Espía por mandato

Last night I saw Executive Suite with William Holden and Fredrich March. I expected it to be a great movie and it was. Tonight I noticed AMC is playing another Holden movie entitled Counterfeit Traitor. I watched it and it turned out to be grippy and suspenseful and Holden was great. I have seen great films with Holden including Picnic, Bridge on the River Kwai and Sunset Boulevard. This was supposed to be one of his inferior work, but I actually liked it better than some of his better known films. It's too bad that at the end of his career he made movies such as Omen II and Ashtani. In any case, he was fabulous here and I am looking forward to see other films with him.

When I hear the title THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR, I immediately think of my father because he often said it was his favorite spy film.

Seeing it, years later, I understand why. WILLIAM HOLDEN was in the middle of a winning streak of films at this time and establishing a secure foothold on his reputation as one of Hollywood's finest actors.

Since his role requires him to start as a cynical character, before he becomes convinced of the justness of his cause, it's a role that might well have gone to someone like HUMPHREY BOGART. But Holden, fortunately, got the part of the Swedish oil merchant who, through extortion and blackmail, is chosen by HUGH GRIFFITH to act as a spy against the Nazis in Denmark.

He does so, unwillingly at first, but gradually, through his meeting with another spy, LILI PALMER (in one of her best roles), comes to see things the way she does. The moment Palmer comes into the film, the plot thickens and interest mounts. The final result is a spy film that is truly mesmerizing, able to get a powerful grip on your heart and emotions, full of colorful action and intrigue.

Stunning location photography in and around Copenhagen is a plus factor, as is the rousing score by Alfred Newman. Holden has never been more persuasive in a role that fits him like a glove.

Taken from a true-life story, espionage tales don't come any better than this.

Although unappealingly long - 140 minutes to be precise - The Counterfeit Traitor turns out to be an absorbing, disturbing and rather exciting wartime suspense film. It gives William Holden his second-best role of the '60s (surpassed only by his work in The Wild Bunch) and provides good subsidiary roles for Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith and Ernst Schroeder.

Holden is terrific as a Swedish citizen born in the USA, named Eric Erickson. Erickson is a businessman trading oil from his Stockholm HQ during WWII. Many of his customers are Germans, and quite often he goes on business trips to war-torn Germany leaving the sanctuary of neutral Sweden behind. The British secret service approach him and plead for him to act as a spy, gathering sensitive information for them during his seemingly legitimate trips. Matters are complicated when Erickson meets fellow spy Marianne Mollendorf (Lilli Palmer), with whom he soon falls in love. His mission is seriously jeopardised when her spying antics are exposed, and she is seized by the Gestapo and taken away to be executed.

The film is well-made by ever-reliable director George Seaton. Seaton also wrote the screenplay, basing it on an Alexander Klein book, and he must be given credit for fashioning a thoroughly believable and suspenseful story. The film is shot on actual North European locations, and the use of real backdrops - as opposed to the usual studio lensing favoured by Hollywood in the early '60s - adds to the film's authentic flavour. Nowadays, the appeal of this kind of film is sadly limited, but if you have an affinity for this kind of stuff, then The Counterfeit Traitor is definitely a title worth tracking down.

There really isn't much more to say except this gripping portrayal by Holden and Palmer is well worth the watching. Without exception the actors gave a fine performance, but the true heroes are the real people who risked their lives during WWll. Thank you AMC for bringing us this superb, often under rated film.

I've seen this movie a few times and each time its gets better. William Holden plays a true life character who was a Swedish Oil executive who is blackmailed into becoming an agent for the Allies in Nazi Germany. Holden's performance is true to life in this film. His character is not a glamorous secret agent who takes on the entire Gestapo and makes love to scores of beautiful women with no ill-effects on his person. Holden's character narrates the story much through the film and one is genuinely engrossed in his exploits and how he will escape out of the country in the film climax. In addition, the producers filmed the story in postwar Germany using authentic locations. Plus the atmosphere of the film captures much of the ordinary day to day life during the latter days of Nazi Germany. Great Film and one of Holden's better performances