El espía

Bradford Dillman is a soldier chosen for a dangerous mission in "A Circle of Deception," a 1960 film also starring Suzy Parker, Harry Andrews and Robert Stephens. The story is told in flashback as Paul Raine (Dillman) remembers his assignment after a visit by his ex-lover, Lucy (Parker).

In order to divert German troops from an attack site, Paul is chosen because according to his psychological profile, he will break under torture and give the Germans the information the Allies want them to have.

Paul knows his mission is risky, but Lucy, an assistant to the captain (Andrews) who thought up this scheme, knows the entire story. She's enlisted to go out with Paul, since he seems interested, and evaluate if he's really the man for the job. She becomes a little more involved than planned.

Filmed in black and white, this isn't a big budget movie, but it's good. Dillman was a young star then under contract to 20th Century Fox, but despite being both attractive and a good actor, with the studio system abolished, he found most of his success in television.

Parker, one of the first supermodels, was a staggering beauty who was given several opportunities in Hollywood. She was lousy in every one of them.

Like Grace Kelly, she had a cool, sophisticated look, and also like Grace Kelly, in person she had a fantastic sense of humor and a wonderful personality - and like Grace Kelly, she never got one role to showcase them.

Though Dillman and Harry Andrew are both very good, it's Robert Stephens as the German captain who imprisons Paul that gives the most chilling performance. A brilliant stage actor, he's a knockout in this, and one wishes he had pursued more film work before his death in 1995. He could have had an Oscar-level career.

All in all, "A Circle of Deception" is very good, and the black and white helps to keep up the British wartime atmosphere. Dillman and Parker met during the making of this film, married in 1963, had 3 children, and stayed married until Parker's death in 2003.

Parker's last work on film was in a 1970 "Night Gallery" episode, in which she looked absolutely gorgeous, but through the '50s, '60s (and possibly into the '70s) she was on every magazine cover and in every fashion layout imaginable.

The torture scenes are not for the feint of heart - to be honest, I fast-forwarded through them. The rest of the movie is both interesting and suspenseful.

Years ago, I read "Op JB" by Christopher Creighton. It was published in 1996 and was supposedly true, telling of secret missions during WW2 carried out by the author. The veracity of the book is still debated.

I must admit I wasn't sure what to believe until I came to the part where the author claimed he was used by M-Section to persuade the Germans that the Allied invasion of Europe would focus on the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. His superiors betrayed his identity as a British agent to the SS so that under torture he would confirm the story, which he thought to be true. He was then rescued by M-section and returned to Britain.

That's when I thought, "I know this story". It was the plot of "Circle of Deception" starring Bradford Dillman, which I had seen in the 1960's. My belief in the book lessened considerably after I made that connection.

"Circle of Deception" was a forerunner of the more cynical, anti-hero films about WW2 that hit with a vengeance in the 1960's. Then WW2 movies often became surrogates for the Vietnam War, which didn't get its own movies until it was over.

"Circle of Deception" didn't have massive stars. Bradford Dillman seemed a modern sort of actor mainly from television. His character, Captain Paul Raine, is chosen for the mission because it is believed he will crack under torture and give the Nazis the misinformation the British want them to have. Whatever baggage Dillman carried in 1960 is long gone; now he is convincing as the operative who struggles to overcome his fears.

Harry Andrews as Captain Rawson the intelligence chief who devised the mission is perfect. Head of Section roles were an Andrews' specialty.

Suzy Parker played Lucy Bowen, Rawson's assistant who becomes romantically involved with Raine. Suzy had the look of those beautiful women that artists painted for the glossy magazine illustrations of the day; the camera loved her.

The interrogation scenes gave the film an edge, especially Robert Stephens as the urbane German intelligence officer who played good cop against the vicious Gestapo guys. Only the prison escape at the end smacked of standard movie heroics.

However, even after 50 years, this well-made film is still a bit of a downer with its rather ruthless sacrifice of a British agent for the greater good.

The British military brass led by Harry Andrews choose one of their own junior officers played by Bradford Dillman to go on a mission into Nazi-occupied France based on a psychological profile that he will crack under torture and reveal the false information they wish to have the Germans believe about the imminent D-Day invasion. Dillman is chosen for the mission on the recommendation of Suzy Parker, who plays Andrews administrative assistant. As a psychological drama Circle of Deception works fairly well. Parker is especially good at playing both ends, working to implement Andrews plan but also falling for Dillman. Dillman is good once he gets captured by the Germans, who torture him convincingly. After he breaks, Dillman's character has to live with himself, still believing that he let down the war effort by divulging true information.

A harrowing drama about undercover work in wartime France carrying the fingerprints of screenwriter Nigel Balchin, whose 1949 novel 'A Sort of Traitors' he adapted the same year for the Boulting brothers as 'Suspect' (both of which were more characteristic of the Cold War thrillers that were soon to follow in droves in their lack of heroism, and in which everyone is expendable).

Told in flashback, we are already informed from the outset what is going to happen, but not how we are going arrive there, which when it comes is quite satisfactory. Suzy Parker's usual glacial exterior is here well employed (and co-star Bradford Dillman plainly succeeded in melting it, since they married in 1963). Richard Shaw and Michael Ripper appear in separate scenes as a Nazi torturer and a member of the maquis, ten years before they were reunited as heavies Ryan & Burke in the TV adventure series 'Freewheelers' (for which Ripper again wore a beret).

"A Circle of Deception" is an unusual and good film...though I don't heartily recommend you see it. This is because the story has a portion where the lead is tortured. It's not as vivid and brutal as the Nazis would have been...but it's still darned unpleasant.

Captain Paul Raine (Bradford Dillman) has been selected for a spy mission behind enemy lines during WWII. They say it's because he speaks French...but it's really because they think he'll crack under pressure and they arrange for his mission to fail. Why? Because they've fed him false information and hope to convince the Nazis of this lie. However, they never tell Raine...and a woman who has fallen for him knows the truth but she's ordered not to tell. What's next? Well, he's captured and tortured....but what's next might just come as a surprise to everyone.

The acting is good, the film well made. I have no real complaints other than the story makes for unpleasant viewing...and the very end, the final scene, didn't seem very realistic to me.