (Carol Lynley of The Shuttered Room), and is partner with Brian (Gordon Jackson) in a boating business. He is given one last assassination assignment by his boss, Canning (Harry Andrews of What the Peeper Saw) and uses a lusty housekeeper named Rhoda (Diana Dors of Berserk) to gain access to his victim. A man named Lucinda (Sam Wanamaker) tells Jonas that he is being played for a fool. Then there's the beautiful Mari (Barbara Bouchet of The French Sex Murders), who claims to be the niece of another operative. Will Jonas survive to complete his mission? More importantly, will he survive to enjoy retirement?

Johnson with Carol Lynley

The same year that Danger Route was released Johnson -- who had a very, very long career -- starred as Bulldog Drummond in Deadlier Than the Male, a light-hearted spy spoof which was a hell of a lot more entertaining than this. Unlike the Bond movies, Danger Route is a "serious" spy flick, but it is also dull and confusing. Diana Dors briefly adds some spice as the housekeeper but she's not on-screen for long enough. At one point Jonas confronts his bosses wife (Sylvia Syms of Hostile Witness) and winds up collapsing onto the floor from a bleeding injury. In the very next scene two seconds later, Jonas and Mrs. Canning are on a train pretending to be husband and wife. There is absolutely no explanation for this, no reason for why the woman would go along with the deception. Was something left on the cutting room floor? Undoubtedly.

Johnson with Barbara Bouchet

Frankly, one can't work up much sympathy for Jonas' grim fate. Everyone around him turns out to be duplicitous, and different factions seem to be working against one another -- typical spy movie stuff and as senseless as usual. Sequences that are meant to be exciting only serve to break the poor audience out of the general tedium for a short while. Barbara Bouchet's character never really fits into the main storyline. Considering the mediocrity of the screenplay, Richard Johnson gives a better performance than anyone could have expected of him, but the movie is a genuine stinker. Producers thought seriously of casting Johnson as 007 for Dr. No, and he would have been good in the role. Jonas Wilde appeared in several spy novels that are said to be much better than this movie -- they would have to be!

Verdict: Spy cliches, confusion and boredom. *1/2.