Assignment to Kill

The intro before the opening credits takes place on the Diavolezza ski slope in the Bernina massif, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, and shows three off-piste skiers, two men and one woman, somewhere in the Morteratsch glacier area. When the woman falls and loses a ski, she discovers a hand exposed by the incident in the deep snow. Truly "hitchcockian", indeed . . .

A rainy day in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Taken from the Empire State Building, at that time still the tallest building in the world, the establishing shot shows 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and Fifth Avenue. Bryant Park and Public Library are out of view, but the Bryant Park Building from 1926, Aeolian Hall from 1912, Salmon Tower Building from 1928 and the 59-story 500 Fifth Avenue skyscraper from 1931 can be recognized in the foreground. And not to forget the Lefcourt-National Building behind right, a 40-story skyscraper from 1929.

Our hero enters the 400 Park Avenue skyscraper, hosting the fictional company Security International Underwriters. Probably shot at the backlot of Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California, USA.

Obviously not "Our Man Flint", as Patrick O'Neal plays the hard-boiled private eye and laconic chain smoker Richard Cutting, still on the sound stage at Burbank . . .

. . . as the matte painting backdrop of Manhattan reveals. While Mr. Eversley (Kent Smith) briefs Cutting about the Valayan case, company vice president Bohlen (Philip Ober) stares out into the heavy (studio) rain.

After coming down from the Maloja pass, Cutting drives his noble rental car, a 1965 Mercedes Benz 250 SL roadster, along the shore of Lake Sils towards St. Moritz.

The snow-covered access road to Morteratsch station leads over a small trestle bridge that spans the Morteratsch creek.

After parking his rental car, Cutting is walking in direction of the railway station, served by the famous Bernina line of the Rhaetian Railway since 1910. Together with the Morteratsch Inn, which is partially visible on the right, this place is located in the municipality of Pontresina in the Canton of Graubünden.

Cutting asks a local about what's going on beyond the railway line and learns that the plane that crashed on the glacier has been recovered. In the background the Piz Albris mountain range rises in the sky.

The private eye makes his way to the level crossing of the metre-gauge single track to get on the hiking trail. A snow groomer with a wing from the crashed plane can be recognized in the background.

But the villains are already on location. Matt Wilson (Herbert Lom) and The Big Man (Leon Greene) as his hitman get inside information from the head of the complex rescue operation.

The view of the Morteratsch Valley along the hiking trail. Also used by cross-country skiers, it leads from the lower end of the Diavolezza ski-run, marked on the glacier, to the Morteratsch Inn. When the Morteratsch station was opened by the Bernina Railway in 1908, the glacier front stretched far beyond the spot where Herbert Lom is standing.

Cutting arrives at Bever station by car, where the Engadin line to Scuol branches off from the Albula line between Chur and St. Moritz. At that time, the station building also housed the post office point, which standing in for the Cantonal Police station for the film.

As Richard says goodbye to the police officer with a large grin through the counter window, the parcel scale and weights come into view and prove that the interior shot was actually taken in the post office point.

Zürich at dusk. The establishing shot taken from the spire of the church St. Peter across the downstream Limmat shows the Limmatquai embankment with Rudolf-Brun-Brücke and Bahnhofbrücke. Upper right the spire of Predigerkirche can be seen rises over the Altstadt district.

In front of the King's Club, at that time one of the few night clubs in the city and located at Stüssihofstatt 16. And it seems, that the following interior shots were made on location too.

While investigating of Walter Green, Cutting meets Dominique Laurant (Joan Hackett) at the bar, who seems to have a penchant for good looking men in their prime. The 24 years old female American student with Swiss ancestry worked as a translator for Green until his mysterious disappearance. While the two are chatting at the bar, Matt Wilson unexpectedly shows up and warns the private investigator to investigate further. Incidentally, O'Neal was 40 at the time, while Hackett was 33 but looked significantly younger.

But Richard keeps his cool and lets his opponent know he'll do his job anyway. Outside, the camera zooms up the square, bringing The Big Man prominently into view. The Stüssihofstatt is a trapezoidal square that rises eastwards from the Limmatquai and meets Niederdorfstrasse and Rindermarkt alley on the east side.

Later, Cutting also leaves the King's Club and casually asks one of the taxi drivers about a "nice small hotel" nearby, having noticed the reception committee above.

He then slowly takes the steps up towards the Stüssihofstatt fountain, still watched by Wilson's henchmen.

Pursued by The Big Man and a black 1962 Mercedes-Benz 220 behind them at walking pace, it goes through so far unknown street of the Niederdorf quarter in the Altstadt district.

The Big Man and the Mercedes-Benz are still following our hero on his way through the nighttime alleys of Zurich's old town. Unknown location.

Arriving at a so far unknown fountain square, Richard makes sure the pursuers are still there and considers how to shake them off. Perhaps the inn in the background gives a hint.

The view from Dufourstrasse to the junction with Falkenstrasse, where the back of the Opera House can be recognized in the background. With The Big Man still on his heels, Cutting enters the Hotel Conti.

Since the night porter takes no notice of Cutting, he asks for one of the two room keys that are still available. Another interior shot on location: the then lobby of the Conti, already history because the hotel was redeveloped and modernized later and now called Hotel Opera.

As Cutting appears no more, the Big Man takes the steps to enter the lobby too.

While he is questioning the night porter about the supposed returned hotel guest from Room 38, Richard, who has been wait on the stairs, disappears through the side entrance.

The second henchman behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz gets out the car when Cutting suddenly comes out of the passageway to the courtyard and makes his way towards Falkenstrasse.

After seeing through the feint, the Big Man immediately storms outside and has to watch as his driver is knocked out by Cutting at the corner of Dufourstrasse with Falkenstrasse.

The corner building belonging to the hotel, which still houses the Restaurant Conti on the ground floor, was scaffolded at the time due to renovation works. The Big Man approaches his companion, which is lying stretched out on the sidewalk, cautiously and with his Automatic drawn, but is subsequently duped by Cutting again.

After his failure forced by Cutting, the Big Man shadows Dominique's apartment at Wilson's behest. Well after midnight, coming from the square in the background called Rüdenplatz, the young student sets out to the Limmatquai to meet Richard for an arranged rendezvous with mysterious Walter Green at the main station. To left from Dominique, now dramatically wearing dark sunglasses, the Samson fountain can be seen, while behind on the right Wilson's henchman follows her alongside the wall of the partially visible guild house Zum Rüden, the assembly hall of the Gesellschaft zur Constaffel and one of the historically notable buildings of the city.

While the young woman is leaning conspicuously inconspicuously against the railing of the embankment, Cutting has made himself comfortable in one of the rental motor boats down by the jetty and is giving her instructions on how to get rid of her shadow.

Obviously the trick works and Dominique waves at The Big Man, who is not amused, as the two chug upstream, while the lights of the Münsterbrücke over the Limmat comes into view. Strictly speaking, Richard would have to steer the boat downstream to get to the main station.

After midnight at Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station) with a view towards the so called Querhalle concourse, inaugurated in 1933 together with the train shed, from where Dominique leads Cutting to the platform where Walter Green should show up soon.

The camera accompanies the two from the neighbouring platform until The Big Man suddenly comes into view again, observing the upcoming rendezvous from a safe distance. For a realistic backdrop, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) provided two 1st class and one 2nd class lightweight type coaches of standard design EW I, which were intended to represent a night train.

The man with the suitcase (see previous capture) turns out to be Peter van Eyck as the mysterious Walter Green who wants to make a deal with Richard Cutting. Obviously and contrary to the usual Hollywood conventions, the following and quite long dialogue scene with O'Neal, Hackett and van Eyck was shot on location, which of course was only possible during the low operations time at night.

While Dominique and Richard later go home together and then spending the night together, Green goes home too. But the steep Fortunagasse at the Lindenhof quarter turns out to be a deadly trap for him . . .

. . . as the meanwhile well-known Mercedes-Benz, coming down the Lindenhof hill, blocks Green's way home.

When he finally notices the black limousine in front of him, it's too late, because a second German car is already approaching from the Schipfe quarter and blocking his way back.

Green eventually manages to break down the front door of the Fortunagasse 4 property, but is knocked out in the dark hallway by The Big Man, who turns out to be a unscrupulous killer.

To disguise the murder as railway accident, The Big Man carries Green's body to the end of the train shed and places it on the rails just under the first carriage of the train, knowing full well that there won't be much left of Green later. Completely unmoved, the killer then enjoys a bar of Swiss chocolate and, while licking his slightly sticky finger, while the large hand of the station clock above the platform inexorably advances to the departure time of 2:31 a.m.

The Integra-Signum type dwarf signal next to track 3 shows STOP for shunting works, after the route has been released for the night train. However, it have to say, that then, between Midnight and 5 a.m., from Zürich HB mail trains ran at best, but no express trains. Anyway, in the background the SBB electric loco of type Re 4/4' (from the 2nd series nicknamed "bathtub") starts moving on time after a short whistle and passes the overpass structure of the former main signal box, located in short distance to the train shed. The electro-mechanic type signal box from 1936 has already been replaced in 1966 by a seven-story central signal box.

The next morning, with the view from the church tower of St. Peter over the Limmat upstream. The Helmhaus extension of the original Wasserkirche, first mentioned around 1250, on the Limmatquai embankment can be seen at the bottom left, with the Münsterbrücke in front. While the spire of the Fraumünster rises on the far right, which clock already shows 4:50 p.m., the Quaibrücke at the outflow of Lake Zurich can be seen behind it on the left. By the way, almost the same view can be seen in 'Inspector Clouseau' from 1968.

Richard accepts Wilson's invitation for an extensive breakfast, who makes it clear to him that with Walter Green is no longer to be expected. The view from the window of his suite at Hotel Zum Storchen shows the notable building front of the Hauptwache building (main police station) on the corner of Rathausbrücke and Limmatquai in the background, while the spire of the Predigerkirche can be recognized in the distance again.

Later Cutting is waiting for the taxi in front of the entrance to the Hotel Zum Storchen at Weinplatz 1. The oldest hotel in the city is situated at the northern end of the Wühre an der Limmat, an historic pedestrian passageway along the left embankment of the river.

Still on Weinplatz, but please note that suddenly there is a fountain to see in front of the hotel as Richard enters the cab, occupied by Dominique on the backseat of the (presumably) 1964 Buick Skylark. And it seems that the Big Man is also about to get in his already waiting car to pursuit the cab.

Richard thinks that Green is probably no longer alive and therefore asks Dominique to translate a report on the front page of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. While the American limousine crosses the Limmat on what was then the Rathausbrücke, long-established and renowned shops can be seen through the rear window, all of which have now disappeared. The iron-cast bridge from 1893, commonly known as "vegetable bridge", was replaced in 1973/74 by a new designed and square-shaped construction, made of reinforced concrete. But now the city authority plans to renew the current bridge soon, as the construction does not meet the modern flood code.

While Dominique begins to read and translate simultaneously the news paper report "about a man who was found killed this morning at the railway station", the cab has turned onto Limmatquai. The entrance of the town hall can be recognized on the left trough the sedan rear window, while the corner with Marktgasse is visible on the right.

As she continues with "The police can't tell if it was suicide or an accident", further on the way in direction of Bellevue square the southern facade of the town hall comes into view, while on the far right the arcades of the guild house Zur Haue can be recognised.

When Dominique ends her translation vor Richard with "The man had no identification on him, but the police hopes to establish the case shortly", on the opposite river site, the Hotel Zum Storchen comes into view again . . .

. . . followed by the Helmhaus, with his arch way, together with the Wasserkirche and the Zwingli monument, to see in the top centre. Now Cutting is quite sure it must be Walter Green and ask Dominique if she knows the way to the city morgue.

After Richard was able to satisfied that the mutilated body is Green, he and Dominique are intercepted by Police Inspector Ruff (Oskar Homolka) as they are on the way to the exit of the morgue. But it must be mentioned that there is no municipal morgue in Zurich. In fact, the body would have ended up at the Institute for Forensic Medicine, then located at Zürichbergstrasse 8. Not filmed on the original location, of course, but in a very unusual location. So to speak an indoor exterior shot, as we can see the then pedestrian underpass, which has been connecting Zollstrasse with Kasenenstrasse since 1936, crossing under the tracks of the main station, but without any access to the platforms.

Afterwards, Richard and Dominique drive to Green's apartment to look for incriminating papers. Coming out from the Schlüsselgasse, their cab will reach St. Peterhofstatt, where the first thing that comes into view is the parked and now well-known black German limousine.

As the taxi curves around the tree in the middle of the square, The Big Man comes into view on the left, already sitting on the bench and waiting for the two of them. In the background on the right Strehlgasse branches off.

Now the historical building called Lavaterhaus at St. Peterhofstatt 6 comes into view. In the background on the right, the then still nameless narrow alleyway leads in the direction of Glockengasse and has been named Robert-Walser-Gasse since 2001.

The 1964 Ford Taunus 17M comes to a halt in front of St. Peterhofstatt 3, standing in for Green's fictional residential address, situated on the corner with Augustinergasse. By the way, this property was already used as filming location in the Swiss feature film 'Oberstadtgass' from 1956.

They find the apartment door unlocked and have to realize that all the rooms have already been turned upside down in search of incriminating documents.

A quick look out the window makes him realize that Wilson's henchmen were faster for once. So because of Dominique and in order to avoid another confrontation, Cutting decides to leave the apartment via the backyard.

To be honest it has to say, that this well hidden place could be identified only by the kind support of the Zurich city administration (Urban Planning Office). It is located on the east side of the Limmat river in the so called Niederdorf quarter of the Altstadt district. So coming from the backside of the property Rindermarkt 19, crossing the roof terrace of the property Steinbockgasse 5a, an outbuilding of a carpentry, and then using an iron staircase, it goes down into the backyard. The rear of the apartment house at Froschaugasse 5 can be seen in the background, which looks modern compared to the buildings around it.

Once at the bottom, it goes further along the carpentry workshop of the property Steinbockgasse 5 towards the courtyard doorway.

After exiting the courtyard, the pair discuss the state of affairs while strolling down the very narrow dead end Steinbockgasse.

At the corner of the historic Kerzenstock building the two reaches Froschaugasse, while on the left the window of the Pinkus book store cames into view, existing until 1997.

Cutting heads to the embassy of a fictional country to bribe the notary (Eric Portman) to certify a (false) affidavit from Walter Green. This shot was taken from the second floor of the Lavaterhaus (see capture 55), which can be flagged for special occasions, with Patrick O'Neal walking down the steps of St. Peter's church.

Actually we can be seen him entering the courtyard of the guild house Zur Meisen, a striking Rococo palace in the French style, built in 1757 and situated at the Münsterhof square, just next to the Münsterbrücke across the river Limmat.

Richard and Dominique meet again later on the left bank of the Limmat, without suspecting that there will be no reunion. For the duration of a cigarette, they are sitting on the jetty that belongs to the Limmat Club at Schipfe 10, but is no longer open to the public. Behind them the Rathausbrücke can be recognized upstream.

When Dominique doesn't wait in Richard's hotel suite in the evening as agreed, all the alarm bells ring in his head and he immediately has himself driven to Dominique's apartment. The taxi races through the arcades of the guild house "Zur Zimmerleuten", in the foreground, and Wettingerhaus from 1840.

The camera pans with the taxi coming to a halt on Rüdenplatz at the corner with Schöffelgasse.

Now Cutting wastes no time and flies from Zurich's Kloten airport to St. Moritz by a private charter plane. This very impressive but actually inverted mounted aerial shot doesn't show St. Moritz, as the overlay suggests, but rather Celerina, located between St. Moritz and Samedan. The well-known Cresta Palace Hotel can be recognized in the bottom centre.

Registered as HB-GOR, an Aero Commander 680E built from 1958, touches down on the runway of Samedan airport, now Engadin airport, one of the highest airfields in Europe. In the coming decade a regular guest was the little bit larger business jet VR-BEH, a Boeing 737 of the Maritime, Investment & Shipping, owned by Stavros Niarchos, at the time still one of the richest men in the world. In the distance to the left Bever village can be recognised.

From his suite in the legendary Badrutt's Palace, still one of the leading hotels in the world, Cutting steps out onto the spacious balcony while the Engadine mountains are reflected in the sparkling clean windows.

For a moment our hero enjoys the overwhelming view across the snow-covered Lake St. Moritz. The Waldhaus am See hotel can be seen at the bottom left, while the peaks of Piz Vadret, Piz Languard and Piz Albris rise in the distance.

Meanwhile, Cutting has received news from the hotel manager that Matt Wilson wants to meet him onto the Corvatsch upper station. The viewing terrace at 3303 meters above sea level with the Bernina mountain range to see in the background.

While Wilson tries to figure out what Cutting is up to, Lake Sils can be seen behind him . . .

. . . and after changing position of Cutting and Wilson at the railing Lake Silvaplana comes into view too far above.

The aerial shot of Villa Baldini, built in 1906 by Ottavio Ganzoni and Augusto Baldini, located above the serpentines of the Maloja pass road standing in as the manor house of obscure shipping magnate Curt Valayan (John Gielgud), like a castle on the hill.

After getting out of the 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 driven by Valayan's chauffeur, Cutting heads to the entrance to the lavish villa. With a clever intrigue that constantly alternates between truth and lies, Richard wants to raise Valayan's doubts about Wilson's unconditional loyalty.

But Wilson senses the enormous threat and orders The Big Man to eliminate the Private Eye. In a fight to the death in Cutting's hotel room while a wild party is going on next door, the nameless killer ultimately loses and falls over the balcony railing to his death, where he is found at ground level by hotel employees the next morning.

Our battered hero leans over the balcony railing and observes Inspector Ruff, who meanwhile has arrived at the site where the body was found and is discussing the status of the investigation with those standing by.

Ruff argues that it must be an accident due to excessive alcohol consumption during last night's lavish party. After looking up at Cutting, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that the guest must have lost his balance and fallen off the balcony. In the background on the left the west wing of the St. Moritz post office building can be recognised.

During the second meeting, but now without Wilson, Richard manages to trick Valayan so much that the shipping magnate finally, in a panic reaction, shoots Wilson, who in turn wanted to kill Cutting to prevent him from leaving the villa. This seals Valayan's fate and Inspector Ruff is already waiting in a brand new Volvo Amazon 123 GT of the Cantonal Police until Cutting come out.