The Naked Runner

''The Naked Runner'' is a 1967 British espionage film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Frank Sinatra, Peter Vaughan and Edward Fox. It was the last film Sinatra made with Warner Bros., and is largely viewed as being a disastrous end to his association with the studio.

Plot

Sam Laker is a former World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative who is recruited by his former commanding officer to do a mission while he is attending a business conference in Leipzig. To ensure his cooperation, his son is kidnapped.

Cast

* Frank Sinatra as Sam Laker
* Peter Vaughan as Martin Slattery
* Derren Nesbitt as Colonel Hartmann
* Nadia Gray as Karen Gisevius
* Toby Robins as Ruth
* Inger Stratton as Anna
* Cyril Luckham as Cabinet minister
* Edward Fox as Ritchie Jackson
* J.A.B. Dubin-Behrmann as Joseph

Production

Development

Sinatra was in need of a hit—''Marriage on the Rocks'' and ''Assault on a Queen'' having flopped in the two previous years—so he put actor and trusted aide Brad Dexter in charge of finding a suitable vehicle. After negotiations for him to star in ''Harper'' fell through, ''The Naked Runner'' was chosen instead. Sinatra had been impressed with 1965's ''The IPCRESS File'' and recruited its director Sidney J. Furie.

Writing

The script by Stanley Mann is based on the 1965 novel by Francis Clifford (a pseudonym of Arthur Leonard Bell Thompson). The title comes from a line in Arthur Symons' ''In the wood of Finvava''—"A naked runner lost in a storm of spears"—that begins the book. The screenplay largely follows the novel but makes the lead character an American based in London.

Casting

Sinatra was paid $1 million. His co-stars included Peter Vaughan, Derren Nesbitt and Edward Fox.

Filming

The film was shot on location in Europe. However, while in Copenhagen, Sinatra left the production to perform at a rally for California's Democratic governor Pat Brown who was running in the 1966 California gubernatorial election against Republican Ronald Reagan (Brown would lose in a landslide). After doing the campaign event, Sinatra decided he was not going to return to Europe. Instead he informed the crew he wanted to finish all his outstanding scenes on a sound stage in Los Angeles.

Dexter and Furie decided to take the maverick action of finishing the film with a stand-in (James Payne) for Sinatra's remaining scenes, editing in close-ups from earlier shots in post-production and overdubbing the dialogue.

Reception

Opening to mostly poor reviews on 19 July 1967, ''The Naked Runner'' was criticized for its slow pace, cinematography and plotting. ''Variety'', however, gave Frank Sinatra fair notice, commenting that "Sinatra, whose personal magnetism and acting ability are unquestioned, is shot down by script. Peter Vaughan overacts part as the British agent." However, the reviews of the film weren't enough to keep away audiences who made the film Sinatra's first hit—albeit a minor one—since the massive success of ''Von Ryan's Express'' two years earlier. Although the film makes uses of some interesting locations like the post-war ruins of Leipzig and a rare view inside Centre Point, the film has been described as a lifeless depiction of spy-games, with a listless (if stylised) cinematography, that has a heavy-handed plot and very little real characterization..

References

External links

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* Variety's Review: https://variety.com/1966/film/reviews/the-naked-runner-1200421251/

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naked Runner
1967 films
British spy films
Warner Bros. films
Films directed by Sidney J. Furie
Films scored by Harry Sukman
Films set in Leipzig
Films shot in Copenhagen
Cold War spy films
Films with screenplays by Stanley Mann
Films set in East Germany
1960s English-language films
1960s British films