THE TAMARIND SEED (1974) ** Film suffers from a serious identify crisis, and more! First it can't decide if it's a James Bond flick or a cinematic representation of a Harlequin Romance (all the while dabbling in unremarkable avant garde techniques used unimaginitively and without effect). When it turns out to lack the libido for either it settles down to shamelessly mimicking Hitchcock with extraordinary and sudden head shots and endlessly repetitive music calculated to build suspense. Once freed from the arsty/Harlequin/Bond trappings the wholly undeveloped plot emerges bare, and not entirely unattractive. You can't really say that it works, but you have to try hard to have holes in an undeveloped plot, particularly in a spy flick where there's not much intrigue or anything going on. Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif are a ways away from their greatest roles, but they're good actors and soldier on...if not admirably at least in a non-irritating manner. Occasionally Omar's dialogue rambles into a murky situational ethics-based evaluation of the Cold War, but the analysis lacks the simplicity, clarity, and depth of the use of the same device in Ninotchka .
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