The Assassination Bureau Blu-ray delivers a sharply witty, stylishly mounted caper that pits Diana Rigg and Oliver Reed against one another in a blackly comic adventure set on the eve of World War One. Blending Edwardian intrigue with swinging-sixties flair, the film plays like a mischievous collision of spy thriller, satire, and old-school action spectacle.
 
London, 1908. Fearless journalist and women’s rights campaigner Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) uncovers the existence of the Assassination Bureau Limited, a secretive organisation that has operated for decades by eliminating the powerful — but only when morally justified. Determined to destroy it, Sonia hatches an audacious plan: she commissions the Bureau to assassinate its own charismatic chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed). Rather than recoiling, Dragomiloff embraces the challenge with gentlemanly delight, daring his fellow board members to hunt him down across Europe.
 
As the chase escalates, The Assassination Bureau becomes a globe-trotting game of cat and mouse filled with irony, romance, and explosive set pieces. Shot in sumptuous Technicolor by Geoffrey Unsworth, the film radiates visual elegance while balancing playful humour with surprisingly sharp political subtext. Directed by the celebrated team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, this late-career triumph captures the same stylish wit found in The Avengers and classic James Bond films, while carving out a personality all its own.
 
directed by: basil dearden
starring: diana rigg, oliver reed, telly savalas
1969 / 110 min