I'll tell you why so serious

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Cinema's greatest boat chase is found in "Puppet on a Chain", a 1971 thriller directed by Geoffrey Reeve. The boat chase in question, however, was directed by Don Sharp. Kinetic, tightly edited and cleverly organised, it was stylistically a good 30 years ahead of action movie trends. Its dramatic juxtaposition of noise and silence, and its John Frankenheimer inspired filming of breakneck motion, would also prove an influence on a young George Lucas.Unfortunately the aforementioned "boat scene" occurs after about an hour and a half of tedious "cops and robbers" storytelling, all of which can be safely skipped by film aficionados. The film was written by novelist Alistair Maclean". Standard 1970s crime movie fare, it trivialises and distorts the complex class, geopolitical, economic and even philosophical issues surrounding both policing and the drug trade.6/10 - Worth one viewing.

'Where Eagles Dare' and 'Guns Of Navarone' have proved to be enduring benchmark hokum. Even today, you can't resist a watch. But what both of these Alistair MacLean derived movies have in common is a top-drawer cast, or at least A-list stars in the leading roles. However, this isn't the only issue upon which 'Puppet On A Chain' fails. Apart from the much-vaunted speedboat chase, low budget seems to be written into every take. Nothing actually stands out in my mind, but I just seem to sense economy. With more money and a MacLean script, all manner of Hollywood heavyweights should have been tempted out to play. And let's face it; in 1971 there was no shortage.Instead, the starring role was given to someone who was little more than a wooden-faced extra, with a name most ordinary movie buffs are unlikely to ever have heard. And the rest of the cast appear to have been drawn from the same pool. Only Patrick Allen stands out, but he hardly counts as a movie star. There are one or two unexpected little twists like the lynching of the femme-fatale, but otherwise it's a pretty humdrum affair with very limited and stagy action, an unexceptional script, and TV-movie standard acting and directing. There's also some very hokey sequences like the arch-villain leaving the agent to 'die slowly and nastily' and thereby allowing him a chance to escape in the classic style so eloquently spoofed by 'Dr Evil'. At another time, Patrick Allen shoots this same agent, apparently wounding him. But instead of walking over and putting a bullet through his head just to make sure, he busies himself with an electric loading-winch and chain allowing him time to recover. And if that isn't daft enough; he unwinds the chain all the way to the ground(he's on the 4th floor) and then attempts to clamber down it, instead of using its hook-end as a foot platform and letting the electric motor simply lower him effortlessly to the street. It's gaffs like these that leave you feeling seriously short-changed.Most viewers remember the boat chase, and that is definitely a cinematic high-point. In fact it is so superior in its execution compared to the rest of the movie as to emphasise the other shortcomings. Not surprisingly; a different director handled it. Even so, it could have been a lot better. For example; when one boat crashes heavily into a lock-gate badly damaging the starboard bow, in a later sequence we see the vessel apparently unscathed. And just check-out the crowds of fans gathered along the canal banks and on the bridges. Didn't anybody think to keep them at bay? However; although this sequence is well worth a watch, the rest simply fails to deliver in any regard, be it suspense, story, directing, lighting, or whatever.Generally, not recommended.

'Puppet On A Chain,' is a sadistic adventure thriller, a toughened version of James Bond... In it, the Swedish actor Sven-Bertil Taube plays an American Interpol agent hunting down drug smugglers in Amsterdam... Comes the inevitable chase sequence... Only this time it takes place with speedboats through the maze of the Amsterdam canals, in which two boats race along the canals, make unbelievably sharp turns and even jump out of the water... For boating enthusiasts: The yellow boat driven by Taube was a Shakespeare Sportsman ski boat, thirteen and a half feet long, built in fiber glass and driven by a fifty horsepower Mercury motor... The blue boat handled by villain Vladek Sheybal was a Euro-craft, also with Mercury engine...

Storyline drags. Drug smugglers a Beautiful women and a determined cop. Nothing not already done a hundred times before. The boat sceen will be well worth the wait Amsterdam is the perfect city to pull it off. The canals and waterways put you on the edge of your seat. I would say the same as did the car chase in Bullitt, very intense!.