Code Name: Emerald

Code Name: Emerald is an excellent espionage thriller involving a cool double-agent plot connected to the D-Day landing. It's expertly helmed by Jonathan Sanger and shot in beautiful Paris starring A-list actors.

It also offers proof that American movie-goers are mentally defective. Check out the domestic box office receipts for September 1985.

Code Name Emerald - starring arguably the greatest actor of all time, Max Von Sydow - and also starring international stud Horst Bucholz and American stud Ed Harris, placed 10th for the month, taking in $561,000.

Now look what placed No. 2: Invasion USA starring noted thespian Chuck Norris. It hauled in a cool $17.5M. Do I have have to include the plot synposis?: "A one-man army comes to the rescue when the United States are invaded by communists."

Jeezus that's depressing.

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.

It's April 1944. The Nazis are desperate to capture an "Overlord", the code name for the few Allies who knew the time and location of the planned D-Day invasion. The Nazis have a plant inside British intelligence. His code name is Emerald. It's Gus Lang (Ed Harris) who was recruited back in 1934. The British already know this and has him as their man. He gives the Nazis a boat transporting fake Overlords. Col. Peters (Patrick Stewart) gives them a boat full of sacrificial lambs and the Nazis narrow the focus on young American Lt. Andy Wheeler (Eric Stoltz).

I am not sure why Gus would return back to Paris. The movie gives the excuse that the British had tasked him to tracking down Emerald. It seems very unlikely that the spy hunter would go behind the lines to do it. The Brits would have different spy hunters for the two sides of the line. It would be more reasonable for a new character to do the interrogation trap. Ok! Forget all that. This is a rather static drama inside the prison. Outside the prison, he wouldn't make contact with the resistance. That would be too risky with little to gain. A lot of this feels wrong. No matter which way Gus Lang goes. There is some flaw in the logic.

CODE NAME : EMERALD is an intelligent and intriguing World War 2 espionage film, based on the novel "The Emerald illusion", about a double agent (Ed Harris) in Paris in the days before D-Day. The film has many impressive moments of acting and production. The actors are brilliant, especially Ed Harris, he is at his best here, extremely virile, powerful and sensitive, and Horst Buchholz, who was already a veteran actor at this time, is perfectly cast as the deceitfully charming SS general, and Helmut Berger here in a very uncongenial role. Also fine performances by Max von Sydow, Eric Stoltz and Cyrielle Claire.

The lack of action is not a deficiency but an advantage, it contributes to the fact that the character of the film is rather more than less romantic. Particularly striking are the beautiful locations in Paris: Occupied France, Paris in the spring: The portrait of this era is vividly created. I am also deeply impressed by the musical score by John Addison. It adds a melancholic tone to the whole picture and it emphasizes the fact that all this happened a long time ago.

"Code Name Emerald" is one of my favourite war films. Obviously it never actually happened (unless it's on one of those "not to opened until..." type files, which would be found to be empty at the designated date), but it could have. The depicted rehearsal for the landings did actually take place on the south coast of England, and was somewhat of a disaster, and in which there were quite a number of American GIs killed. If one "Overlorder" (i.e. someone familiar with the plans of the forthcoming D-Day landings, code name "Operation Overlord") had been captured at that time, imagine the panic of the top brass. Three years of meticulous planning gone up the Swanee.

In this movie one was, which is the basis of the story. The nasty Nazis have got their Teutonic hands on an Overlorder a certain young "Lootenant" Andy Wheeler (Eric Stoltz). The good guys have to either rescue him or kill him before he blabs. End of plot. But will poor Andy live or die? What could have become a "Boys Own" piece of hokum, turned out to be quite an interesting cleverly crafted movie, nicely underplayed by good experienced actors, with Ed Harris at the fore. War film critics of a purist nature will probably pick holes in it, and find mistakes all over the place, but I found none. Mind you, I enjoy the movie that much, I've probably never looked for any.