Licensed to Kill (1965 film)
| Company type | Film |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film industry |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder | Lindsay Shonteff (director and co-writer) |
| Products | Spy film |
Licensed to Kill is a 1965 British spy film produced in Eastmancolor, featuring Tom Adams in the role of secret agent Charles Vine. The movie was directed and co-written by Lindsay Shonteff and later acquired by producer Joseph E. Levine for distribution across the United States and internationally. Levine reedited the film and released it under the new title The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World.
The American edition includes a theme composed by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Sammy Davis Jr., which was subsequently featured in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Plot
A Swedish scientist develops an anti-gravity apparatus and, after surviving several assassination attempts, aims to transport it to the United Kingdom. With James Bond unavailable, H.M. Government appoints former mathematician and secret agent Charles Vine (Tom Adams) to serve as both protector and assassin.
Cast
- Tom Adams as Charles Vine
- Karel Stepanek portraying Henrik Jacobsen
- Peter Bull as Masterman
- John Arnatt in the role of Rockwell
- Francis de Wolff as Walter Pickering
- Felix Felton playing Tetchnikov
- Veronica Hurst as Julia Lindberg
- Judy Huxtable as Computer Center Girl
- Carol Blake as Crossword Puzzle Girl
- Claire Gordon in the role of Hospital Doctor
- Denis Holmes as Maltby
- Gary Hope portraying an Army Officer
- Billy Milton as Wilson
- Oliver MacGreevy playing First Russian Commissar
- George Pastell as Second Russian Commissar
- Tony Wall in the role of Sadistikov
- Stuart Saunders as Police Inspector
- Robert Marsden portraying August Jacobsen
- Paul Tann as Vladimir Sheehee
Production
After the film's favorable reception, Columbia Pictures proposed a contract for five additional films with Shonteff; however, disagreements over contract conditions prevented an agreement.
Howard Griffiths, who wrote the screenplay, was a Welsh Trinity College, Oxford alumnus and former RAF Intelligence officer. He later relocated to Australia where he contributed scripts to television series such as the spy drama Hunter (1967) and police dramas including Division 4, Homicide, and Blue Heelers.
U.S. release
Producer Joseph E. Levine, seeking to replicate his prior success with the American release of the Italian film Hercules, acquired Licensed to Kill and launched an extensive promotional campaign. The U.S. version was restructured by moving the initial assassination scene—featuring a mother drawing a Sten gun from her baby carriage—to appear before the opening credits. Levine commissioned songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen to compose a title track performed by Sammy Davis Jr, arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman, which accompanied the credits under the new title. This American edit omitted scenes with Francis de Wolff and John Arnatt discussing Bond, along with Vine’s bedroom sequence and explanatory dialogue about the "Regrav" anti-gravity device, resulting in a less clear conclusion.
Marketing efforts in the U.S. echoed the then-popular slogan from Avis Rent a Car System, "Number 2, but tries harder," including launching a nationwide essay contest in November 1965 entitled "the most unforgettable second-best secret agent I have known."
Reception
Alan Burton, in his work Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction, characterized the movie as an economical take on the James Bond genre, offering numerous exciting moments alongside a measure of cleverness. He further remarked that Tom Adams’s interpretation of Charles Vine served as an adequate facsimile of Sean Connery’s iconic role.
Sequels
Although Eon Productions' stance on this Bond-inspired film is not documented, director Lindsay Shonteff was not involved in the two subsequent Vine installments featuring Tom Adams:
- Where the Bullets Fly (1966), directed by John Gilling and distributed by Embassy Films.
- Somebody's Stolen Our Russian Spy/O.K. Yevtushenko (1967), which was shot in Spain but only released in 1976 after a significant delay.
In later years, Shonteff created a trilogy of spy movies centered around a character named "Charles Bind," with his superior also named Rockwell in the initial film:
- Number One of the Secret Service (1977), starring Nicky Henson.
- Licensed to Love and Kill (also known as The Man from S.E.X.) (1979), featuring Gareth Hunt.
- Number One Gun (1980), with Michael Howe in the lead role.