The Tamarind Seed is a 1974 romantic thriller spy drama film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Evelyn Anthony, the film is about a British Home Office functionary and a Soviet-era attaché who are lovers involved in Cold War intrigue. The Tamarind Seed was the first film produced by Lorimar Productions. The film score was composed by John Barry.
Plot[]
After the death of her husband and a failed love affair with married Royal Air Force Group Captain Richard Paterson, Judith Farrow, a British Home Office assistant, meets Soviet attaché Colonel Sverdlov while on vacation in Barbados, but their budding personal relationship does not go unnoticed by British intelligence. Judith is enchanted by a story that the seeds of a tamarind tree on a certain plantation take the form of the head of a slave hanged from a tamarind. Returning to London, Judith finds a surprise gift from Sverdlov: an envelope containing a tamarind seed.
Convinced Sverdlov is recruiting Judith to be a spy, British intelligence officer Jack Loder has his hands full with a clandestine Russian spy, code-named "Blue", when he learns that his assistant, George MacLeod, is having an affair with the wife of a British diplomat, Fergus Stephenson, who is a conduit of state secrets. Loder cautions Judith, who is to contact him if she hears from Sverdlov.
Meanwhile Sverdlov, assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Paris, suspects that his boss, General Golitysn, distrusts him, and insists that Judith can be recruited as a spy. Sverdlov steals the "Blue" file, his bargaining chip with London to get asylum in Canada, and he finagles a romantic stop in Barbados where he is to meet Judith.
Sverdlov eludes an assassination attempt by Golitsyn’s agents at London Airport and meets Judith in Barbados, where they consummate their relationship. But the General jets in a group of Soviet agents disguised as businessmen to attack the bungalow with napalm, an explosive bullet-riddled event that kills most of the agents when British agents intercede. The event reportedly kills Sverdlov, destroys the "Blue" file, and traumatizes Judith.
Loder meets Judith in Barbados, where he divulges that newspaper accounts of Sverdlov’s death were a false cover; seconds before the explosion, Sverdlov was whisked away to Canada by Loder's assistant, MacLeod. Her doubts dissolve when Loder gives her an envelope that contains a tamarind seed.
Loder now knows "Blue" is Fergus Stephenson, a double agent he can manipulate with low-grade information for Moscow, until the Soviets believe Stephenson is a double agent against themselves and kill him, Loder postulates.
Later on, in a Canadian mountain valley, Judith and Sverdlov share a lovers' embrace.
Cast[]
- Julie Andrews as Judith Farrow
- Omar Sharif as Feodor Sverdlov
- Anthony Quayle as Jack Loder
- Dan O'Herlihy as Fergus Stephenson
- Sylvia Syms as Margaret Stephenson
- Oskar Homolka as General Golitsyn
- Bryan Marshall as George MacLeod
- David Baron as Richard Paterson
- Celia Bannerman as Rachel Paterson
- Roger Dann as Col. Moreau
- Sharon Duce as Sandy Mitchell
- George Mikell as Maj. Stukalov
- Kate O'Mara as Anna Skriabina
- Constantine Gregory as Dimitri Memenov
- John Sullivan as 1st KGB Agent
- Terence Plummer as 2nd KGB Agent
- Leslie Crawford as 3rd KGB Agent
- Alexei Jawdokimov as Igor Kalinin
- Janet Henfrey as Embassy Section Head