MovieChat Forums > High Road to China (1983) Discussion > Villain - Spoilers

Villain - Spoilers

posted 11 years ago by jack-upland
4 replies | jump to latest

Bentick seems to be undeveloped and inexplicable.

Why does he have agents (apparently assassins) in almost every country (including at one time Afghanistan)? Apparently the company is a manufacturer, perhaps producing explosives. Surely there is no reason for Bentick to have such a global reach.

If the company's worth is tied up with patents, why has Bentick not realised this before? Why is he concentrating on merely having control over the company?

And why would he take such a murderous course, if all he wanted to do was take over the company? Surely if his partner has disappeared there are other courses to take. For instance, embezzlement. Eve is hardly in a position to ascertain whether she is receiving her entitlements.

[–] Mythical Monkey 11 years ago

No, the plot doesn't make a lick of sense, especially after Eve's father tells her all the real wealth is in the patents which she apparently owns outright. Her line at that point should have been "Then what in the world am I doing here?! If my lawyer hadn't gotten himself killed off in the first scene, I'd shoot him myself!!"

From what I've read, all of Robert Morley's scenes were retrofitted into the movie after a bad audience preview. I get the feeling the Bentick character feels underdeveloped because he is underdeveloped -- the writers hadn't given much thought to the why of their story, they just strung together a series of scenes.

Which doesn't mean I don't like the movie. John Barry's score is one of his very best, Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong are appealing leads, and the airplanes are cool to look at. I figure anything in addition to that is icing on the cake.

Just remember: the ox is slow but the earth is patient.

[–] ralph_2ndedition 9 years ago

While I do agree on the fact that most of the plot makes no sense whatsoever - I do feel the need to point out that Eve never finds out that she already owns "everything". Her father tells O'Malley, and for some strange reason he never relays that to her - which makes him kind of an idiot actually...
She probably does find out, sooner or later, but not during the part of the story we're watching.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16265) 2 years ago

Why include a villain like Morley at all? Just have it be that her dad is missing or presumed dead.

[–] toallitas 10 years ago

Anyone recall who was the "Countess"? She's listed in the credits as being played by Zdenka Hersak.