Actually, one could argue that snails move faster than this movie, and may even be more interesting to watch, but that would be an exaggeration. "The Defector" has very little action, which wouldn't necessarily be a problem if it had an ingenious plot, but it doesn't; the McGuffin proves to be completely useless, and then the movie becomes one long chase as the hero tries to sneak out of East Germany - it's a second-rate "Torn Curtain", which itself is generally considered a second-rate Alfred Hitchcock film. Montgomery Clift, in his last film role, gives a somewhat awkward performance, which I guess can be explained by his poor health at the time; better are Hardy Kruger, as a young Soviet scientist caught between the East and the West, and Macha Meril as a sweet-natured and cute-accented nurse. The film does have one memorable segment, though, when Clift is locked in a room that causes him to hallucinate and lose track of time and place: the surreal highlight is when he finds himself waking up on his bed, only his bed is in the middle of the noisy streets! ** out of 4.
Review of The Defector
