Triple Cross (1966)

Director:  Terence Young

Writers:  Rene Hardy, Frank Owen, William Marchant

Composer:  Georges Garvarentz

Starring:  Christopher Plummer, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, Gert Frobe, Claudine Auger, Yul Brynner, Anthony Dawson

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  MASTER-CRIMINAL! SUPER-SPY! AND ALL TRUE!

Plot:  During WW2, convicted bank robber Eddie Chapman becomes a triple agent working for both the British and the Germans.

My rating:   6/10

Will I watch it again?   No.

SPY SPOILERS AHEAD!  YARRRRRR!!!

I like the cast even though some of them don't sustain the level of quality they generally maintain in this picture.  For example, Brynner is does a fine job, playing his usual stern self until the end when it's time for his overly dramatic exit.  It's all too easy for him to over do it.  The rest of the cast does a fine job.  But when it comes to Plummer in the lead, he's mostly great except he sometimes comes off as a super cocky narcissist which makes him difficult to like, and he's the lead so you're kind of supposed to get behind this guy.  Plummer seems quite good at accents.  At times he sounds like a young Errol Flynn which only got me wanting to turn this off and watch a good ole Flynn adventure.  

 

As the title suggests, there's some double and triple cross action going on.  We spend more time with the Germans than with the Britich and most of the Germans aren't all that bad.  They don't display any of the evil side that we know about.  All that means is these Germans have personalities and they're not saying or doing evil things.  Maybe that's on purpose to give the audience room to suggest that maybe Chapman (Plummer) could genuinely be working for the Germans.  It really doesn't matter where his loyalties lie (except really you know he only seems to care about himself and which way the wind is blowing - he doesn't want to get stuck playing on the losing side no matter what).  

 

 Look at how shoddy this shot is?  I promise you they had a budget but they didn't always use it.

The plot moves at a nice enough pace but only once do you get a sense that he's in danger and that's on his first 'mission' for the Germans which ends up being a test that he barely catches onto in time to save his ass.  And that's part of the problem.  Aside from that tension-filled moment, there's little to no suspense.  It doesn't feel like it matters who's side he's really on.  You hope that he's really helping England more than Germany but you don't know until the end.  And by then I almost didn't care.  Speaking of not caring, what about that song playing over the end credits?  That's really out of left field.  It's more appropriate at the end of a Bond spoof.  With this being directed by Terence Young, the director behind 3 of the first 4 Bond pictures, that sounds about right but it's still beneath him.  But this isn't a spy spoof, it's based on a real guy that did these things.  There are enough ingredients in this picture that should've yielded something better and darker.  They had the opportunity to make a strong thriller taken from true events but instead they made a passable WWII spy drama that casually entertains and doesn't try too hard to not be forgettable.