Puppet on a Chain (film)
| Puppet on a Chain | |
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| Directed by |
Geoffrey Reeve Don Sharp (boat sequence) |
| Produced by | Kurt Unger |
| Written by |
Alistair MacLean (novel & screenplay) Paul Wheeler (additional material) Don Sharp (additional material) |
| Starring | Sven-Bertil Taube, Barbara Parkins, Alexander Knox |
| Music by | Piero Piccioni |
| Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
| Edited by | Bill Lenny |
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Running time
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98 minutes (theatrical release) |
| Language | English |
Puppet on a Chain is a 1971 British thriller film directed by Geoffrey Reeve and starring Sven-Bertil Taube, Barbara Parkins and Alexander Knox. It is based on the novel Puppet on a Chain by Alistair MacLean.
Alistair Maclean authored Puppet on a Chain in 1969, and two years later, the movie was created. The story was Maclean's 14th and the seventh film adaption of a Maclean novel. The film's signature boat chase (8 minutes of screen time) along the canals of Amsterdam supposedly inspired the boat chase in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die two years later and in the 1988 thriller Amsterdamned, which would also feature a long canal boat chase.
After three hippie drug-dealers are murdered by "the assassin" in a house in Los Angeles, the U.S. government sends special agent Paul Sherman to track down the Dutch source of heroin that is causing the drug war. On arriving at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Sherman witnesses an agent, Jimmy Duclos, who was there to meet him, shot dead by the assassin.
Sherman is originally from the Netherlands, but it is clear that Amsterdam's chief of police, Colonel De Graaf is unhappy with having the Americans interfere in Dutch affairs. However, Sherman’s direct contact, Inspector Van Gelder is more cooperative, since his niece, Trudi, suffers from severe brain damage caused by a heroin overdose eight years earlier.
Sherman makes contact with a deep-cover agent from Washington named Maggie. Sherman is then followed around Amsterdam by the assassin, indicating that the drug dealers have someone on the inside. Sherman gets away from him and later tracks him down in a hotel room, where Sherman kills him.
Sherman meets Duclos' girlfriend Astrid Lemay and her drug-addicted brother George. Soon after, George dies of an overdose and she is murdered. Sherman is attacked by a man on a boat and shoots him dead. Drug lord Meegeren, who had killed Astrid, then kills Maggie and holds Sherman prisoner. Meegeren leaves on a speedboat. Sherman escapes and follows him on another speedboat. The chase ends with Meegeren accidentally crashing his boat and it being destroyed by fire.
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