I like James Garner, but honestly, how he must have squirmed during the making of this movie. An inane plot involving smuggled diamonds, spy vs spy skulduggery and total lack of chemistry between a supposed romance between James Garner and Melina Mercouri. Not only that, the supporting cast of Sandra Dee and Anthony Franciosa makes you wonder just who's playing the lead roles. And the bumbling villains are so incompetent and nonthreatening that they're more of a distraction than anything else. I suspect the studio wanted to reprise the excellent thriller "Charade" made 3 years earlier, but in that they failed dismally. The only thing going for this movie is that the theme song "Strangers in the Night" became such a big hit.

When I was in high school I played in our school orchestra, and one of the pieces we regularly performed was the popular song made famous by Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night". On the sheet music written in fine print under the title were the words, "From the 1966 Universal motion picture 'A Man Could Get Killed'". It sounded like it might be a spy movie because of the year it was released, and being a fan of spy movies I eventually did some research on what the film is about - a fortune in smuggled diamonds sought by spy versus spy versus average guy mistaken for a spy (kind of like Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest"). I hate what they call "spy spoofs" which are disrespectful to the genre and don't take romantic heroism seriously (and which lack the admiring parody found in the television series "Get Smart"), but this is not that tongue-in-cheek "camp" stuff. It's a movie with a serious plot yet with loads of humor, and that's a totally different animal.The cast and the Portuguese locations sounded great, so I started looking for a DVD of this gem I had missed. I couldn't find one anywhere, and I looked and looked in every place I could think of! Why this wonderful movie has been neglected is beyond me, but at last I did find a DVD on an obscure online auction site and the seller shipped it to my USA home from Europe. I am thankful, because I absolutely loved this movie when I finally got a chance to see it.James Garner and Melina Mercouri are the "strangers in the night". Sandra Dee, Tony Franciosa, Robert Coote and all the cast are very enjoyable to watch, and the plot is fun! I hadn't seen Melina Mercouri in her famous role in "Never On Sunday" (1960), but I had seen her in "Topkapi" (1964). It was long ago and I didn't remember much about her except that she seemed intense. When she appeared on the screen in "A Man Could Get Killed" she struck me as the kind of husky-voiced foreign woman who is both laid-back and excitable at the same time. To date her would be like having a date with a Soviet commissar or something. Yet as the movie progressed she really began to allure me, and she became just wonderful! I fell in love with her, as James Garner's character secretly does too. This leads up to the final scene of the movie, which is simply unforgettable.I realize that everybody has their tastes and maybe for you this caper movie wouldn't be anything special, but my wish is for those of you who would be inclined to like it the same pleasure I had viewing it! I also want it to be made more widely available so it will finally get the recognition it deserves.

I was shocked when the Academy Award Show mentioned that both Tony Franciosa and Sandra Dee died during the year. They co-starred in one of my favorite movies, A Man Could Get Killed.How the hell could they be dead? They seemed like kids to me. I guess you live long enough most people start to seem like kids. But these were special to me. They gave me pleasure with their performances in an excellent movie.Franciosa especially. I became a fan of his for life. He played a native street hustler/smuggler in Lisbon. His accent sounded believable to me. But then Sandra Dee came along.Wait a minute.Let's start at the beginning.James Garner and Melina Mercouri starred in this comedy/action-adventure. (According to an English website Robert Coote starred. Tell them to take their cooties and go home.) Garner plays an American businessman who is mistaken by everybody for a super-secret British agent on the trail of smuggled diamonds. When Coote, supposedly his liaison at the British Embassy meets him at the Lisbon airport, the car intended for him is blown up. No matter how much Garner protests, all of which are accepted as cover for his actual mission, he is then transported into a world of scheming, dangerous, underworld characters.First among these is the fabulous Melina Mercouri playing the amorous, amoral, ungrieving widow of a recently killed gangster. It is great fun for us to see how much fun she has in this role. She flirts with Garner at the funeral of her husband.Tony Franciosa, totally charming in his guise as a Portuguese hustler, attaches himself to Garner. Sandra Dee, the archetypical Southern California beach girl appears and exposes Franciosa. They had been connected in America. But Franciosa's exposition is that he is an American hustler, not Portuguese. Not much change there.The four of them are then off on a life or death quest to find the smuggled diamonds. It is a fun trip. Garner, straight and proper, is continuously agitated by Mercouri's delightful lack of morals.In one memorable scene, the bad guys tell the two of them to strip so they can be searched. While Garner tries to defend her honor, Mercouri eagerly begins to comply. She begins by removing her false eyelashes.This is a fun romp with charismatic stars and great chemistry between them. Much of the fine background music throughout became the ballad, "Strangers in the Night." See it if you get a chance.And say goodbye to Sandra Dee and Tony Franciosa.

Funny the things you remember as a kid. I saw this movie with my grandparents at a drive-in and never saw it again. But I clearly remember the plot and characters. It was funny, entertaining, and well worth seeing again. I've been checking everywhere for it on DVD and would like to be notified when it comes out on DVD. Movies like this don't come around often. With the invention of computer animation and high cost movie budgets there seems to be a lack of true screenplay and character building -- "A Man Could Get Killed" was simple, well acted and memorable -- what more could you ask for in a movie? I strongly recommend seeing it if you get the chance.