Permission To Kill (1975)

Despite the title, Permission To Kill is more a drama than an action movie. Dirk Bogarde plays Mr. Curtis from 'Western Intelligence Liaison' who recruits by force old friends of Alexander Diakim (Bekim Fehmiu), a nationalist party leader. The mission is to prevent Diakim to return from his exile to his country which is now governed by a dictator. Curtis collects 4
subjects: American journalist Scott Allison (Frederic Forrest) and Diakim's ex-lover Katina Petersen (Ava Gardner) to persuade him, secretary of British Foreign Affairs Charles Lord (Timothy Dalton) to bribe him, and if all fails he still has a sexy assassin Melissa Lascade (Nicole Calfan) to finish him. Being old friend of Diakim, Allison quickly changes side, tells him the truth and tries to convince the others (Petersen, Lord, and Lascade) to double cross Curtis. In the end, it only shows how dirty the politics are.

Interesting to note that after working on Mary, Queen of Scots in 1971, Dalton refused any movie projects and dedicated himself for stage full-time. Only four years later he agreed to come back in this Permission To Kill and 2 years later in Sextette (1977). He did a nice action scene in Permission To Kill: jumped out of a running car and ran to the woods where he fell down a slope.