The High Commissioner ( 1968 )

Espionage films were all the rage in the mid-1960s, a fever that had been ignited by Ian Fleming's James Bond spy series. George Segal investigated neo-Nazis in The Quiller Memorandum ( 1966 ), Michael Caine had starred in the Harry Carter films ( Funeral in Berlin, The Ipcress File ), Rock Hudson was caught up with terrorists in Blindfold ( 1965 ), Paul Newman had to unmask an imposter in The Prize ( 1963 ), Gregory Peck got mixed up in an assassination plot in Arabesque ( 1966 ), and Rod Taylor found himself caught in a web of international intrigue in The High Commissioner. 

This mildly entertaining 1968 thriller was also released as Nobody Runs Forever, a Bond-ish pastiche title. Taylor stars as Scobie Malone, an Australian police sergeant who is sent to London to arrest a wanted criminal who escaped years earlier and is now using an assumed name. With his new name, this murderer climbed the political ladder to become Sir James Quentin, high commissioner for peace for Australia. 

Scobie's simple task of fetching Quentin back for a trial gets complicated immediately upon his arrival in London. Sir Quentin happens to be in the middle of peace negotiations with several countries and requests a few days delay so he can attend the conferences. Sir James is a charismatic man whom many people speak highly of. Within one day Scobie begins to question whether he is even capable of murder. Scobie saves Sir James' life in an assassination attempt and Sir James, taking him into his confidence then, tells Scobie that someone close to him is leaking information to his enemies, and "would you be willing to look into the situation"? It's a request that Scobie cannot deny. 

The High Commissioner boasts a wonderful cast with Lilli Palmer as Sir James Quentin's wife; Camilla Sparv ( The Trouble with Angels ) as his private secretary; Franchot Tone ( in his last film role ) as an American ambassador; and Dalilah Lavi ( Ten Little Indians ), Calvin Lockhart, Clive Revill, and Derren Nesbitt as some of our suspects. 

Unfortunately, like many of the 1960s spy thrillers, the pacing of The High Commissioner is uneven. It begins quite brisk, screeches to a halt midway through, and then begins to climb in suspense once again near the finale. Ultimately, what redeems the film is Plummer's spot-on performance, its colorful cinematography, and Georges Delerue's fantastic opening theme.

TV/Movie Set - The Glass Bottom Boat ( 1966 )

Spy fever was in full heat in the mid-1960s, what with the success of James Bond in the theatres and television shows such as Mission Impossible and The Man from UNCLE. It's no wonder then that even Doris Day was thrust into a spy adventure. In 1966 Universal Pictures cast her and Rod Taylor in a film that took a comedic take on spies in America - The Glass Bottom Boat. Why the screenwriters chose that title is beyond us, for the film has nothing to do with the boat! 

Everett Freeman ( George Washington Slept Here, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ) penned a wild, but amusing, script surrounding a single woman who is mistaken as a spy when she cryptically dials home to "Vladimir" her dog. Complications ensue when she is given a job as assistant to the handsome boss ( Rod Taylor ) of Spaceways Lab and finds the plans to their top-secret space "GIZMO" in her possession. 

The Glass Bottom Boat featured some marvelous sets designed by art directors Edward C. Carfagno and George W. Davis. Davis had a grand career as an art director lastly nearly thirty years, primarily at MGM and 20th Century Fox studios. We cover some of his work in a little more depth in our set design post on The Courtship of Eddie's Father ( 1963 ), which was one of his projects. 

Rod Taylor's character has the coolest house in the film and we really should be featuring that set with its completely automatic kitchen and vacuum-sucking electronic cleaner ( that resembles an ant-eater ). But it was Doris Day's house that caught our attention the most and so this is the spotlight set of the month. 

The exterior of the house gives the impression that the interior is a spacious ranch, but it is actually quite small ( "cozy" in real estate terms ) and may have only two bedrooms at the most. The garage takes up most of the exterior design. Beautiful landscaping surrounds the property which is perched atop a hill in a typical 1960s squashed suburb.

The front entrance 

Every afternoon Jennifer ( Day ) dials home to Vladimir - her pet pooch - to give the dog some exercise. The ringing of the phone drives him crazy and he runs around the house giving himself a good workout. In this screenshot we can see Jennifer's living room, which is open to the kitchen on the left side and features a large sliding room door on the right. The ceiling is vaulted too. 

The Living Room

Just off the living room is a quaint little corner that has been set up as a radio communications center. Here Jennifer chats with her pop who runs a glass bottom boat touring company in Catalina. Today, this would be the household computer station. 

Carfagno had a long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer specializing in period sets working on such prestigious films as Quo Vadis, Julius Caesar and Ben-Hur. He also created a number of great sets for light-hearted pictures like Good News, On an Island with You, and A Ticklish Affair.

The radio center. 

In the later seasons of The Doris Day Show ( when Doris' character suddenly became single ) her apartment was decorated in a style very similar to this house. Perry Ferguson II and James Hassinger ( set decorator ) were the talents behind that show's sets while in this film all these little dining room decors antique rockers were picked out by set decorators Henry Grace and Hugh Hunt. 

Since this was 1966, Jennifer had to have green walls in her bedroom. This shade of green is actually quite nice, especially since it is offset by the white wood paneling and doorways. Also note that the bedroom is carpeted while the living room has beautiful hardwood flooring. 

Unfortunately we don't get a good look at the kitchen from whence comes all those famous banana cream pies. Just to the right of Dom DeLuise is the dining room which for some reason has a table that seats four and a counter with bar-stools.

Spy spoofs never were our favorite genre but this one is entertaining and for our readers who have not seen it, it is worth checking out...for its set design alone! 

Journey to the Unknown

This planet and all its wonders are not enough to satisfy man's unending quest to discover the unknown. To go where man has never gone before; to reach the unfathomable; to see the unseen; these desires have been etched in his soul from the beginning of Creation. 

" Why does man freeze to death to try and reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat to discover the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the math of the sky? Once a question arises in the human brain the answer must be found, whether it takes a hundred years or a thousand years. " 

These were the words of Alec McEwen in Journey to the Center of the Earth. 

The ultimate aim of all Science is to penetrate the unknown. And that's what the following films featured - daring men willing to stake their lives and undertake a perilous journey to reach this pinnacle of achievement for the future of Science and Mankind. And these "unknowns" are still a mystery to us today.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH ( 1959 )

Scientists spent years exploring the many features of the Earth's surface but who has penetrated its depths? Arne Soknesson has! ....or so this movie claims. The 15th century explorer was ridiculed for his preposterous attempt to reach the Earth's core, but 400 years later, Professor Oliver Lindenbrook ( James Mason ) stumbles upon evidence that proves he did just that, and ventures forth to go there himself. Of course, by the time he leaves, the party has grown to five members : a student of his at the University of Edinburgh ( Pat Boone ), the widow of a fellow explorer ( Arlene Dahl ), a burly Norwegian ( Thayer David ), and his pet duck Gertrude ( herself ). Spending a year beneath the surface, they encounter a cavern of luminescent crystals, large deposits of salt, an ocean, the lost city of Atlantis, and even another explorer...bent on making sure his own name goes down in history as the first man to reach the center of the Earth! 

FIRST MEN IN THE MOON ( 1964 )

The year is 1899 and Professor Cavor ( Lionel Jeffries ) is busy working in his country home, perfecting Cavorite, a paste that, when applied to any object, renders it ineffectual to the force of gravity. Whoosh! upwards it will travel unless something blocks its path or a shield is placed over the Cavorite. What possible commercial value could Cavorite have? It could send a ship to the Moon of course, where unheard of deposits of rare minerals, gems, and gold could be just sitting on the surface! And that could make them rich, rich, rich! At least that's what Cavor and Arnold Bedford ( Edward Judd ) think. Arnold's fiancee Kate ( Martha Hyer ) accidentally comes along for the ride, but venturing inside the moon was not apart of their plan. Neither was an encounter with the Selenites - the insect-like creatures of the Moon.

THE TIME MACHINE ( 1960 )

Time - the cause of eternal bewilderment to man. It travels always onward, oblivious of events occurring within its domain, continually venturing forward into unexplored territory, ever unchanging and unstoppable. But scientists continue to explore this intangible mystery of our existence. Could altering the Past affect the Future? ( there is a good Outer Limits episode about that topic ); Could a journey into the Future help us make better decisions for Today? Well, these questions bothered George Wells ( Rod Taylor ) too. And besides, he felt like he never belonged in the era he was living ( that's nothing new ). So he constructs a time machine and after fiddling with the dials a bit, propels himself to the year 802,701 A.D. A blond-haired, blue-eyed race of humans called Eloi populate the Earth eating giant veggies and fruits, lounging around with no work to be done, and dashing off at sundown when the terrible mutants known as the Morlocks come out of their caverns to ....eek!...eat them. 

Our intrepid explorers have traveled to the center of the Earth, the inside of the Moon, and through the Ages of Time, and so what unknown territory is left?..... The Fourth Dimension. 

THE 4-D MAN ( 1959 )

Tony Nelson ( James Congdon ), a research scientist, is experimenting with a means to separate particles of matter from each other with an amplifier and, in doing so, discovers a way that one can "pass through" any object. His brother Scott ( Robert Lansing ) becomes jealous of his newfound knowledge - he's also sore because Tony stole his fiancee Linda ( Lee Merriwether in her first film ) - and steals this amplifier unit from him. But what he doesn't know is that every time he passes through an object, he ages! And even worse than that ( yes... there is something worse than aging ) touching another human causes instant death to them, but gives him renewed youth..... I'll let the movie explain the details of that phenomenon. 

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Well, there you have it. As happy viewers munching on our popcorn, we can sit back and enjoy these explorations to the unknown, heartily cheering on our daring heroes while they endanger their lives for the benefit of our entertainment. And who knows? Maybe someday Man will take a hurdling leap into the Future and find our descendants, 350 years from now, enjoying these very same films.