source: Puppet on a Chain

Trailer—Puppet on a Chain

Puppet on a Chain

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.

Puppet on a Chain is a tedious hard boiled Euro thriller shot in Amsterdam. It could had done with some actual American stars and some more thrilling action. By the time we get to the end speedboat chase scene the damage has been done. After a hit-man has killed some people and stole some heroin, cop Paul Sherman (Sven-Bertil Taube) is sent to Amsterdam to investigate the murders and the drugs trade. As soon as he sets foot he is being followed and his contact is killed at the airport. Sherman doggedly pursues his investigation in a city where drugs has inflicted a great deal of damage. Taube is an uncharismatic lead, the film goes at a lethargic pace, the mystery person with drug dealing nuns and who goes about dressed as a minister is easy to identify as a bad guy, it lacks thrills until the boat chase scene which then leads to a few twists but we expected those given someone tipped of the bad guys that Sherman was arriving.

Soulless, silly international co-production boasts picture postcard cinematography in Amsterdam and other locales but is too generic and clichéd otherwise to drum up much excitement. The nominal hero is as stiff and expressionless as a Ken doll, and the vaunted boat chase -- staple of the trailer and TV commercials of the time -- is technically well-executed but out of place in what was supposed to be an adaptation of MacLean's dark, complex tale of drug smuggling, murder and espionage. This is one of those many cases where producers obtained rights to a valuable property and then jettisoned 90% of what made it memorable or effective; particularly inexplicable in this case, as MacLean is listed as one of the screenwriters! A good (or bad) example of those infamous multi-national 'tax shelter' film productions of the 60's/early 70's. For better MacLean, look to THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, BREAKHEART PASS or WHERE EAGLES DARE.

Wow Paul Sherman is one badass secret agent . Look what he does to that man in the hotel bedroom , he`s someone who takes no prisoners and makes James Bond look like a total wimp . But that`s the problem with PUPPET ON A CHAIN , Sven Bertil Taube is no Sean Connery and lacks the presence needed to convincingly play a ruthless secret agent . I also found it strange that if the story is set in Holland that nearly everyone speaks with either an American or British accent except for Paul Sherman who`s supposed to be American but has a noticable European accent . Still this is a fairly good , though slightly dumb thriller which does feature go go dancers . How many Bond films can claim that ?

Truly atmospheric Euro-thriller from the early seventies, boasting one of the best chase sequences ever, and a plot riddled with holes. US Agent Paul Sherman (Taube) arrives in Amsterdam to investigate drug trafficking between Holland and the US. Together with undercover agent Maggie (Parkins) he begins to close in on the villains... Given that Sherman and Maggie are working together, they don't seem to share much information. If they had debriefed each other a little more thoroughly, much of what eventually transpires could so easily have been avoided (e.g., how come Maggie fails to tell Paul about the dodgy nuns and the bibles she witnesses in church?). This (and the unexplained accents - a Swede playing a Dutch-American, a Brit and a Canadian playing Dutch) aside, it's action-packed, makes great use of its Dutch locations, and has a nice twisty ending. Extra-groovy nightclub scene too!

'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...

Based on the famous novel by Alistair McLean, "Puppet on a String" brings secret agent Paul Sherman, played by Swedish actor and singer Sven-Bertil Taube, to the Dutch metropolis of Amsterdam. It's his turn to hunt a drug-smuggling gang and a corrupt policeman, and it takes some victims and actions until he faces the main villain on a dark harbor site in a last fatal fight. The dark streets and canals of Amsterdam are a perfect setting for this seventies' thriller, and the action and suspense work pretty well. There is an incredibly breath-taking motor boat chase through the canals which looks takes the car chasing action of "Bullitt", "Vanishing Point" and "French Connection" a bit further and has been copied by Dick Maas in his Dutch 1987 psycho thriller "Amsterdamned". There are some really scary and psychedelic scenes in the movie, and Piero Piccionis great sound track adds much weight to the picture (and has been reissued two years ago on CD). A great forgotten action movie!