The Tamarind Seed
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 British Home Office functionary Judith Farrow and Soviet-era attaché Feodor Sverdlov 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 Feodor 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. Sverdlov, on the other hand, dismisses the story as a mere fairy tale. Returning to London, Judith finds a surprise gift from Sverdlov: an envelope containing a tamarind seed.Convinced that 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 Margaret, 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 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 later 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 that "Blue" is Fergus Stephenson, a double agent he can manipulate with low-grade information for Moscow, until the Soviets believe that Stephenson is a double agent against themselves and kill him, Loder postulates. Later on, in a Canadian mountain valley, Judith and Sverdlov meet again and share a lovers' embrace.
Cast
Production
The Tamarind Seed was partly financed by Sir Lew Grade as part of a two-movie deal to get Julie Andrews to commit to a TV show; the other film was Trilby. It was Andrews' first film in four years since Darling Lili. During that time, she had married Blake Edwards and concentrated on raising their children. "This is a nice film," said Andrews, "It's just right for my comeback."The Tamarind Seed was filmed on location in Barbados, Belgravia in London, and Paris.
Reception
The film received a Royal Command Performance.Lew Grade said the film "did fairly well" at the box office but claims that he struggled to make much money from it because Edwards and Andrews took such a large percentage of the profits. This was common practice for a top-billed star and writer/director.
David Steritt observed in his August 7, 1974 review for The Christian Science Monitor:
In a 1974 review in Movietone News, Kathleen Murphy wrote that the film was a good example of the concept of "the community of two" against the backdrop of complex international forces waging a cold war. Murphy writes:
Murphy concluded that The Tamarind Seed turns this genre of "the community of two" into the genuine article that "shifts and reshapes our thinking and feeling and seeing." In its place, a "new perception of reality" transcends the confines of the movie theater and makes its way into the "larger, less defined, and thus less understandable, territory of our lives."