A 1974 British espionage thriller film written by Barry Levinson and Jonathan Lynn and directed by Ken Hughes, which has a retired agent (James Coburn) devising a plan to eliminate everyone who knows his secrets.
The movie also stars Lee Grant, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry, Michael Jayston, Christiane Kruger, Keenan Wynn, Terence Alexander, Julian Glover, Philip Anthony, and Mary Larkin.
It was released on September 19, 1974.
Tropes for the film:
- Dead Man Writing: Used to avert Karma Houdini. Robert Elliot arranges for several colleagues to kill each other, but the last victim, David, arranges for a message to be sent to the villain if he dies... with the pages impregnated with poison.
- The Film of the Book: Based on Mort W. Elkind's novel Internecine.
- Finger-Licking Poison: The film ends with Robert receiving a hand-written notebook from one of his victims. On the last page it said "I arranged for this to be sent to you after I am dead, and the pages have been soaked in poison that is absorbed through the skin".
- He Knows Too Much: Robert Elliot, a former intelligence agent, is being promoted to government advisor, so he plans to have four colleagues who know about his past 'dirty tricks' work kill each other off.
- Tagline: "internecine - a fancy word for multiple murder".
