The Assassination Bureau

The Assassination Bureau Limited
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Basil Dearden
Produced by	Michael Relph
Screenplay by	Michael Relph Wolf Mankowitz
Based on	The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. 1963 novel by Jack London Robert L. Fish
Starring	Oliver Reed Diana Rigg Telly Savalas Curd Jürgens
Music by	Ron Grainer
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Edited by	Teddy Darvas
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	10 March 1969
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Assassination Bureau Limited (released in North America as The Assassination Bureau) is a black comedy Technicolor film made in 1969 based on an unfinished novel, The Assassination Bureau, Ltd by Jack London. It stars Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, and Curd Jürgens and was directed by Basil Dearden. Unlike London's original novel, which is set in the United States, the film is set in Europe.

Plot

In London, during the early 1900s, aspiring journalist and women's rights campaigner Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) uncovers an organisation that specialises in killing for money, the Assassination Bureau, Limited. To bring about its destruction, she commissions the assassination of the bureau's own chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed).

Far from being outraged or angry, Dragomiloff is amused and delighted and decides to put it to his own advantage. The guiding principle of his bureau, founded by his father, has always been that there was a moral reason why their victims should be killed – these have included despots and tyrants. More recently though, his elder colleagues have tended to kill more for financial gain than for moral reasons. Dragomiloff, therefore, decides to accept the commission of his own death and challenge the other board members: Kill him or he will kill them!

With Miss Winter in tow, Dragomiloff sets off on a tour of Edwardian Europe, challenging and systematically purging the bureau's senior members. Little do they realise that this is a plot by Miss Winter's sponsor, newspaper publisher Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas), to take over the bureau {Bostwick is the bureau's vice-chairman and is bitter for having been passed over in favour of the founder's son}. Bostwick and the other members of the Bureau plan to get rich quick by the "biggest killing" of them all — buying stocks in arms factories and then propelling Europe into war by assassinating all the heads of state of Europe while they attend a secret peace conference where the kings, emperors and prime Ministers of Europe are trying to avoid a possible war caused by a Balkan prince who was killed by a bomb intended for Dragomiloff

Dragomiloff and Miss Winter uncover the plot — dropping a bomb from a hijacked Zeppelin airship onto the castle in Ruthenia where the peace conference is held. Dragomiloff steals aboard the airship and destroys it, killing the remaining members of his board of directors. He is then decorated by the heads of state he has saved. It is implied that Dragomiloff may wed Miss Winter as well.

Cast

Main cast

Supporting cast

Cameo cast

Video releases

This film has been released both as a VHS video and as a Region 1 DVD.

See also

• Assassinations in fiction

References

External links

• The Assassination Bureau at the Internet Movie Database
• The Assassination Bureau at AllMovie
• The Assassination Bureau at the TCM Movie Database
• The Assassination Bureau at the American Film Institute Catalog