Codename: Emerald

Not a documentary of course but the plot was a bit of a stretch to believe. I did wonder why Ed did't remove his white hat when being followed through Paris as it made him stick out a mile, and as another reviewer has it it was an annoying silly hat, and out of place in 1944. Not a great film by any means but not too bad and worth watching if there's not much better on another TV channel, and finding anything on TV worth watching is becoming increasingly difficult. I've read a few book on WWII spies and double agents and truth is stranger than fiction and it's a wonder how some got away with it for so long. Fortunately the Germans had no successful spies in the UK during WWII with a few of them turned to be double agents.

The problem of this film, like of many others of the same kind, is, that the further away in time you get from the second world war, the more the plot and the film must be almost painfully discernible as contrived and artificial. Reconstructing reality must be more difficult and appear less convincing the further in time from the reality exhibited you get.

This is a very good story and very intelligent plot, the actors are all superb, especially Ed Harris, here young and fresh with many great roles ahead of him, and Max von Sydow as the honest German officer. Also Horst Bucholz is doing well like all the others, and of course Eric Stoltz as the prisoner. Helmut Berger adds an appropriate portion of nastiness as a very convincing fanatical German Nazi, in some ways he makes the deepest impression in his radiance of constant extreme but well controlled menace, and Cyrielle Clair provides the necessary female bit.

In spite of the obvious artificial construction of the plot and story, it is well worth seeing and rewarding indeed for those in chase of excitement, and for those who love Paris. It is all filmed in Paris and France.

Like certain other film genres, such as the Western, the musical and the historical epic, the Second World War film was out of favour in the eighties. There were occasional exceptions, but apart from John Boorman's "Hope and Glory", which concentrated on the British Home Front rather than military action, I cannot think of any really great examples from the decade. There were to be no eighties equivalents of "The Dambusters" or "The Great Escape".

The central idea of "Code Name: Emerald" owes something to "Where Eagles Dare". An American officer with knowledge of the invasion plan for the D-Day landings has been captured by the Nazis. (In "Where Eagles Dare" the captured man was a general; here he is a lieutenant. Were such junior officers in fact entrusted with such vitally important secret knowledge?) In the earlier film, a group of commandos were sent to rescue the general from a redoubt in the Bavarian mountains. In "Code Name: Emerald", however, the Allies have a more subtle plan. Gus Lang, an American officer in Britain, is acting as a double agent, pretending to be a traitor working for German intelligence, whereas in reality he is being used by the Americans to feed the Germans with false information. ("Emerald" is the code name given to him by his German handlers). Lang is sent to Paris, supposedly to defect to the German side, but with secret instructions to find out whether the captured officer, Lieutenant Andrew Wheeler, has revealed anything under German interrogation.

Like "Hope and Glory", "Code Name: Emerald" has little in the way of military action. It is essentially an espionage drama of the sort popular throughout the Cold War, but transferred to a wartime setting and with the Germans rather than the Russians as the villains. Like most such dramas, it has a complicated plot where the heroes never know whom they can trust and which of the other characters might turn out to be a double, or even a triple, agent. An added complication is that the villains do not know whom they can trust either. One of the Germans is secretly working for the British- but which one? What lifts the film above the level of the average war film, or for that matter the average spy drama, is the depth of characterisation. Unusually, the German characters are not all stereotyped as one-dimensional villains. Admittedly, Helmut Berger's Ritter is a Nazi fanatic, but Horst Buchholz's Hoffman seems charming and urbane and Max von Sydow's Brausch is a Prussian officer of the old school, who loves the Fatherland but has little time for its rulers. That fine actor Ed Harris makes Lang a believable individual rather than a mere plot device. (Harris has been able to perform a similar service for other otherwise mundane thrillers, such as "The Rock", in which he not only makes the villain, General Hummel, believable, but also makes his motives, in part, understandable).

There is nothing particularly deep or original about "Code Name: Emerald", but it is professionally produced and acted and makes for enjoyable watching. 7/10

As the Allied prepare to hit the Normandy beaches, the Germans try to find out where they will strike. In a complicated gambit, spy Ed Harris helps the Germans capture Eric Stoltz, who is supposed to know where the attack will take place. Then Harris shows up in occupied Paris to help get the information from him. However, he is actually a double agent.

One of the problems with making a fictional movie about a settled and familiar piece of history is that the audience knows how it all came out. There is thus no dramatic tension on the larger issues. Instead, we need to care about what happens to the individuals we see on the screen. And while they are all fine actors, their characters are mere sketches, and their dialogue not particularly interesting. While Max von Sydow and Horst Buchholz try their hardest, they are merely nasty Nazis here.

There is an attempt to liven things up with some good scenery shots around Paris. With Freddie Francis in charge of the camera, this succeeds. However, we are supposed to focus on Harris and liaison/love interest Cyrielle Clair, and they're shot in the distance and medium-long shots in these sequences.

Ed Harris is double agent Gus Lang in Code Name: Emerald, from 1985, directed by Jonathan Sanger.

This is another, let's lie to the Axis about where the Allies will land on D-Day and when D-Day will actually happen.

The Germans want an "Overlord," an officer with details of D-Day. The Germans capture one, Wheeler (Eric Stolz), so Gus is sent to Paris to keep tabs on him, and also plant a false story about his health. He has a secret liaison among the German upper crust.

This is an okay film with a fantastic cast: besides Harris and Stolz, Max von Sydow, Helmet Berger, Horst Buchholz, and Patrick Stewart.

The ending is tense, but I felt parts of the film were slow. Worth seeing for the actors.