The potentially memorable screen teaming of Richard Widmark and Oliver Reed (the only one in both of their long careers) turns out to be quite forgettable indeed in this muddled spy thriller. A couple of decent action sequences (mostly car chases) cannot really save the uninteresting script. Both Widmark and Reed seem to be doing this one out of obligation, while the beautiful Gayle Hunnicutt has a pretty thankless role as Widmark's ill-fated wife. Even the Jerusalem setting doesn't give much distinction to the film. Overall, "The Sell-Out" might hold some interest for fans of the leads, but it's almost impossible to recommend it to anyone else. *1/2 out of 4.

The Sell-Out finds Oliver Reed as an American agent who's turned and become a double agent for the Soviets. Now he wants out of their system because he's found it's not all it's cracked up to be. Unfortunately both sides want to see him taken out.What to do for Ollie. When you've got a friend like Richard Widmark who was your original sponsor at the Central Intelligence Agency and now retired to Israel with your former mistress Gayle Hunnicutt you go there for more than one reason. Widmark agrees to help him flee, but as it turns out comes at a terrible price.This Israeli made feature had the distinct aroma of tax write off around it. Everyone just walks through their parts and collects their salary. Especially Oliver Reed who it seems had to have his entire performance dubbed so he could sound convincingly American. Seems like you could have gotten another American or made him British and saved a lot of money.The cinematography in and around Jerusalem was nice to see, it took your mind off a very trite spy story.

A spy story filmed in Jerusalem with Richard Widmark and Oliver Reed, supported by Sam Wanamaker has all the makings of an interesting movie at least but which this film abjectly fails to realise. There is a sort of a plot but it is hard to follow, based I think on the idea that the CIA and the KGB in cahoots are bumping off their ex-agents so they can't talk about their past. Which just seems silly. Oliver Reed is the next on the list and he calls on retired agent Richard Widmark to help. Both male actors do their best but are defeated by the script. It doesn't help that Oliver Reed is strangely dubbed. Gayle Hunnicut is given a thankless role.The star of the film is the city of Jerusalem itself, being much more interesting than the plot unfolding in it. One kept thinking, get those actors out of the way so I can enjoy the scenery. Peter Collinson was an average director and this is a very average film.

Spy escapades riddled with double crosses and triple crosses were all the rage in the '60s and '70s, and this is Peter Collinson's belated addition to the genre. An uninspired and very routine espionage yarn, set (and filmed) in Israel, The Sell-Out is preposterously hard-to-follow at times but it would be wrong to dismiss it as a complete failure. It may not be especially good, but the performances are competent enough and the climactic chase sequence is moderately exciting. Elderly ex-spy Sam Lucas (Richard Widmark) lives in Jerusalem with the sexy but much younger Deborah (Gayle Hunnicutt). He likes to think he has left the spy business behind, and he now runs a successful antiquities store. However, he is forced back into action when he receives a call for help from his old protege Gabriel Lee (Oliver Reed). Lee defected to the East some years previously, but has now become the target on a clandestine CIA-KGB death list. His only chance of getting out of Israel alive is to plead for the help of his old pal Lucas, even though it will mean re-igniting long-buried tensions and emotions. There have been so many films of this ilk that The Sell-Out struggles to come up with anything fresh or interesting. Widmark is likable as the reluctant hero and Reed gets to put in some moody posturing as the enigmatic defector. Director Collinson cuts back on the hard-hitting violence that characterises many of his earlier films (there's violence in this one, but nothing in the same league as Fright or Open Season). The Sell-Out is a very formulaic film, never so bad that you feel like turning it off but never so good that you feel the urge to watch it again. Everyone involved has done better.... and worse.