Trahison sur commande

One of my favorite William Holden performances is in The Counterfeit Traitor where Holden plays an American born Swedish businessman who agrees to spy for British Intelligence after a bit of blackmail.

The offer he can't refuse comes after Holden is put on a list of undesirable businessmen who are doing business with the Germans. Holden is American born, but became a Swedish subject after deciding he would be working and living out of Stockholm. By agreeing to spy Holden will get cleared after the Allies win the war presumably.

Holden proves to be quite useful to the Allies giving them all kinds of information about where Nazi war production is so it can be targeted by Allied bombing. Of course each trip from Sweden to Germany brings new risk as the Gestapo is cracking down on traitors.

One of his contacts is Lilli Palmer, a prominent society woman with whom he begins an affair. Palmer was a refugee herself from Nazi Germany and she brings that dimension to her part that can't be imitated.

Alfred Hitchcock probably could have made this film a classic, still and all George Seaton who wrote and directed can't be faulted for the job he did. Holden and Seaton had worked well together before in The Country Girl and Seaton gets good performances from him and the rest of the cast.

Hugh Griffith is very good as the cynical British agent who is Holden's contact who is not above using any means to defeat the Nazis. I also liked Werner Peters the German actor who played a really terrific variety of Nazi types throughout the Sixties and who is suspicious of Holden from the gitgo.

But the best scenes in the film involve young Helo Gutschwager who is the son of one of Holden's German contacts and a true believing member of the Hitler Youth. First Holden to escape and then Gestapo agent Stefan Schnabel to apprehend Holden play some real mind games on this kid who has grown up with Hitler the only reality he knows.

The Counterfeit Traitor is one fine espionage film and definitely in the top ten of William Holden's performances.

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.

The beginning-the first third overall-is rather tedious ,with too much voice-over.No interesting character emerges and it essentially consists of William Holden's shuttling back and forth between Suede and Germany. One feels like calling it a day but wait....

The second third makes Lilli Palmer's character the center of the plot:a very interesting one,this German wealthy woman who betrays her country because of her Christian belief.This spy is not a routine femme fatale but a human being,who is smitten with remorse because the bombing which her informations allowed led to children's death.She has wonderful lines:"in a war,every victim becomes a brother".Two marvelous scenes:the first one ,probably the strongest in the whole movie,shows Palmer in a confessional,telling her sins to a man she thinks is a priest;the second one,she's to be shot in a jail,while Holden desperately tries,behind his bars, to say a last goodbye to her.Lilli Palmer's performance is moving,responsible and sensitive.

By the third part,no more Palmer,but the movie has hit its stride.Holden's return to Suede becomes an odyssey,with a lot of traps and his character has grown wiser and more human.He's able to show some compassion,probably the woman's influence.One of the most intriguing characters plays a small part now:a young boy,about 12,member of the Hitlerian Youth,proud of his uniform,he will make your hair stand on end.At the end of the movie,Holden has completely understood Palmer's line about the victims/brothers as the scene with Klaus Kinski testifies.

George Seaton has made an entertaining movie,which does not forget to ask questions and to moot responsibility.He does flay the nazi horrors,but he also puts the blame on the English agents ,stuffing themselves with lobster and sipping Champagne,while other people die unnoticed ,simply because the victims are their brothers.

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

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.