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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Leon Uris (novel)
Samuel A. Taylor (screenplay)
Release Date:
19 December 1969 (USA) more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
2 wins & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Geek Deal: Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece DVD Collection for $54
(From Slash Film. 28 October 2009, 9:32 AM, PDT)
15 Bloody Box Sets
(From Fangoria. 19 January 2009, 8:00 AM, PST)
User Comments:
Brilliant sequences in an unsung Hitchcock film more (62 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
143 min | 127 min (edited version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
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:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock]about 30 minutes in at the airport getting out of a wheelchair. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: Later in the film, as the camera pushes through the open front door into the house party, the closed door to the left of the screen can be seen to slide out of the way before it has gone out of shot (allowing the camera to continue forwards). more
Quotes:
Francois Picard: I've been shot...Just a little. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in 'Topaz': An Appreciation by Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin (2001) (V) more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (62 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Topaz (1969)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Pietà | ClassicsCaper |
| I'll watch Topaz on my deathbed! | Max_Planck |
| Red Dots | j_chy |
| Juanita de Cordoba | PorkPie007 |
| Middle finger | mrpacker |
| Juanita's secret? | treehugger1313-1 |
Recommendations
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| Across the Universe | A Mighty Heart | The Kite Runner | Die Fälschung | La battaglia di Algeri |
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While Leon Uris' book is a good read, Hitchcock's adaptation of the book for cinema captures much of the book's selling points. The killing of Juanita by Rico Parra is central to book and the film. The book has a sensual scene where Juanita distracts Parra to allow Andre to escape before she is killed. In the film, Hitchcock dispenses with the sexual distraction to go directly to the killing. The killing of Juanita captured by the overhead camera, shows the purple gown spreading in the floor as blood would have spread. No blood is shownonly the gown. What a brilliant shot from Hitchcock and cameraman Jack Hildyard! The second remarkable facet of the movie is the performance of Phillip Noiret as a French bureaucrat and spy. The lunch sequence (a typical Hitchcock food event) may look simple but the montage of shots capturing Noiret's apparent interest in the food than the conversation is truly engaging. Noiret is a fine actor. So is Michel Piccoli. The two of them outshine Frederick Stafford and John Forsythe.
The third most fascinating shot is post-torture interrogation of Mrs Mendozathe whispered response from a posture that reminds one of Michelangelo's Pietawith her dead husband replacing the dead Christ.
Hitchcock's perseverance with "marriage" continues. Andre blandly tells his daughter of his wife "She left me. I did not leave her" after a tryst with his lover in Havana. The Michel Piccoli character says of Andre's wife "Andre, his wife and I were very close. She married him." We know later that Andre's wife was cheating on him as she recognizes the Piccoli character's phone number at his secret love nest.
The defection sequence in Copenhagen might look clumsybut Hitchcock's style is everywherefaces in mirrors, close up of a porcelain figure about to be dropped with no music in the background, etc. What was most amusing was the criticism of the American espionage agents: "We would have done it better" and the exchange of words by the defector in Washington, D.C. Andre's outburst to his bosses on the outcome of French intervention in the defection would lead to the defector's assassination is equally poignant had the film ended with the French spy defecting to Russia (one of the alternate endings).
Finally, Hitchcock's use of the newspaper headlines during key scenes in the background was interesting: The Pieta shot had the newspaper shot in the background and the newspaper left behind on a bench in Paris is the final shot. The alternate endingsthe duel and the departure of the spies to two cold-warring countries would not have served well as well the suicide of the spy suggested by the gunshot in his house.