There's a reason you don't hear much about Alfred Hitchcock's 1969 Cold War opus, TOPAZ, and that's simply because it's not that great a movie. Oh, it has some great moments in it - come to think of it, what Hitchcock film doesn't? - but the director is unable to sustain that greatness for the movie's duration, which means there are long passages where nothing much in the way of anything happens. It's all very well directed, but with enough plot to fill three movies, this needed a faster pace to make it a snappier watch.
The complex storyline has many supporting characters and the film has a way of setting up one group of characters and situating them before dropping their storyline suddenly and moving on to someone else. That makes it very difficult to get emotionally involved in the proceedings, because all the time you're expecting the principles to disappear and for the story to move elsewhere.
It starts off well, for instance, with the defection of a top Russian official. Hitch is on top form, extracting every drop of suspense in detailing his escape. But then those characters disappear to be eventually replaced by Parisian spy Andre Devereaux, played by Frederick Stafford. Stafford is slightly stiff and definitely unmemorable as a Hitchcock leading man; he lacks the easy charm and charisma of a Grant or Stewart and the film suffers as a result. There are still some great moments - the scene in which a man attempts to photograph some secret documents is a 'how to' guide in building suspense - but by the time the action shifted to Cuba, back to America and then to France for the long-winded climax, I'm afraid to say I just didn't care much anymore.
It all feels like an attempt to emulate the globe-trotting hijinks of James Bond, especially when Stafford takes time out to romance exotic beauty Karin Dor. But it lacks the excitement and danger that made those films so popular during this era. Hitchcock's approach is too clinical when he needs to involve the feelings of his characters more, and the lack of any major sympathetic roles is another blow. Roscoe Lee Browne bagged by far my favourite role in the entire movie, yet he's in it for far too short a time. Similarly, the great John Vernon is on hand as a larger-than-life Cuban leader, but his villain is underutilised and just seems to disappear from the story as it goes on.
At over two hours and twenty minutes in length, TOPAZ is by far Hitch's longest movie. But it's too long. Half an hour could easily have been excised from that running time to tighten things up and improve the pacing a little, but as it stands there's just too much of nothing going on here for it to be worth more than a flawed watch.
The complex storyline has many supporting characters and the film has a way of setting up one group of characters and situating them before dropping their storyline suddenly and moving on to someone else. That makes it very difficult to get emotionally involved in the proceedings, because all the time you're expecting the principles to disappear and for the story to move elsewhere.
It starts off well, for instance, with the defection of a top Russian official. Hitch is on top form, extracting every drop of suspense in detailing his escape. But then those characters disappear to be eventually replaced by Parisian spy Andre Devereaux, played by Frederick Stafford. Stafford is slightly stiff and definitely unmemorable as a Hitchcock leading man; he lacks the easy charm and charisma of a Grant or Stewart and the film suffers as a result. There are still some great moments - the scene in which a man attempts to photograph some secret documents is a 'how to' guide in building suspense - but by the time the action shifted to Cuba, back to America and then to France for the long-winded climax, I'm afraid to say I just didn't care much anymore.
It all feels like an attempt to emulate the globe-trotting hijinks of James Bond, especially when Stafford takes time out to romance exotic beauty Karin Dor. But it lacks the excitement and danger that made those films so popular during this era. Hitchcock's approach is too clinical when he needs to involve the feelings of his characters more, and the lack of any major sympathetic roles is another blow. Roscoe Lee Browne bagged by far my favourite role in the entire movie, yet he's in it for far too short a time. Similarly, the great John Vernon is on hand as a larger-than-life Cuban leader, but his villain is underutilised and just seems to disappear from the story as it goes on.
At over two hours and twenty minutes in length, TOPAZ is by far Hitch's longest movie. But it's too long. Half an hour could easily have been excised from that running time to tighten things up and improve the pacing a little, but as it stands there's just too much of nothing going on here for it to be worth more than a flawed watch.