American architect Andrew Jessel (Tony Randall) arrives in Marrakesh for a short break, but unwittingly ends up helping the mysterious Kyra (Senta Berger) dump the body of her recently murdered boyfriend. What the hell has he got himself into? Well, it soon transpires that Kyra is a CIA agent trying to flush out sleazy gangster Mr Casimir (Herbert Lom), who is waiting the arrival of a courier carrying $2million in cash to pay him to fix an important United Nations vote. But who could the courier be?
THE LOWDOWN Produced and written (as Peter Welbeck) by Harry Alan Towers, who was legendary in the 1960s for a slew of B-movie Euro thrillers, and directed by Don Sharp, who also helmed Tower’s Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee, Our Man In Marrakesh (re-titled in the US as Bang! Bang! You're Dead!) is an amusing spy farce that spoofs Hitchcock’s 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much by way of 1959’s North by Northwest and Carol Reed’s Our Man in Havana.
Laconic Hollywood star Tony Randall, best known for Pillow Talk and the 7 Faces of Dr Lao at the time, got a busman’s holiday under the Moroccan sun along with a host of famous faces including Herbert Lom, Klaus Kinski and Terry-Thomas, as well as Wilfred Hyde White, John Le Mesurier, Senta Berger and Towers regular, Margaret Lee.
Shot on location in and around a very cosmopolitan-looking Marrakesh, including the luxury La Mamounia hotel (which was also used in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much remake), as well as the city’s souks, a grand Riad, and the El Badi Palace (for the big climax), this entertaining slice of Euro silliness keeps you guessing over the identity of the courier.
THE UK DVD RELEASE Our Man In Marrakesh http://youtube.com/v/nbuFK5OJ5KI
