Innocent Bystanders

Stanley Baker - John Craig
Geraldine Chaplin - Miriam Loman
Donald Pleasence - Loomis
Dana Andrews - Blake
Sue Lloyd - Joanna Benson
Derren Nesbitt - Andrew Royce
Warren Mitchell - Omar

Stanley Baker's last major film is this rugged espionage thriller written by James Mitchell and adapted from his novel of the same name. Mitchell was the writer of the ITV drama series Callan, and the leading character John Craig shares the same world-weary traits as those made familiar by Edward Woodward. Although the colour photography often seems as bleached as the dusty Turkish locations, director Peter Collinson makes his way briskly through the complicated storyline never letting the pace sag; jump-cutting quickly from scene to scene. Stanley Baker manages to meld the cynicism of Callan with the cold-hearted callousness of early James Bond. A strong support cast includes Donald Pleasence, Derren Nesbitt, Sue Lloyd and Dana Andrews.

When Russian water engineer Aaron Kaplan (Vladek Sheybal) escapes from a Siberian concentration camp, the Americans approach the head of UK secret service Department K, Loomis (Donald Pleasence), to locate the missing scientist. Loomis despatches John Craig (Stanley Baker) to New York to question Kaplan’s brother. Craig is an aging disillusioned spy who bungled his previous mission and Loomis subsequently gives him a final chance to redeem himself or face a lifetime sharpening pencils.

Unbeknown to Craig, he is being used as an expendable decoy, and Loomis has despatched the younger Royce (Sue Lloyd) and Benson (Derren Nesbitt) to complete the assignment. Craig heads on to Turkey with innocent bystander Miriam Loman (Geraldine Chaplin) in tow, where they are forcibly tortured by Royce and Benson until revealing some of their information. But Loman withheld a vital clue, and with this they are able to apprehend Kaplan disguised as a shepherd. Craig takes the defector to Cyprus where he meets up with his controller Loomis; and despite the Americans offering £1m, he accepts a far lesser sum of 100k from his superior. Despite reaching the optimum deal for the fugitive scientist, Loomis once again attempts to double-cross his pensioned-off agent.