Escape to Nowhere or The Great Manhunt (1973, French: Le Silencieux) is a Franco-Italian thriller film directed by Claude Pinoteau, and starring Lino Ventura. It is an adaptation of the novel Drôle de pistolet by Francis Ryck (1969).
Plot
When a Soviet scientific delegation arrives in London, the British secret services kidnap one of its members and pass him off as dead. He is in fact a French scientist, Clément Tibère, kidnapped by the KGB sixteen years earlier. Refusing to collaborate at first for fear of pressure and death threats, Tibère ends up agreeing to denounce the corrupt English scientists participating in the delegation. The British then release him under a new identity. But, immediately, the KGB hunts him down. He then tries to return to France and find a way to escape the manhunt.
Cast and roles
- Lino Ventura as Anton Haliakov, Clément Tibère
- Lea Massari as Maria Menela
- Suzanne Flon as Jeanne, Clément's friend who hosts him in Paris
- Leo Genn as the gentleman of MI5
- Bernard Dhéran as Mr Chat, DST agent
- Robert Party as the tueur in the train
- Pierre-Michel Le Conte as Boris Korodine, conductor and Soviet spy
- Lucienne Legrand as a librarian
- Alan Adair
- Jerry Brouer
- Gabriel Cinque
- Pierre Collet as a mechanic
- Roger Crouzet as a DST agent
- André Falcon as the police commissioner
- Pierre Forget as a smoker in the train
- Michel Duplaix as a DST analyst
- Michel Fortin as a trucker
- Max Fournel
- Linda Gray[a] as Ms Hardy, a corrupt British scientist
- Robert Hardy as MI5 assistant
- George Pravda
- Richard Saint-Bris
- Pierre Zimmer as Maria's new husband
- Jeffry Wickham as a KGB translator agent, with the Soviet delegation
Crew
- Director: Claude Pinoteau
- First Assistant Director: Jean-Claude Sussfeld
- Script: Jean-Loup Dabadie, Claude Pinoteau
- Producer: Gaumont
- Production manager:
- Music: Jacques Datin et Alain Goraguer
- Camera: Jean Collomb
- Editor: Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
- Art director:
- Set decorator: Claude Pignot
- Special effects:
- Propmaster:
- Make-up artist:
- Sound: Bernard Bats
Music
British rock singer Jenny Darren recorded the song How Soon Hello Becomes Goodbye, an instrumental version of which is featured in the film. The recording was released by Decca Records as the B-side to Darren's version of Phil Spector's hit "Be My Baby". The single, which was produced and arranged by pianist Mike Moran (a collaborator of Lynsey de Paul), was released in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The song was written by J. Datin, A. Goraguer and B. Mason. Later, in 1977, Darren collaborated with AC/DC on the Dirty Deeds tour.
Notes
- ^ She is not the Americain Linda Gray (born in 1940), but of the British homonym Linda Gray (1905-1995) ; see item for her: Linda Gray at IMDb
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