Topaz (1969)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Leon Uris (novel)
Samuel A. Taylor (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 December 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Hitchcock takes you behind the actual headlines to expose the most explosive spy scandal of the century!

Plot:

A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Spy | Cold War | Paris | NATO

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Frederick Stafford	...	Andre Devereaux
Dany Robin	...	Nicole Devereaux
John Vernon	...	Rico Parra
Karin Dor	...	Juanita de Cordoba
Michel Piccoli	...	Jacques Granville
Philippe Noiret	...	Henri Jarre
Claude Jade	...	Michele Picard
Michel Subor	...	Francois Picard
Roscoe Lee Browne	...	Philippe Dubois
Per-Axel Arosenius	...	Boris Kusenov
John Forsythe	...	Michael Nordstrom
Edmon Ryan	...	McKittreck
Sonja Kolthoff	...	Mrs. Kusenov
Tina Hedström	...	Tamara Kusenov (as Tina Hedstrom)
John Van Dreelen	...	Claude Martin

Runtime:

143 min | 127 min (edited version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Spain:18 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (DVD rating) | Iceland:12 | UK:A (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1970) | Peru:14 | Sweden:11 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Leon Uris wrote the first draft of the screenplay, but Alfred Hitchcock declared it unshootable at the last minute and called in Samuel A. Taylor (writer of Vertigo (1958)) to rewrite it from scratch. Some scenes were written just hours before they were shot.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the camera, suspended on a ceiling track, follows Rico Parra down the crowded hotel corridor in New York, one of the hanging lights can be seen to suddenly disappear upwards before it has gone out of shot (allowing the camera to continue forwards).

Quotes:

Michèle Picard: Oh, the Cubans. I love the Cubans. They are so wild!

Movie Connections:

Featured in 'Topaz': An Appreciation by Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin (2001) (V)

Underrated Hitchcock

I agree completely with the previous reviewer that "Topaz", while not in the same ballpark as Hitchcock's best is still an underrated film that's gotten too much of a bum rap. I appreciate the fact that it's willing to take a look at the Castro regime for exactly what it has been and always will be. The tense scene where we watch Roscoe Lee Browne from a distance, with no dialogue and only the sound of street noises, bribe a Cuban official to get important material, ranks with Hitchcock's best. And Karin Dor is both radiantly sexy and courageous as a Cuban resistance leader. The ending is a bit abrupt and weak though, and I probably would have preferred one of the two alternate endings featured in the laser disc supplement.