Zeus

The Naked Runner (1967)

• Director
  • Sidney J. Furie
• Writers
  • Francis Clifford(novel)
  • Stanley Mann(screenplay)
• Stars
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Peter Vaughan
  • Derren Nesbitt

  Frank Sinatra stars in this espionage thriller filmed at the height of the Cold War. Sam Laker (Sinatra) is an American industrial designer working in London. When Laker travels to East Germany on business, he brings along his ten-year-old son, and he ends up running into Martin Slattery (Peter Vaughn), an old Army buddy now working with British intelligence. Slattery tries to persuade Laker to put his wartime skills as a sniper to good use against a rogue agent now working with the communists. Laker refuses, but he reluctantly agrees to deliver a message to Karen Gisevius (Nadia Gray), who worked with the anti-Nazi resistance during the war. Laker returns from his errand to discover that his son has been kidnapped; Col. Hartmann (Derren Nesbitt), a communist operative, informs Laker that his boy will be held until he is willing to perform an assassination on their behalf. The Naked Runner was produced by Brad Dexter; Frank Sinatra, a man of fierce loyalties, often worked with Dexter after the producer saved Sinatra's life in a drowning incident.