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Maroc 7
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (13th April 2010). |
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The Film
 Maroc 7 (Gerry O'Hara, 1966) An obvious attempt to capitalise on the brand of globe-trotting espionage antics popularised by the success of the early James Bond pictures, Maroc 7 (Gerry O’Hara, 1966) is a film that is very much of its time, from its Bond-like opening credits and bold, exciting film score to its hyperbolic, decidedly camp representation of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ as an era populated by undercover agents, glamorous models and David Bailey-esque photographers. 
The film opens in London, where Simon Grant (Gene Barry) has broken into an expensive flat and is in the process of stealing jewels from a wall-safe. Interrupted by the female occupant of the flat, Louise Henderson (Cyd Charisse), Grant is offered the opportunity to leer at the woman – unaware of Grant's presence – as she climbs into the shower. The scene sets the tone for the rest of the picture, which shows the kind of casual chauvinism highlighted in other 1960s Bond-influenced films, and parodied in James Coburn’s role as Derek Flint in In Like Flint (Gordon Douglas, 1967) and Our Man Flint (Daniel Mann, 1966).  
Outside the flat, Grant is stopped by two policemen. ‘Nice job’, one of the policemen tells Grant – referring to Grant’s car, which Grant tells the bobby is ‘a custom job’. Later, Grant arrives at a party thrown by Louise, who it is revealed is the editor of the fashion magazine Sophistication. Louise is arranging a trip to Morocco for her models, including Claudia (Elsa Martinelli), the photographer Raymond Lowe (Leslie Phillips) and his assistant Freddie (Angela Douglas). However, there is more to Louise and her entourage than meets the eye: as Grant already knows, Louise and her associates are really globe-trotting thieves who travel around the world using their fashion photography as a cover for their real business: stealing jewels and other priceless artifacts. Grant introduces himself to Louise, commending her on her ‘set-up’: ‘Your magazine does a layout in New York, you make a hit and you’re in and out before the bloodhounds start sniffing: it’s great’. Grant offers his services to Lousie, telling her that he will be a ‘great help’ in Morocco and describing himself as ‘a sort of salesman’ before offering to sell her the jewels we saw him steal in the film’s first sequence. Louise recruits Grant and, taking him to Morocco with the rest of her associates, tells him that her target is a priceless medallion depicting Salome, the daughter of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Louise becomes aware that Grant has developed a flirtatious relationship with Claudia; Louise directs Claudia to accept Grant’s invitation to dinner and try to find out as much about Grant as she can. However, Grant is one step ahead of Louise, and he confronts Claudia about Louise’s plan: 'What was it, to keep me busy or to pump me? [….] You haven't done very much about “pumping”, but maybe that's to come later', Grant tells Claudia slyly. 
In Morocco, Louise approaches an English professor of archaeology, Hubert Bannen (Eric Barker). Bannen, who is in a wheelchair as a result of a heart attack he has recently suffered, knows the location of the medallion; he refuses to reveal its location to Louise but, despite his ill health, is sadistically bullied by Raymond into revealing the medallion’s whereabouts. Louise directs Grant to the location of the medallion; but once there, Grant discovers the body of Professor Bannen, who has been killed by Raymond. Grant becomes aware that the police are apparently already on their way to the murder scene. Realising that Louise has attempted to frame him, Grant finds himself held at gunpoint by a young woman, later revealed to be Michele Craig (Alexandra Stewart), a local detective. Grant and Craig are met at the scene by Chief Inspector Barrada (Denholm Elliott), and it is revealed that Grant is an undercover detective who has been deployed to help the local police make a case against Louise.  
With Louise seemingly aware of his true identity and the cruel Raymond on the rampage, Grant butts heads with Barrada and, with the help of Michele, attempts to prevent Louise and her crew from stealing the medallion and taking it out of the country. There is more than a hint of Leslie Charteris’ creation Simon Templar (‘The Saint’) in Gene Barry’s Simon Grant, who like Templar works both sides of the law for righteous ends; Barry plays Grant as a suave and effective undercover agent (for an unidentified agency – perhaps Interpol) who is also, as established in the opening sequence, an efficient (presumably undercover) thief. His antagonistic collaboration with Denholm Elliott’s Chief Inspector Barrada recalls Simon Templar’s thorny relationship with Scotland Yard’s Inspector Teal. On the other hand, the film’s focus on treasure-hunting in an exotic locale (and Grant’s involvement in robbing tombs in order to uncover the medallion) invites comparison with David Dodge’s novels featuring the treasure-hunter, adventurer and private investigator Al Colby. However, aside from Phillips’ atypical turn as the dark Raymond Lowe, Maroc 7 has none of the darkness or 'grit' of a film like Plunder of the Sun (John Farrow, 1953), adapted from Dodge’s second Al Colby novel and featuring Glenn Ford as Colby. Where Plunder of the Sun views its treasure-hunting, globe-trotting narrative through the lens of film noir, Maroc 7 offers a comparatively lightweight perspective on a similar narrative. Barry’s performance as Grant is admittedly charismatic, but the character's lewd chauvinism – established from the moment he leers at Louise as she enters the shower in the opening sequence – seems out of place, and modern audiences are likely to be unable to watch the film without recalling Coburn's role as Derek Flint (or, by extension, Michael Myers' Austin Powers), a parody of such casual chauvinism. Although undoubtedly a fine actor, Barry is a little too old for this role (he was in his late 40s at the time), and his romantic scenes with the glamorous Elsa Martinelli have the same slightly sleazy quality that characterised the middle-aged Roger Moore's flirtatious relationships with his younger leading ladies in Moore's last few Bond pictures.  
The film's premise – Louise and her associates using their fashion shoots as a form of misdirection, allowing them to travel around the world stealing precious artifacts – is, frankly, a little silly and offers the film little more than an excuse to show attractive film stars (principally, Elsa Martinelli, in various stages of undress) in exotic locations. It is the kind of absurd narrative premise that, at the time of Maroc 7's production, was already being parodied in self-aware television programmes such as The Avengers (ITC/ABC/Thames, 1961-9) (for which Maroc 7's director Gerry O'Hara delivered a number of episodes) and films like Joseph Losey's Modesty Blaise (1966) and Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), not to mention the aforementioned In Like Flint and Our Man Flint. Denholm Elliott contributes a solid performance as Barrada, the type of haughty authority figure that Elliott played throughout much of his career (including Captain Hornsby in Robert Aldrich's Too Late the Hero, 1969, and his role as Marcus Brody in the Indiana Jones films). Like many of Elliott's roles in other films, Barrada is an emblem of bureaucracy (at one point, he tells Grant that 'Paperwork, Mr Grant, is tedious but necessary'). However, Phillips’ performance as Raymond Lowe is arguably the highlight of the film. The characterisation of the aloof Lowe, from his introduction during a fashion shoot, has a hint of Sixties icon David Bailey (channeled via David Hemmings’ role in Antonioni’s Blow-Up, released the same year as Maroc 7). Phillips also produced the film (alongside the theatre director John Gale), apparently intending it to be a stepping-stone from acting to directing (see Phillips’ commentary on Carlton’s DVD release of the 1961 film Very Important Person). However, Phillips found the experience difficult - the shoot ‘went over budget and over schedule, all but ruining [Gerry] O’Hara’s reputation’ - and Maroc 7 marked Phillips’ final involvement in film production (Botting, 2003: np; see also Phillips commentary for Very Important Person).  
Phillips seems to relish his role as the sadistic Lowe; Maroc 7 offered Phillips an opportunity to step away from his comic screen persona and inhabit a more serious character. Raymond, who early in the film Grant notes has 'some kind of [undisclosed] trouble' in his past, is a threat throughout the film: his bullying of the models at the photo shoot ('When you've finished your champagne and chat, come and do some work – right now', Raymond sharply tells Claudia during the party) hints at a sadistic streak which is foregrounded during his harassment and murder of Bannen. Towards the end of the film, Raymond confronts Grant with a gun. Phillips is surprisingly convincing as a photographer who hides a cruel and sadistic streak: his refined persona makes his explosions of violence all the more threatening and effective. Raymond's protracted confrontation with Grant (in which Phillips apparently suffered four broken ribs, according to the film’s publicity materials), shot in the prison dungeons at Meknes, overshadows the film's climax; it's a shame that Phillips was rarely presented with the opportunity to play this type of role. 
The film runs for 86:45 mins (PAL) and seems to be entirely uncut. (The original cinema prints suffered unspecified cuts at the hands of the BBFC.)
Video
This release is billed by Network as being ‘digitally restored from the original film elements’. The release contains a truly splendid anamorphic transfer, presented in the film’s original Panavision screen ratio of 2.35:1. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time the film has been released on home video in its original screen ratio, and the Panavision framing (the DoP was Born Free’s Kenneth Talbot) gives the film an expensive look and makes the most of the Moroccan scenery.  
The transfer is gorgeous: from the opening sequence, set at night in a pitch-black house, blacks are velvery and deep and contrast levels are strong; the film’s vibrant (slightly garish and very much of-its-time) colour scheme is evident throughout.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel mono track, which is clean and efficient. The film’s soundtrack makes effective use of its exciting score. There are no subtitles.
Extras
The DVD includes the film’s original trailer (3:02), which markets the film like a James Bond picture ('Maroc 7, signpost for murder', the narrator intones: 'Morocco, sinister backlot for beauty, for covergirls posing as a front for ruthless international jewel thieves'). The narrator certainly sounds like the same man who provided voiceover commentary for trailers for the early James Bond films, including the iconic trailer for Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964). The trailer also highlights the chauvinism at the heart of the film’s characterisation of Simon Grant, whilst alluding to Gene Barry’s role as Amos Burke in the then-recent American detective series Burke’s Law (ABC, 1963-6) ('Gene Barry, world famous as Amos Burke, detective extraordinary, the acting undercover man with a built in appreciation of crime in every shape', we are told as the trailer presents us with the image of Grant leering at Louise as she enters her shower). Admittedly poetic, the trailer is more than a little guilty of overselling the picture ('A glamorous, spectacular screen for robbery with violence in the scorching sun'). Also included are three galleries of stills: an image gallery (1:57) containing on-set stills, a portrait and PR gallery (2:45) filled with posters and promotional materials, and a behind the scenes image gallery (1:08) containing shots of the cast and crew on the set. The DVD also contains Maroc 7’s original publicity booklet as a PDF file, which describes the film as ‘glossy, spectacular entertainment’.
Overall
A lightweight, frothy adventure yarn, Maroc 7 seems 'old hat' in its straight-laced presentation of the type of subject matter which, during the mid-1960s, was already being parodied in other films and television series. More work on the script may have made the premise a little more credible, but the premise (and the fashion-world milieu) is the subject of high camp presented in an oddly straight-faced manner. Gene Barry is, as always, a likable leading actor, but the character of Simon Grant is boorish and one-dimensional, the kind of character that seems to nod towards Connery’s characterisation of James Bond in the early Bond pictures but which, by the late 1960s, was already beginning to seem anachronistic – parodied in the Derek Flint films and elsewhere, including the increasingly self-aware and ironic Bond movies that were being produced at the tail-end of the decade. However, Maroc 7 is entertaining and features some wonderful travelogue photography, with some effective street-level shots of Morocco. Apparently beset with troubles during its production, the film is a camp delight. On the other hand, Leslie Phillips' performance as Raymond Lowe is revelatory and shows an aspect of Phillips' abilities as an actor that Phillips was rarely offered the opportunity to display: Lowe is a truly threatening presence, and Phillips makes this sadistic character come alive. There is enough here to make Maroc 7 an entertaining watch, but don’t expect anything more than a camp and, given the subject matter, curiously strait-laced adventure yarn. If anything, this film is worth watching solely for Leslie Phillips’ atypical (and quite effective) performance as the sadistic Lowe. This particular DVD contains a fantastic restoration of the film and seems to mark the film’s first home video release in its original screen ratio. The disc also contains a good range of contextual material. References Botting, Josephine, 2003: ‘Maroc 7’. ScreenOnline. [Online.] http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1367754/ For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD.
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