Directed by:
Alfred HitchcockScreenplay:
Samuel A. TaylorCinematography:
Jack HildyardComposer:
Maurice JarreCast:
Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, Karin Dor, Michel Subor, John Vernon, Claude Jade, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sonja Kolthoff (more)VOD (1)
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Alfred Hitchcock directs John Forsythe as an American CIA agent who learns of Cuban missiles through a French operative he hires to follow up on some rumors, and a NATO spy named Topaz who leaks secrets to the Soviet Union. It seems there's a traitor in the entourage of French president De Gaulle, strange doings taking place in Cuba, and a mysterious, nefarious band of spies known as the Topaz Group readying itself for a big event. (official distributor synopsis)
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Hitchcock's career culminated in The Birds (1963). The films that followed were very different. Specifically, Topaz is a spy thriller set during the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book of the same name was written by Leon Uris in 1967. The cast is magnificent for its time: Karin Dor (a German playing a Cuban), Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret (French actors playing villains), or the young John Forsythe (fans of Dynasty know him). However, pace and tension are nowhere to be found here.
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If only Hitchcock had been in a position towards the end of his life where he could have chosen his subjects freely, unrestricted by financial concerns, and could have enhanced his reputation in the field of political thrillers with, for example, an adaptation of a Frederick Forsyth novel. The plot of Topaz is needlessly overwrought, there is no logical justification for the length of many of the scenes, and the behaviour of the agents, who repeatedly put the lives of others in danger, borders on the ridiculous. The silliness stands out because the characters don’t matter. This probably had nothing to do with the director’s mischievous sense of humour (as in the case of the bizarre alternate ending with the duel), as he still has the other kind of humour, i.e. black, under control. Other than that, however, the film lacks most of the essential ingredients: suspense, charismatic actors and scenes demonstrating Hitchcock’s mastery (at most, there are only masterful shots). In short, this is a weak film for Hitchcock. 55%
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Topaz isn't a completely bad film, but it's not a completely good film either. It's a strange film. Actually, it's such an honest-to-goodness spy flick that you can tell it's based on a novel, and it's crammed with so many characters that the main character frequently disappears from the film entirely for long stretches of time and you don't even find it weird. But the worst thing is that the film has no proper finale, climax, nothing at all. Hitchcock's direction saves the day, though, and the way he shoots all those scenes in which there is little or no talking, his imaginative shots, the chilling torture chamber scene, and Maurice Jarre's score make it quite watchable.
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Gallery (100)
Photo © Universal Pictures
![Topaz - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/160/856/160856654_6f59c1.jpg)
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