''Embassy'' (also known as ''Target Embassy'') is a 1972 British spy

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Gordon Hessler, written by John Bird and

William Fairchild William Fairchild (sometimes credited as W. E. C. Fairchild) (January 6, 1918 – May 9, 2000) was an English author, playwright, director and screenwriter. He was married to actress Isabel Dean from 1953 to the early 1970s, and to producer, age ...

, and with music scored by

Biddu Biddu Appaiah (born 8 February 1945) is a British-Indian singer-songwriter, composer, and music producer who composed and produced many worldwide hit records during a career spanning five decades. Considered one of the pioneers of disco, Euro ...

.McKay p.252 It is based on the 1969 novel of the same title by Stephen Coulter. It was shot on location in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

where the film is set, whereas the novel had been centred in Paris. The film starred Richard Roundtree as a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officer,

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. He is often remembered for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's ''The Lost Weekend'' (1945), which wo ...

as an Ambassador,

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow (; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish and French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

as a Russian defector taking refuge at the embassy, and

Chuck Connors Kevin Joseph "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played in both Majo ...

as a

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

assassin posing as a U.S. Air Force officer.

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the film ''All the King's Men'' (1949), which earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Of ...

played the embassy Regional Security Officer, Frank Dunniger, who had to capture and hide the KGB man while the CIA smuggled the defector out of town.

Cast

* Richard Roundtree as Richard 'Dick' Shannon *

as Kesten *

Marie-José Nat Marie-José Benhalassa (22 April 1940 – 10 October 2019), known professionally as Marie-José Nat, was a French actress. Among her notable works in cinema were the sequel films '' Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc'' and '' Anatomy ...

as Laure *

as Ambassador *

as Frank Dunniger *

as Gorenko * David Bauer as Kadish * Larry Cross as Gamble * David Healy as Phelan * Karl Held as Rylands * Sarah Marshall as Miss Harding * Dee Pollock as Stacey * Leila Buheiry as Leila, receptionist * Gail Clymer as switchboard operator * Edmond Hannania as first man in black * Saladin Nader as Roget * Peter Smith as cipher clerk * Dean Turner as Clem Gelber

References

Bibliography

* James McKay. ''Ray Milland: The Films, 1929-1984''. McFarland, 2020.

External links

* *http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_Embassy_1972_rev.html *http://www.bcult.it/scheda.asp?Id=12831 1972 films 1970s spy thriller films British spy thriller films Films scored by Biddu Films directed by Gordon Hessler Films based on British novels Cold War spy films Films shot in Lebanon Films set in Lebanon 1972 drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films English-language crime drama films English-language spy thriller films {{1970s-crime-drama-film-stub