I caught this twice when I was a mere lad, remembering the physically beautiful Derren Nesbitt if nothing else ("Neizer voz I, Mr. Laker"). Reading Kitty Kelley's bio of Frank made me want to revisit it, but it's not available on any legit platforms. So this is from memory ; )
Frank Sinatra plays an award-winning US chair designer (?) who used to be a top sniper in Special Ops. (Kitty Kelley snarks: nothing like Frank's actual service record. Or his chair design record).
The main driver of the plot is how MI6 manage to coerce Sam Laker (Frank) into pulling off the assassination, after 20-odd years in the chair business, of an escaped Russian agent.
For the rest of it, the usual British film industry stalwarts (Peter Vaughan, etc) play the usual British cold war stooges. All the exposition and plot development is done through dialogue, unfortunately - The Naked Runner really would work better on radio. Or just as badly.
Some interesting shots of 1967 London, Leipzig and Copenhagen. Some very uninteresting shots of actors explaining the plot. Frank's long-barrel Mauser makes Napoleon Solo's packaway gun look like a water pistol and you might have fun spotting James Payne standing in for Frank who apparently declined to return from the US to finish his scenes. James Fox has a bit part as a posh bloke called Jackson.
The music is stirring, Frank is cool. The script, however, is less cold war than cold turkey. I never rated the same director's Ipcress File much, either, tbh.
Frank Sinatra plays an award-winning US chair designer (?) who used to be a top sniper in Special Ops. (Kitty Kelley snarks: nothing like Frank's actual service record. Or his chair design record).
The main driver of the plot is how MI6 manage to coerce Sam Laker (Frank) into pulling off the assassination, after 20-odd years in the chair business, of an escaped Russian agent.
For the rest of it, the usual British film industry stalwarts (Peter Vaughan, etc) play the usual British cold war stooges. All the exposition and plot development is done through dialogue, unfortunately - The Naked Runner really would work better on radio. Or just as badly.
Some interesting shots of 1967 London, Leipzig and Copenhagen. Some very uninteresting shots of actors explaining the plot. Frank's long-barrel Mauser makes Napoleon Solo's packaway gun look like a water pistol and you might have fun spotting James Payne standing in for Frank who apparently declined to return from the US to finish his scenes. James Fox has a bit part as a posh bloke called Jackson.
The music is stirring, Frank is cool. The script, however, is less cold war than cold turkey. I never rated the same director's Ipcress File much, either, tbh.