PUPPET ON A CHAIN

UK, 1971, 98 minutes, Colour.
Sven- Bertil Taube, Barbara Parkins, Alexander Knox, Patrick Allen, Vladek Sheybal.
Directed by Geoffrey Reeve.

Puppet on a Chain is minor Alistair Mac Lean material. Director Geoffrey Reeve was also to make Caravan to Vaccares three years later and Await a Dusty Death, based on a Mac Lean novel, in 1995. There was a great rash of Mac Lean films at this time including When Eight Bells Toll with Anthony Hopkins. However, there were much better and bigger-budget Mac Lean adventures like The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare.

This film has the adventure of being filmed in Amsterdam – with a chase on the Amsterdam canals. Sven- Bertil Taube made a few English-language films. Barbara Parkins was a somewhat passive leading lady (Valley of the Dolls).

Entertaining for those who enjoy an Alistair Mac Lean plot.

1. A satisfying and entertaining Alistair Mac Lean story? Its quality in comparison with other film versions?

2. The Alistair Mac Lean conventions: the crime setting, the tough hero, the heroine and her dangers, the villains - and the unmasking of the unexpected villain? The police? Atmosphere of mystery, violence, nasty deaths, chance, climaxes? Enjoyable, different, conventional?

3. Colour photography, Dutch settings and their use, the importance of the canal chase and its excitement and visual spectacle? The special effects for the violent and ugly deaths? the final climax with the hoist?

4. The presentation of the international drug scene? The ugliness of the repercussions of the drugs, the people involved from police, to bogus priests, to pseudo-retarded girls? The various ways of transporting the drugs? The police involved - Sherman as hero, De Graaf, Van Geldor and his involvement with the smuggling? The adventure ingredients, the gruesome deaths, the high stakes for involvement in the drug rackets? Plausible, sufficient for the action adventure?

5. How interesting a hero was Sherman? American background, skill in working in tho drug detection, relationship with the Dutch police? Relationship with Maggie and the repercussions of her death? The encounter with Trudi? With Van Geldor? The tracking down of the clues? The dangers to himself? His participation in the boat chase through the canals? The unmasking of the villain and the final confrontation? Colourful hero (critics said colourless)?

6. Maggie as heroine, a credible agent? Her skills, audience response to the violence of her death? The sadistic tones? The symbol of the puppet on the chain and Maggie being a puppet in such circumstances? The other people murdered in this way?

7. The supporting characters Van Geldor and Trudi and the seeming innocence, being unmasked? Colonel De Graaf and his hostility? Meogeren and his suave innuendo and his unmasking? Credible characters or types for this kind of adventure?

8. Comment on the police work sequences especially at the airport, with De Graaf, at the searching of the warehouse with the puppet on the chain, on the island, the confrontation with Maggie and her death, the dancers on the island? The chase and the ending?

9. Themes about international drug racketeering and audience judgment on this? Audience response to police work?

10. Responses to heroes and heroines, danger, the righting of wrongs and the unmasking of villains, poetic justice and punishment? How does Alistair Mac Lean presuppose response to this for his thrillers? How well does he succeed?