''Innocent Bystanders'' is a 1972

spy thriller Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelli ...

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 whose long career has included multilingual roles in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German films. Geraldine is a daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of his eigh ...

. The screenplay was written by James Mitchell based on his novel ''The Innocent Bystanders'' (1969).

Plot

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

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. 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, 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 was known for his "bald head and intense, staring eyes," and played more than 250 stage, film, and television roles across a nearly sixty-year career. Pleas ...

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 and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigio ...

as Blake *

Sue Lloyd Susan Margery Jeaffreson Lloyd (7 August 1939 – 20 October 2011) was an English model and actress, with numerous film and television credits. She may be best known for her long-running role (1979 to 1985) as Barbara Hunter ( Brady) in the Br ...

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 appeared in many British television series throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He is perhaps best known for his ro ...

as Andrew Royce *

Vladek Sheybal Vladek Sheybal (born Władysław Rudolf Zbigniew Sheybal; 12 March 1923 – 16 October 1992) was a Polish character actor, singer and director of both television and stage productions. He was well known for his portrayal of the chess grandmaste ...

as Aaron Kaplan *

Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was an English actor best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in television, film and stage productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was a BAFTA TV A ...

as Omar *

Cec Linder Cecil Yekuthial Linder (March 10, 1921 – April 10, 1992) was a Polish-born Canadian film and television actor. He was Jewish and managed to escape Poland before the Holocaust. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked extensively in the United Kingdom, ...

as Mankowitz * Howard Goorney 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 regime. ...

as Marcus Kaplan (dubbed by

Robert Rietty Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Herbert Rietti; sometimes Rietty, 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015) was an English actor, translator, playwright, and dubbing director. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in the Briti ...

) * Clifton Jones as Hetherton * John Collin as Asimov *

Aharon Ipalé Aharon Ipalé (; December 27, 1941 – June 27, 2016) was an Israeli-American actor, known for his roles in American and British film and television productions. His credits included ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971), '' Innocent Bystanders'' ( ...

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 Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' 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 1972 action films 1970s adventure films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films English-language action films English-language adventure films