The Tamarind Seed

CinemaSerf

2023-05-27T08:34:53Z

From the very first few bars of the opening John Barry theme and the obvious Maurice Binder titles, you could be forgiven for thinking you were about to watch a "Bond" movie... However, what we are presented with is an overly-complicated espionage drama that could very easily trip over it's own feet. A charming and debonaire Omar Sharif is taking a holiday on Barbados where he makes friends with fellow holiday-maker Julie Andrews. As luck would have it - he is a top level Soviet spy and she works for a top UK Home Office civil servant. Anthony Quayle is the British Spymaster convinced he is trying to turn her; Oskar Homolka the Soviet general convinced the contrary in on the cards. Well, it takes quite a long 2 hours of this rather plodding romantic thriller for us to find out which... The last 15 minutes are quite unpredictable, and the cast are all proficient enough - especially a rather untypical role from Sylvia Syms - but the story is just over-padded-out, I'm afraid.