# Duffy (1968 film)
**Duffy** is a 1968 comedy crime film directed by Robert Parrish, in which two half-brothers hire an American adventurer to hijack a $2,000,000 cash shipment belonging to their millionaire father. It stars [James Coburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-coburn), James Mason, James Fox, Susannah York, and [John Alderton](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-alderton), runs 101 minutes, and was produced by Columbia Productions with distribution by [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Robert Parrish; screenplay by Donald Cammell and Harry Joe Brown Jr., story by Cammell, Brown Jr., and Pierre de la Salle[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) |
| Cast | James Coburn (Duffy), James Mason (J. C. Calvert), James Fox (Stefane), Susannah York (Segolene), John Alderton (Antony)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) |
| Runtime / format | 101 minutes; Technicolor; Westrex sound; aspect ratio 1.85:1[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) • [2](https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/duffy/) |
| Release | UK release listed as September 6, 1968 by IMDb and Art of the Title, while the AFI Catalog records release in Great Britain in October 1968; New York opening September 16, 1968[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062917/) • [2](https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/duffy/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) |
| Filming | Location scenes in Almeria, Spain, including the Cabo de Gata coast standing in for Tangier, plus London locations such as Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) • [4](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/duffy/) |
| Music | Score by Ernie Freeman; the song "I'm Satisfied," written by Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, and Ernie Freeman, is sung by Lou Rawls[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) |
| Reception | Panned by Pauline Kael in The New Yorker; Roger Ebert rated it 2/4; Rotten Tomatoes lists a 36% Tomatometer from one review; IMDb users rate it 5.7/10[5](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1968/10/12/war-as-vaudeville) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duffy) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062917/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Half-brothers Stefane and Antony decide to rob their father, the millionaire tycoon Charles Calvert, of $2,000,000 in bank notes that he is transferring by ship from Tangiers to France. To carry out the heist they recruit Duffy, an eccentric American hippie adventurer living in Tangiers, who is won over by the prospect of a rich haul and by Segolene, Stefane's girlfriend.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY)
Duffy, Segolene, and Stefane board the ship in disguise and, after a delay in opening the safe, seize the loot. Duffy and Segolene jump into the sea carrying the cash, and Antony rescues them from a fishing boat he has been waiting on, one fitted out with a helicopter and a number of fresh corpses with bank notes placed in their pockets. Once out of sight of Calvert's ship, the trio board the helicopter and blow up the fishing boat, leaving floating debris and corpses behind, and reach a hideout on Corsica.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY)
The film's twist follows. Two conflicting cables, presumably from Stefane, lead Duffy to suspect a double-cross. Duffy learns the truth about the double cross when he finds out that Segolene has been Calvert's lover all along and that Calvert had plotted the entire plan so that he could both retain the stolen cash and also claim insurance on it. Duffy gets in touch with the police chief of the area and turns the money over to Calvert and Segolene, saying he stumbled upon it; having been beaten at his own game, Calvert is left with no option except to hand Duffy a $100,000 reward.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY)
## Production
The film was produced by Martin Manulis as a Martin Manulis Production for Columbia Productions, with Harold Buck as associate producer. Otto Heller was director of photography, Willy Kemplen the editor, Philip Harrison the art director, and Yvonne Blake the costume designer; John Richardson handled special effects and Michael Graham Smith designed the main title sequence.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) • [2](https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/duffy/)
The working title was Avec-Avec, which also served as an alternate title.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) Location scenes were filmed in Almeria, Spain, with the Cabo de Gata coastline standing in for Tangier and coastal Morocco; a beach club set, the Capo del Oro, was built and removed for the film, and the Monsul beach rock formation later appeared again in *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY) • [4](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/duffy/) • [7](https://rogersmovienation.com/2024/01/21/classic-film-review-a-caper-comedy-that-cant-quite-find-cool-duffy-1968/) London scenes were shot at Admiralty Arch and [Trafalgar Square](https://www.edgepedia.org/trafalgar-square).[4](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/duffy/)
According to IMDb trivia, the story is based on the real-life character Albee Baker, and the events took place in the mid-1950s; Baker recounted them to writer Pierre de la Salle, who came to know him in New York in 1956.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062917/)
## Donald Cammell and the film's place in 1968
For the screenwriter Donald Cammell, *Duffy* was an early credit. The film historian Robert Shail, author of the entry on Cammell in *British Film Directors* (Edinburgh University Press), writes that Cammell entered the film industry as a scriptwriter with two Swinging London caper films, *The Touchables* (1968) and *Duffy* (1968), both of which deal with the intersection between gangsters and hippiedom, a theme that became central to his *Performance* (1970).[8](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/british-film-directors/4EDB07E585FD14E7ECF571CC263F9C30/listing?pageNum=2) [James Fox](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-fox), who plays the dissolute Stefane, went on to work with Cammell again on *[Performance](https://www.edgepedia.org/performance-film)*, and the [Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies) profile of *Duffy* traces his progression from *The Servant* (1963) through this film's hedonist with criminal impulses to the violent thug on the run in *Performance*.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/194437/duffy)
The film's mod styling dated quickly. Jeff Stafford's TCM essay notes that *Duffy* was released in the dwindling days of the swinging sixties, when the mod look of films such as *Blow-Up* and *Kaleidoscope* (both 1966) was being edged out by rougher youth-oriented movies, and that most critics at the time panned it as a self-indulgent, pretentious pop art disaster.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/194437/duffy)
## Reception
Contemporary and later critical responses were largely negative. [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael)'s review in [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) (October 5, 1968) described the comic robbers wearing long hair and flowered shirts, talking of meditation, and using terms like "hipster" and "uptight," and wrote that the movie was "a cheat at every level," noting that the press at the screening was handed a brochure reading, "Like man, DUFFY is in, a gas, it's with it, it's like. groovy."[5](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1968/10/12/war-as-vaudeville) Roger Ebert of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) gave it 2 out of 4 stars, writing that "Duffy is a movie mostly made up of pauses" and that director Parrish "does not understand the pause."[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duffy) Time Out's retrospective review called the results "woeful: the last word in modishness, and the final nail in the coffin of '60s pop," while acknowledging the promising script premise and the assembled cast.[10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/duffy) Audience-side measures have been milder: Rotten Tomatoes records a 36% Tomatometer from a single review with 250+ audience ratings, and IMDb lists a 5.7/10 rating from about 672 votes.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duffy) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062917/)
The film has remained available on home video and streaming; Sony/Columbia released it on DVD on demand, and it later appeared on Tubi.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duffy) • [7](https://rogersmovienation.com/2024/01/21/classic-film-review-a-caper-comedy-that-cant-quite-find-cool-duffy-1968/)
## References
1. [Duffy (1968), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/21457-DUFFY)
2. [Duffy (1968), Art of the Title](https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/duffy/)
3. [Duffy (1968), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062917/)
4. [Duffy, Reelstreets filming locations](https://www.reelstreets.com/films/duffy/)
5. [Pauline Kael, "War as Vaudeville," The New Yorker, October 5, 1968](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1968/10/12/war-as-vaudeville)
6. [Duffy, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duffy)
7. [Roger Moore, "Classic Film Review: A Caper Comedy that Can't Quite Find 'Cool' — 'Duffy' (1968)," Movie Nation](https://rogersmovienation.com/2024/01/21/classic-film-review-a-caper-comedy-that-cant-quite-find-cool-duffy-1968/)
8. [Robert Shail, "Donald Cammell," in British Film Directors, Edinburgh University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/british-film-directors/4EDB07E585FD14E7ECF571CC263F9C30/listing?pageNum=2)
9. [Jeff Stafford, "Duffy," Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/194437/duffy)
10. [Duffy 1968 review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/duffy)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license