Noel Holcroft's late father - who was a general in the Wehrmacht and once close to Adolf Hitler - left behind a fortune supposedly to make amends for his wrongdoings.

But more than forty years later, Noel finds himself embroiled in a web of conspiracies involving the children of two of his father's Nazi colleagues, a mysterious organisation supposedly devoted to ensuring the Nazis never again come to power, and a woman who may be Noel's downfall or his only hope.

With the exception of Michael Caine's character It seems that their actual goal is to merely shed the Nazi label while reclaiming control over global politics and planning.

The film was part of a five picture slate from Thorn EMI in 1985, others including A Passage to India, Wild Geese II, Morons from Outer Space and Dreamchild.

But John told them he could take the script of Some Like It Hot and turn it into a social documentary on the effects of gang warfare on the music business in Chicago during Prohibition and how that affected women's liberation - and that they needn't worry about him being too funny.

"[8] Although James Caan was originally cast as Noel Holcroft, he walked off the set due to disagreements with the producers.

Variety said its troubled production had resulted in a film that has "a muddled narrative deficient in thrills or plausibility".

[13] Time Out London says all Caine does is spend the film "jetting to international tourist locations so that he can be filled in on the next plot twist by an obliging minor character".

[14] The reviewer at Cinema Retro blamed "questionable" directorial decisions by John Frankenheimer, combined with "Ludlum’s lame storytelling" and "trying to turn the rambling, 528-page potboiler into a leaner 100-minute-long movie", for the film's failings.