When I was growing up in the 1970s, I’d frequently stumble across cheap paperbacks in bookstores from a long-running action adventure series called The Executioner. Lurid painted covers promised gun-toting international action and dangerous dames surrounding the hero, Mack Bolan, even as it was clear little to no literary merit was involved. I got the same feeling watching this 1969 George Peppard vehicle, with the future A-Team lead playing an American boxer/writer in Paris who inconceivably gets swept up in an international conspiracy involving plentiful action and intrigue.
Buy House of CardsAfter his latest boxing match, Peppard’s character, colorfully named Reno Davis, blithely agrees to hang up his gloves and become the live-in nanny and tutor to an eight-year-old boy, despite knowing absolutely nothing about his wealthy employer or their home situation. There’s a romantic spark between Reno and his benefactor, the widow Anne de Villemont (Inger Stevens), and she secretly intends for him to be her protector, but they keep things professional and focused on her son at first. Cue one creepy mansion populated by super-uptight elites, who we quickly learn have ties to a fast-rising fascist organization headed by the evil Leschenhaut (Orson Welles). With Reno immediately in over his head, and soon framed for the murder of his best friend, he’s on the run around Europe as he struggles to beat the fascists and save Anne and her son.
The story by James P. Bonner is nonsensical pulp fiction so preposterous that it’s enjoyable in its brazen foolishness. Much suspension of disbelief is required, and Welles phones in his very brief three-scene performance even more than usual, but young Peppard is rakishly charming and fully committed to his action-star turn. Inger Stevens makes for a fine damsel in distress, and director John Guillermin keeps the action-packed extravaganza constantly in motion as the story hits scenic tourist attractions in both Paris and Rome, including multiple shots along the Seine, on the steps of Montmartre, in the Trevi Fountain, and the grand showdown inside the Colosseum. It’s an escapist action adventure sadly made more relevant now due to its anti-fascism premise.
The Blu-ray presentation is in line with my expectations, offering little in the way of evident restoration while retaining the overall brownish/faded hues of the era. Focus is sharp and imperfections are minimal, but this isn’t the kind of project ever likely to receive a full makeover. Special features consist of a new commentary track by a film historian, along with the theatrical trailer.
