The Ambassador

The American ambassador to Israel (Mitchum) is placed in a compromising position when his wife (Burstyn) is filmed in flagrante delicto with a PLO leader (Testi). Resisting attempts at blackmail, Mitchum instead uses his wife's lover's influence to set up a meeting between Palestinian and Israeli students. But the success of Mitchum's personal peace initiative is threatened by the fanatical terrorist faction SEIKA, who are determined to frustrate all attempts to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Thompson handles the cumbersome mechanics of this Cannon-financed political pot-boiler ('suggested' by Elmore Leonard's novel 52 Pick-Up) with a singular lack of style, displacing the violence on to the mad terrorists and fudging all the major political issues. Rock Hudson plays Mitchum's sidekick in what was to be his last feature film.