Les mystères d'Angkor

Micheline Presle ,one of the luminaries of the French cinema, turned 100 last August ;after the disappearance of Daniel Darrieux ,she 's the last French legend of the golden age ; she saves something from the wreckage in this cock and bull story :her Mata Hari is larger than life :she's cruel ,ruthless, distinguished ,chic and deadly handsome ; her playing is very tongue in chick,the best thing to do when you deal with such a part.

Did Dieterle direct that? Is it the same man who made the best version of Hugo's "hunchback of Notre Dame " or "portrait of Jennie",to name but two? You have to live!

The first part is burdened by tons of voice over , to make sure the audience did understand this far fetched yarn who tries to imitate "north by norwest "(the ending is obvious) and whose McGuffin is a formula the yellow peril covets .Implausibilities abound:after an explosion which destroys all the area , the scientist came out with a heart attack and his daughter and his assistant unharmed!

The second part is disjointed ,but it's the scenes in the jungle which take the biscuit ,particularly that one when a boa constrictor coils up around Carlos Thompson's body whilst Martha Hyers is sinking in the quicksands : enough is enough and it's guaranteed to net nothing but horse laughs .The magnificent temples of Angkor might have provided the movie with a splendid background and the monks could have brought back wisdom , peace and love in a world gone wrong ,but it's too little too late. The French audience will appreciate Lino Ventura short but effective appearance as a hard nut to crack.

William Dieterle did very good work with the material at hand. For such an unknown piece of filmmaking, the viewing experience is surprisingly pleasant. First of all, this is a spy thriller shot in Europe and Asia, with beautiful location scenes in Stockholm, the French Riviera, Naples, Bangkok, the Thai jungle and Angkor-Vat. The color photography is indeed excellent and one wonders how they managed to get such fine results without incurring into huge expenses. Add to that, a few very decent special effects, keeping in mind the film was produced in 1959-1960. The plot involves typical Cold War themes, dealing with espionage concerning a top secret formula that must not get into the wrong hands. The film could be 20 minutes shorter but one watches it without any difficulty. The international cast deserves praise, especially the excellent Micheline Presle as a spy working for the enemy. Martha Hyer is, as always, a welcome presence in any film. Why Hitchcock never did significant work with her? Incredible!

You may not want to pay to go see this movie, but if it comes on TV it may be worth your time.

First off, the setting of this movie goes from Europe to Thailand to Cambodia (Angkor Wat). It was really neat to see scenes of Bangkok over 40 years ago.

Lots of secret agents involved as well as some unexpected killing & serious plot twists. I was just thinking "hey, that's exactly what I'd do in that situation". In so many films you see someone kill someone then leave that person's gun behind and you say to yourself that they're a real idiot, that you would have picked up the gun and searched the body, etc. This film has a lot of scenes where feel that the actors are acting intelligently.

This movie was originally in German and the English dubbing isn't bad at all.

Check it out!