A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writer:

Derek Marlowe (novel)

Release Date:

2 April 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

A Double Agent in Double Danger!

Plot:

Double-agent Alexander Eberlin is assigned by the British to hunt out a Russian spy, known to them as Krasnevin...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Double Agent | Food In Title | Drug Addict | Photographer

Cast

Laurence Harvey	...	Eberlin
Tom Courtenay	...	Gatiss
Mia Farrow	...	Caroline
Harry Andrews	...	Fraser
Peter Cook	...	Prentiss
Lionel Stander	...	Sobakevich
Per Oscarsson	...	Pavel
Barbara Murray	...	Miss Vogler
John Bird	...	Henderson
Norman Bird	...	Copperfield
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Lake
Calvin Lockhart	...	Brogue
James Cossins	...	Heston-Stevas
Michael Trubshawe	...	Flowers
Lockwood West	...	Quince

Runtime:

USA:107 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (re-rated) | West Germany:16 | UK:12 (video rating) (2007) | UK:A | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Avus race track, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Columbia British Productions

Trivia:

Director Anthony Mann died during production and was replaced by Laurence Harvey.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Greetings (1968)

may be pretentious but not boring

Dour spy film full of ambiance and interesting scenes, filmed on location in London and Berlin, in color, with an interesting story about a Russian spy who has been infiltrated into the British spying agency for eighteen years and wants to go back home. The twist is that he's done such a good job for the Russians, that the British want him killed. The added twist is that we're led to believe that they (the British) don't know about him (his true identity), and send him to Berlin to kill the Russian mole (himself). Who better to play the part than the intense Laurence Harvey? Combine him with Per Oscarsson as his Russian contact, the two of them both homesick and tired of the existential life of a spy, and both doomed, and you get a pretty brooding picture. Harvey's romance with Mia Farrow doesn't add much, but attempts to put him in some kind of human warmth out of the cold and danger of the spy world. If the film is pretentious, it's because of the Cold War world of espionage that it seeks to portray, Sartre existentialism with touches of Kafka, as well as swinging 60's jet set James Bond scenes, such as a great scene at the German Grand Prix, featuring Tom Courtenay with a rifle disguised as a cane, and the sophisticated and elegant opening theme written by Quincy Jones.