JULIE ANDREWS never looked so good--and neither did London, Paris and Barbados, as the espionage story shifts back and forth between handsome locales and gives Julie and co-star OMAR SHARIF some stunning close-up shots as they gently romance against gorgeous backdrops.
The story takes its time to unwind in the course of slightly over two hours and that's part of the problem. Julie and Omar come from different Cold War backgrounds, each a bit unsure of whether their romance can survive with murky suspicions brewing about their alliances to, respectively, England and Russia.
It's the sort of tale female movie-goers loved and which were becoming increasingly rare in the 1970s when the male action films were doing the biggest box-office and films about sensitive relationships were doomed to appeal to smaller audiences. This one never quite made it to the "popular" status that other Andrews films did, and in this one she never raised her voice in song. It's serious drama and, although she handles it well, it wasn't exactly what her fans expected.
Summing up: Nice backgrounds but rather muddled espionage story bogged down in romance.
The story takes its time to unwind in the course of slightly over two hours and that's part of the problem. Julie and Omar come from different Cold War backgrounds, each a bit unsure of whether their romance can survive with murky suspicions brewing about their alliances to, respectively, England and Russia.
It's the sort of tale female movie-goers loved and which were becoming increasingly rare in the 1970s when the male action films were doing the biggest box-office and films about sensitive relationships were doomed to appeal to smaller audiences. This one never quite made it to the "popular" status that other Andrews films did, and in this one she never raised her voice in song. It's serious drama and, although she handles it well, it wasn't exactly what her fans expected.
Summing up: Nice backgrounds but rather muddled espionage story bogged down in romance.