The Tamarind Seed
| The Tamarind Seed | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Ken Wales |
| Screenplay by | Blake Edwards |
| Based on |
The Tamarind Seed by Evelyn Anthony |
| Starring | |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Freddie Young |
| Edited by | Ernest Walter |
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Release date
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | United States United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.4 million |
| Box office | $8 million (US/Canada) $5 million (rest of world) |
The Tamarind Seed is a 1974 American-British romantic drama film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. Based on the 1971 novel The Tamarind Seed by Evelyn Anthony, the film is about a British Home Office functionary and a Soviet air attaché who are lovers involved in Cold War intrigue. The Tamarind Seed was the first film produced by Lorimar Productions. The film score was composed by John Barry. The film was spoofed in MAD Magazine in 1975 as "The Tommy-Red Seed."
An attractive British Home Office assistant named Judith Farrow (Julie Andrews) is on vacation on the Caribbean island of Barbados after ending a failed love affair with married group captain Richard Paterson (David Baron), an important British minister. She meets Feodor Sverdlov (Omar Sharif), a Soviet military attaché who is also on vacation staying in an adjacent bungalow. The two spend time together exploring the island, visiting museums, and going out to dinner. When British intelligence learns that Sverdlov is spending time with the mistress of a British minister, they begin monitoring their actions. Judith and Sverdlov share details about their private lives—about her husband who died in a car crash, her recent unhappy affair, his unhappy marriage, and his disillusion with the Soviet Union. During one of their outings, Judith becomes fascinated by the story of a slave who was hanged from a tamarind tree and how that tree has since borne seeds in the shape of a human head. The skeptical Sverdlov thinks the story is a mere fairy tale. On her way back to London, she opens an envelope he gave her and finds a tamarind seed.
British intelligence officer Jack Loder (Anthony Quayle) is convinced that Sverdlov is planning to recruit Judith as a spy. Loder is already concerned about an unknown Soviet spy within the British government with the code name "Blue". When he meets with British minister Fergus Stephenson (Dan O'Herlihy), he learns that Stephenson suspects that his wife was given secret intelligence information and wants the man identified. Loder knows that his own assistant George MacLeod (Bryan Marshall) has been having an affair with Stephenson's wife Margaret (Sylvia Syms) and is the source of the leak. Later, Stephenson reveals to Paterson that British intelligence knows about his affair, and that his former mistress has been identified as a security risk based on her contact with Sverdlov. Paterson is instructed to break off all communication with her.
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