he has been redeemed by his actions. Cast Original novel The film was based on the Jack London novel, The Assassination Bureau. London purchased a storyline from Sinclair Lewis in 1910 and used it as the basis of two short stories and a novel. He was two-thirds of the way through finishing the novel (having written 40,000 words) when he died in 1916. The novel was later completed by Robert L. Fish and finally published in 1963. The New York Times called it "delightfully ridiculous". Development Film rights were bought and in May 1966 United Artists announced that Burt Lancaster would star in the film. Lancaster, however, pulled out and film rights reverted to Paramount, where it was made by the team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph; it was their 25th film together. Filming Filming took place in April 1968. Michael Flint of Paramount later said the film wound up costing a lot of money "because it was decided that it must be a locomotive", namely, a sort of film which "would really carry weight with exhibitors and eventually television networks buying batches of our films, by virtue of stars or production value". He added that in the case of Assassination Bureau "we laboured under the delusion that this could be ensured by spending more on 'production value'". By February 1969, the film had not been released. According to Diana Rigg, "the film company is stuck with the rather awkward - for America - title and hasn't made up its mind what to do". Home video This film was issued on LaserDisc in the mid-1990s. It was also released on VHS at the same time and later on Region 1 DVD. See also Assassinations in fiction Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows References External links 1969 films 1960s action films 1960s black comedy films 1960s thriller films British action films British black comedy films British thriller films 1960s English-language films Films about assassinations Films based on American novels Films based on works by Jack London Films directed by Basil Dearden Films set in the 1900s Films set in London Films set in Venice Paramount Pictures films Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films scored by Ron Grainer Films with screenplays by Michael Relph Films with screenplays by Wolf Mankowitz 1969 comedy films 1969 drama films 1960s British films