While on vacation in Barbados to recover from the lingering effects of a love affair that ended badly, Judith Farrow meets Feodor Sverdlov, a handsome Russian. They find pleasure in each other's company as they visit colorful places on the island, but there are complications to their budding romance after their vacation in the tropical paradise comes to an end. Problems arise due to geopolitical concerns of the Cold War, for Judith is the assistant to an important minister serving in the British Home Office in London, and Feodor is the Soviet air attachè assigned in Paris to Soviet General Golitsyn. British intelligence officer Jack Loder suspects that Sverdlov is attempting to recruit Judith to work as a Soviet spy, and this is in fact what Feodor tells his boss that he is attempting to accomplish. Feodor tells Judith that this is a way for him to be able to see her without bringing about suspicion from his people. Due to somewhat similar thinking on the British side, she is ...
Written by
Brian Greenhalgh
Plot Synopsis:
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Dame Julie Andrews once said of this movie in mid 1973: "This is a nice film. It's just right for my comeback."
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Final theatrical movie of Oskar Homolka (General Golitsyn).
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Oskar Homolka replaced Jack Hawkins in playing the character of General Golitsyn. The role had originally been intended for Hawkins, but his death in 1973 led to the part being re-cast with Homolka.
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First big major theatrical movie produced by Lorimar Films. The production house, now known as Lorimar Productions, predominantly produced for television, but had previously made the theatrical movie The Sporting Club (1971).
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The three things that Jack Loder (Sir Anthony Quayle) had learned from working in British Intelligence were (1) No one's to be trusted (2) Nothing is to be believed and (3) Anyone is capable of doing anything.
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This movie was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for Sylvia Syms, but lost out to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express (1974).
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One of numerous collaborations of Dame Julie Andrews and Writer and Director Blake Edwards.
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This espionage movie utilized two key major creative personnel who had been synonymous with the official James Bond film franchise: John Barry, who composed the score, was a composer of many of the Bond movie's scores up until The Living Daylights (1987), while Maurice Binder, who designed the opening titles sequence, had done the same for most of the Bond movies up until Licence to Kill (1989). Also, Terence Plummer, who played a K.G.B. Agent in this movie, portrayed a Beirut thug in the same year's Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and later, one of Elliot Carver's thugs in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), both parts uncredited. About seven other crew members worked on The Tamarind Seed (1974) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
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Dame Julie Andrews and Writer and Director Blake Edwards were married.
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One of two consecutive espionage movies that Dame Julie Andrews made with her husband, Writer and Director Blake Edwards. The other being Darling Lili (1970). Earlier, Andrews had starred in Sir Alfred Hitchcock's spy movie Torn Curtain (1966).
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The name of the yacht seen at the end of the movie was the "Calita VII" of the Port of La Guaira.
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Many movie posters featured a long text preamble that read: "Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif . . . together as only lovers world apart can be. The Tamarind Seed . . . where love grows and passion flowers".
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The old black-and-white espionage movie seen playing on the television was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). Dame Julie Andrews worked with Sir Alfred on Torn Curtain (1966). That movie and this movie are cold war thrillers.
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This movie was completed under its forecasted budgeted cost.
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First movie in four years for Dame Julie Andrews whose last movie at the time had been Darling Lili (1970).
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Wikipedia.com states that, according to the book "Lew Grade, Still Dancing: My Story" (1987), "the film was partly financed by Sir Lew Grade as part of a two-movie deal to get (Dame Julie) Andrews to commit to a television show" and "Lew Grade said the film 'did fairly well' at the box-office, but that he struggled to make much money out of the movie because Blake Edwards and (Dame) Julie Andrews took such a large percentage of the profits (Edwards five percent and Andrews ten percent)".
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The name of the exhibits archive in Barbados where a tamarind seed was displayed was "The Bridgetown Museum".
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The names of the intelligence agencies featured in this movie included MI6, the K.G.B., and the Home Office.
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One of two 1974 movies directed by Blake Edwards. The other being Julie and Dick at Covent Garden (1974). Both titles starred Edwards' wife Dame Julie Andrews.
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Omar Sharif and Dame Julie Andrews starred in famous classic movies which had been released in 1965, they being Doctor Zhivago (1965) and The Sound of Music (1965), respectively.
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Dame Julie Andrews does not sing in this movie.
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The movie wrapped three days ahead of its shooting schedule.
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This romantic spy movie, which is partially set in Barbados, was first released in the same year as the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Ian Fleming's "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1965) novel was partially set in Jamaica. Jamaica and Barbados are island countries situated in the Caribbean Sea region.
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Egyptian movie star Omar Sharif played a Russian character as he had famously done in Doctor Zhivago (1965). Both movies also utilized the same cinematographer with the use of Director of Photography Freddie Young. Also, both movies also utilized the same Sound Editor, Winston Ryder.
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Screenwriter Earl Hamner, Jr. was originally attached to pen the screenplay according to the December 24, 1971 edition of show-business trade paper "The Hollywood Reporter". The script was written but was not used when Writer and Director Blake Edwards became attached to the production in these two capacities. The hiring of Edwards was announced in the March 21, 1973 edition of show-business trade paper "Variety". Hamner's screenplay was apparently "discarded", and if any of it was used, Hamner was not billed for any of the movie's screenwriting.
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This movie was released three years after its source novel of the same name by Evelyn Anthony was published.
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The code-name for the unknown double agent in British Intelligence was "BLUE".
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The name of the movie's 1975 MAD Magazine parody was a comic-strip titled "The Tommy-Red Seed".
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The name of the medical facility in Bridgetown, Barbados where Judith Farrow (Dame Julie Andrews) recovered was the "St. Patricia Nursing Home".
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The name of the actor who played one of the foreign agents, the character billed as the second K.G.B. Agent, was Terence Plummer. Dame Julie Andrews teamed with Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music (1965).
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The closing credits declare that this movie was "filmed through the facilities of Samuelson Film Service Pty Ltd, London, England, and on-location in London, Paris, and Barbados".
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"The Legend of the Tamarind Seed" as typed in the museum display case card and also read out by Judith Farrow (Dame Julie Andrews) in this movie states: "A slave on Hayward's Plantation, St. Peter, accused of stealing a sheep, was hanged from a tamarind tree; he protested his innocence, saying that the tree would vindicate him. Since then, the tamarind tree has born a seed in the shape of a man's head".
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The name of the nightspot that Judith Farrow (Dame Julie Andrews) and Feodor Sverdlov (Omar Sharif) went to in Bridgetown, Barbados was "The Colony Club".
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This romantic spy movie was released the same year as the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). This movie was the second of seven collaborations of husband Writer and Director Blake Edwards, and wife Dame Julie Andrews.
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The name of this movie's source novelist, Evelyn Anthony, is a pen-name for her real name of "Evelyn Ward-Thomas", in full, "Evelyn Bridgett Patricia Ward-Thomas".
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A tamarind seed grows into a tamarind tree. Wikipedia.com states: A "Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is a leguminous tree in the family Fabaceae indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus Tamarindus is a monotypic taxon, having only a single species."
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The only filmed adaptation from a story or novel by source author Evelyn Anthony.
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American movie posters boldly headlined in the above-the-title star-billing of Dame Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif that this movie was "a Blake Edwards film", which in a sense, gave Edwards top billing over the two leads.
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One of two 1974 movies starring Dame Julie Andrews released or broadcast that year. The other being Julie and Dick at Covent Garden (1974). Both were written and directed by Andrews' husband Blake Edwards.
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One of two 1974 theatrical movies starring Omar Sharif. The other being Juggernaut (1974).
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Of the three movies scored by John Barry that debuted in 1974. Two were spy movies, this movie and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). The third movie was The Dove (1974).
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Blake Edwards performed dual roles on this movie, as Writer and Director.
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One of numerous collaborations of actor and Producer Ken Wales, and Writer and Director Blake Edwards.
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The opening credits declare: "All characters and events in this film are fictitious. Any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is quite unintentional."
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Post-production was conducted in London, England at Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios.
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Toward the end of the film when Andrews is on the aircraft and Sharif boards it, the aircraft is a Boeing 707-330. On take off it is a Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet".

At the end of the film when Andrews meet Sharif in "Canada" there are "Alpine" style houses in the background, suggesting either Switzerland or Austria.
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