Wonderful character development!

A Masterpiece!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

When we first meet Sebastian, an Oxford don, he is running to a ceremony at one of the colleges in full regalia. He is followed by a pretty girl, Rebecca Howard, in a jeep. As it turns out both are attracted from the start. Sebastian's talent, aside from his academic knowledge, consists in being a master at breaking enemy codes. WWII has ended, but British intelligence is still interested in deciphering threatening secret messages.Sebastian who lands up in a government office in charge of the all female pool of code breakers, decides to employ Rebecca when she comes to him looking for a job. Things get complicated for him because Carol, the woman he has been seeing, turns out to be a royal pain. He realizes his interest in Rebecca is stronger than he realized.This 1968 British film turned up recently on cable. Not having seen it, we decided to take a look. The film captures the spirit that was prevalent in London during those crazy years of Mod everything. Director David Greene did a fairly good job with a film that never makes clear what it was all about. One of the best things are the opening credits and of course, the costumes of that era.Dirk Bogarde plays the enigmatic Sebastian, the man who can't see a puzzle without solving it. Lilli Palmer has a small role. Susannah York was lovely as Rebecca. John Gielgud and Nigel Davenport play government officers.The musical score by Jerry Goldsmith is an asset for a film with its catchy melodies. Gerry Fisher's camera shows London as it looked during that fun period.

This is a good film to watch if you like British films from the era and especially ones with Dirk Bogarde. It's made with some style but the script is a problem. Though it starts out intriguingly, in the end this espionage film is rather much ado about nothing. The main point of interest in this rarely seen movie now is the equally rarely heard Jerry Goldsmith score, which I rather like. I believe it got an LP release back in 1968, but has never been issued on CD. Perhaps one of the reasons for that, as I've recently read, is that Goldsmith didn't have a good experience doing the score and never had much to say about it or simply didn't want to discuss it at all. Unfortunate, because the score, though minor Goldsmith, does have merit. I hope someday to read just what Goldsmith's problems were with it.

The list of excellent actors and actresses in the film is endless and includes Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Sir John Gielgud, Lili Palmer and Nigel Davenport, with many more first-rate performers besides. Add to this the musical talents of Jerry Goldsmith and it is quite an achievement by the Director to create this piece of utter nonsense, especially as some of the screenplay is worthy and the settings very 60's and good. Is this meant to be a serious film? It could only have merit if it was a total send-up of it's decade and spy-films generally, but as Dirk Bogarde later described it as a "non-event," the meaning and intent was obviously lost on him; a big disadvantage as he was the star. This film must have begun with promise and potential for why else would such an array of talent include themselves in it's making? Something after that went radically wrong, but like your other contributors I would gladly purchase a DVD if only, in my case, for curiosity value.

One of my all time favorite movies about WWII. We forget that victory is gained on many fronts and not all of them involve the military. The minds that worked together to break codes are fascinating. Should be required viewing for all who love to do cryptograms.