''Innocent Bystanders'' is a 1972 spy thriller directed by Peter Collinson that was filmed in Spain and Turkey. It stars

Stanley Baker Sir William Stanley Baker (28 February 192828 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a pro ...

and

Geraldine Chaplin Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. After beginnings in dance and modeling, she turned her attention to act ...

. The screenplay was written by James Mitchell based on his novel ''The Innocent Bystanders'' (1969). Mitchell had previously written several John Craig spy thrillers under the name James Munro.Article on ''Innocent Bystanders''
Retrieved 23 May 2012

Plot

John Craig (Baker) is an aging British secret agent who is tasked with returning a defector, the Russian scientist Kaplan (Sheybal) who has foregone science for a modest life as a goatherd in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Craig faces opposition from his boss, his younger replacements, an American secret agent, a Turkish hotel keeper, and an organization of Russian Jews hostile to Kaplan. Craig's mission is complicated by Miriam (Chaplin), an innocent bystander who is taken hostage.

Cast

as John Craig *

as Miriam Loman *

Donald Pleasence Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He began his career on stage in the West End before transitioning into a screen career, where he played numerous supporting and character roles including RAF ...

as Loomis *

Dana Andrews Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts ...

as Blake *

Sue Lloyd Sue or SUE may refer to: Music * Sue Records, an American record label * ''Sue'' (album), an album by Frazier Chorus * " Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", a song by David Bowie Places * Sue Islet (Queensland), one of the Torres Straits isla ...

as Joanna Benson *

Derren Nesbitt Derren Nesbitt (born Derren Michael Horwitz; 19 June 1935) is a British actor. Nesbitt's film career began in the late 1950s, and he also appeared in many television series in the late 1960s into the 1970s. He is known for his role as Major von ...

as Andrew Royce * Vladek Sheybal as Aaron Kaplan *

Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner. In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes ''Educatin ...

as Omar * Cec Linder as Mankowitz *

Howard Goorney Howard Jacob Goorney (11 May 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a British actor who starred in such programmes as ''Only Fools and Horses''. He was one of the founder members of Joan Littlewood's 'Theatre Workshop', and wrote ''The Theatre Workshop Story ...

as Zimmer * J. G. Devlin as Waiter *

Ferdy Mayne Ferdy Mayne (or Ferdie Mayne) (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998) was a German-British stage and screen actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regi ...

as Marcus Kaplan (dubbed by Robert Rietty) * Clifton Jones as Hetherton * John Collin as Asimov * Aharon Ipalé as Gabrilovitch

Reception

Roger Greenspun Roger Greenspun (December 16, 1929 – June 18, 2017) was an American journalist and film critic, best known for his work with ''The New York Times'' in which he reviewed near 400 films, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for '' ...

was dissatisfied with what he termed the "general inconsequence" that the script evokes. However, Greenspun expressed that Chaplin's performance was "so reticent and so appealing as to constitute a small personal triumph. She is granted the film's only moments of quiet intelligence. She fills these moments with delicate intimacy that contrasts with everything else in the film that really does suggest a reservoir of feeling to oppose the lives around her that are wasted in mere action."Greenspun, Roger. ''"Innocent Bystanders," Spy Thriller, recalls the 1960s'', pp. 51. The New York Times. 25 January 1973. Retrieved on 30 July 2011 Time magazine noted the standout performances of Donald Pleasence as the Head of British Intelligence and Vladek Sheybal as a minor agent.

References

External links

* {{Peter Collinson 1972 films British spy films Cold War spy films Films directed by Peter Collinson Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in Spain 1970s action films 1970s adventure films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films