Every Sunday in the UK Talking Pictures, a fairly new channel that screens only movies, publishes its schedule for the next seven days and I go through it checking titles I want to see; when I saw Orders To Kill I thought it would be well worth missing but then I noticed that it was directed by Puffin Asquith which made it almost obligatory. Asquith was responsible for some of the cream of British movies and forged an excellent writer-director partnership with Terence Rattigan, making him arguably THE English director of the 20th century despite Carol Reed and David Lean enjoying higher profiles. I wasn't disappointed; Orders To Kill is a fine movie with a moral question at its core. In brief; a man is recruited to kill a resistance worker suspected of treachery in World War II. The assassin undergoes training, is given a new identity and parachuted into France. Having met the target by chance he bonds with him and decides he is innocent, says as much to his 'contact' who reminds him he is under orders. He kills the target who, it turns out, is innocent. Irene Worth runs away with the picture as the 'contact' whilst newcomer Paul Massie succeeds in conveying the moral dilemma in which he finds himself. One of Puffin's finest.
Review of Orders to Kill
