Thursday, July 30, 2020

MASTER STROKE 1967 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Very interesting caper film that also plays like a spy film.

An actor in Madrid named Arthur Lang (Richard Harrison) is hired by a group of men to impersonate another man named Owen for a short time. Owen, it seems, is a diamond pickup controller.

The men who hired him are thieves who have a very complicated scheme to steal the diamonds. Their leader is Mr. Bernard (Adolfo Celi) and he is a very evil man who lusts for diamonds more than anything else.

Lang also gets involved with a beautiful young woman named Evelyn (Margaret Lee) who is also good at killing people. The first 45 minutes of the film detail the diamond heist and it's quite a good scene.

It's a rare little film that hasn't been seen much and I am surprised by that. Celi makes a perfect villain and has appeared in hundreds of films. This performance is one of his best.

Gerard Tichy also stars as well as Antonio Casas, Ennio Balbo and Andrea Bosic. The print quality is very good and I found myself getting really wrapped up in this little film. As I said, it goes from being a clever heist movie to spies and espionage and the transition is almost seemless.

A RECOMMENDED gem that you should try and find.

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