Very Cool!!!

Boring

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

We saw Paris and Marseille in the 1970', not so crowded yet, and the Europeans were most white, not so polluted and littered with garbage all over the places. The yellow Porsche was still a race car, but I prefer more that car Michael Caine drove. Now in 2018, Anthony Quinn, James Mason and most of the supporting bad guys and good guys were all dead for a long time, Caine is now an very old guy too. But look at Caine in the 70's, what a handsome dude! He didn't wear the big horn rim glasses yet. The thing that I really don't quite get is why in the 70's, the American government already got the DEA operated in Europe. Yes, I do know Marseille was the major drug export city at that time, but how come the role Mason played, a pure English breed, would have been the powerful drug lord in France? Why Quinn hired the hitman then had the second thought and wanted to cancel the contract? A guy hunted by Mason's killers, retaliation should be the natural reaction. If he could hire an assassin to do the job, why he wanted to call it off later? Conscience? Anyway, there were several eye candies around Mason's surroundings, they were really pretty, even by 2018's standard.

clichés of genre. good actors. not the best performances but convincing. many sketches for relationship between characters. the old flavor. and a not bad story. a film who, far to be great, reminds the rules of genre in correct manner. use a high cast. and has every ingredients for crime. a sketch itself, at the first sigh, it is seductive for the tension and for the memories with many other films about same theme, for the sensitivities illustration of period, for the dust and landscapes and the tricks and the presence of actors. a film for remember the flavor of an old cinema more than entertainment. fact who could be a virtue. because it is, in many senses, a trip in time. and delight for the fans of Anthonz Quinn, James Mason or Michael Caine.

My main reason for tracking this poorly rated 70s flick was Roy Budd's score. Unfortunately there is almost nothing from his beautiful work in the final soundtrack, so don't lose time with this very bad movie, get Budd's score instead! Or if you're looking for a better euro gritty 70s crime movie starring Michael Caine and making good use of a Budd score, try The Black Windmill.Mostly The Marseille Contract suffers from a story that succeeds in being both pedestrian and erratic. (Routine) Action happens and just doesn't add up. Michael Caine is barely guest-starring, getting his buoyant gig while Anthony Quinn's main/gloomy story is suddenly demoted to the background. James Mason simply says his uninteresting lines as requested, and the girls are great.Too bad Roy Budd didn't get to unleash his talent for excellent movies. For me Get Carter is just OK-cool thanks to Budd + Caine, but they are both underused in The Marseille Contract.François de Roubaix also wrote magnificent scores for lame movies but you can watch them just to enjoy the music in context; and often his scores inflated movies above their mediocre boilerplate qualities. And he also scored fine movies, even during the seventies.

Police officer Steve Ventura has tried and failed to catch Jacques Brizard – a respectable businessman who deals drugs. In his frustration he hires a hitman to kill Brizard – the hitman turning out to be old friend John Deray. As Deray starts to get close to Brizard, Ventura strengthens his case.I watched this back to back with another Michael Caine movie – Without a Clue. In that his presence lifted an average film into something better….however here he can't manage it. In fact, three big names can't do it. The plot is straightforward and is similar to many other 1970's thrillers. The action and the characters could also be in any other of hundreds of cheap thrillers. There are few scenes that make the film interesting – Deray showing how ruthless he is on top of a building site is one of the highlights, the car chase/romance is also interesting as it was copied (but extended) for Mission: Impossible 2.Caine appears to be in a different movie from Quinn – he's happy go lucky, enjoying romantic dinners etc while Quinn is gritting it out on the streets with informers etc. It creates a split feel to the movie – but it's better when the two come together. Neither are good enough to make the film better than average – nor is James `The Voice' Mason, who looks like he's asleep for most of it.Overall, there are plenty of good 1970's thrillers out there that contain these actors separately (Quinn in Across 110th Street for one) – here the three can't manage to lift this out of being average and a bit dull.