***SPOILERS*** We first get to see Sandor Kosice playing a banjo in a nightclub in London's Piccadilly Circus so skillfully that he's mistaken for a Spaniard, in him belting out Spanish folk tunes, then an Hungarian which in fact he is. It's then that we get the lowdown to what this guy is all about from his good friend British Army Captain Lawton who was involved with Kosice back in Vienna when he was a fugitive from his home country Communist Hungery that he just escaped from.
In what's an almost one hour long flashback we see the story behind Sandor Kosics's daring escape not once but twice from Communist Hungery. It's the second time Kosice escaped he did it to retrieve both his wife Irma and a top Hungarian scientist Proffesor Simon Okofsky. Irma for obviously personal reasons, in that she's he wife,and Prof. Okofsky for the British as well as US Government in all the knowledge he can provide them in the future of Soviet nuclear testing which the professor has a vital part in researching. And just who exactly is this guy Sandor Kosice whom everybody in the movie, the Hungarian Communists the British & Amerians, are so desperately trying to get their hands on? Kosice just happen to be a top man in the Hungarian Department of Internal security,something like the Soviet dreaded KBG, who's trying to defect to save his neck! In being on the outs with the new installed, by the Kremlin, Hungarian Communist regime Kosice feel he's suspected of not being loyal enough to it.
Somewhat cheaply made combination film noir & cold war flick with a chunky Theodore Bikel as Sandor Kosice doing all kinds of acrobatics and James Bond like escapes on both sides of the Hungarian Austrian border to prove his worth to the British that he's in fact a genius escapee from Communism not a spy or double agent for the Soviet Union. In all this running and both huffing and puffing on Bikel's part, while being chased and shot at by communist border guards, all he ends up getting is his shoes dirty!
***SPOILERS*** It's when Kosice is just about to get his wish in getting asylum, together with his wife Irma, in Britain that he's confronted on the plane by on old friend of his who worked for the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Security as it's #1 hit man. Knowing that he's out to get him Kosice informs his friend Capt.Lawton that he's about to get plugged by the not too bright hit man, in exposing his intentions to Kosice instead of keeping them to himself, who gets the airport security guards to arrest the guy, despite him having diplomatic immunity, as the plane lands at the local British airport. But not after he put a couple of slug into Kosice's massive frame which, because of all the weight he had on him, luckily for Kosice had almost no effect on him!
In what's an almost one hour long flashback we see the story behind Sandor Kosics's daring escape not once but twice from Communist Hungery. It's the second time Kosice escaped he did it to retrieve both his wife Irma and a top Hungarian scientist Proffesor Simon Okofsky. Irma for obviously personal reasons, in that she's he wife,and Prof. Okofsky for the British as well as US Government in all the knowledge he can provide them in the future of Soviet nuclear testing which the professor has a vital part in researching. And just who exactly is this guy Sandor Kosice whom everybody in the movie, the Hungarian Communists the British & Amerians, are so desperately trying to get their hands on? Kosice just happen to be a top man in the Hungarian Department of Internal security,something like the Soviet dreaded KBG, who's trying to defect to save his neck! In being on the outs with the new installed, by the Kremlin, Hungarian Communist regime Kosice feel he's suspected of not being loyal enough to it.
Somewhat cheaply made combination film noir & cold war flick with a chunky Theodore Bikel as Sandor Kosice doing all kinds of acrobatics and James Bond like escapes on both sides of the Hungarian Austrian border to prove his worth to the British that he's in fact a genius escapee from Communism not a spy or double agent for the Soviet Union. In all this running and both huffing and puffing on Bikel's part, while being chased and shot at by communist border guards, all he ends up getting is his shoes dirty!
***SPOILERS*** It's when Kosice is just about to get his wish in getting asylum, together with his wife Irma, in Britain that he's confronted on the plane by on old friend of his who worked for the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Security as it's #1 hit man. Knowing that he's out to get him Kosice informs his friend Capt.Lawton that he's about to get plugged by the not too bright hit man, in exposing his intentions to Kosice instead of keeping them to himself, who gets the airport security guards to arrest the guy, despite him having diplomatic immunity, as the plane lands at the local British airport. But not after he put a couple of slug into Kosice's massive frame which, because of all the weight he had on him, luckily for Kosice had almost no effect on him!