Triple Cross: La fantastique histoire vraie d'Eddie Chapman

Triple Cross tells the story of professional thief Eddie Chapman who worked as a double agent for the Germans and the British during World War II. He's charmingly played by Christopher Plummer who was at the height of his career with The Sound of Music on the horizon for him.

Chapman was some piece of work and he was only able to accomplish this whole thing by dint of the fact that he was operating on the Channel islands when World War II broke out. By that time he'd eschewed opening safes by cracking combinations, he was using controlled amounts of gelignite in his work.

Sent to prison on the Isle of Jersey, Plummer is there when the Germans take over those islands and promptly offers his services to the Nazis. After taking him up on the offer despite the stern objections of Gert Frobe, Plummer gets an assignment back in the United Kingdom. Of course upon landing there he promptly offers his services to the British and they take him up on it as well.

I love to watch Christopher Plummer on screen. He's so suave and professional in everything he does whether it's the Duke of Wellington in the film Waterloo, to Baron Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, to even the villainous hypocritical reverend in Dragnet. He's never anything, but at his best for his audience.

His handlers at the British and German ends are Trevor Howard and Yul Brynner. Howard is in the stiff upper lip tradition of his country and Brynner provides an air of melancholia for his part. It ends in tragedy for him as he's part of the bomb plot to kill Hitler in 1944.

By the way it is just that somehow Plummer was conned biggest of all in the end. To see what I'm talking about by all means catch Triple Cross.

This espionage-Flic based on fact concerns an astute safe-cracker named David Chapman (Christopher Plummer) who encounters himself working for both contenders in the 40s , as the German secret service commanded by a baron (Yul Brynner) and a colonel (Get Frobe) , and British military (led by Trevor Howard and Jess Hahn) . Meanwhile , he falls in love with a gorgeous resistance fighter (Claudine Auger) and a mysterious German countess (Romy Schneider) . Chapman attempts to cheat both sides and play each other . The he's sent a dangerous mission and parachuted in England with objective to reconnaissance and factory's sabotages . He's even decorated by General Von Runstedt (Marcel Journet).

Based on real events starred by a true bank robber named Eddie Chapman , this film packs action , suspense , warlike feats and being quite entertaining. First-rate main cast as Christopher Plummer as an amoral but sympathetic double agent adding a bemusing touch , Yul Brynner as a disillusioned German officer, Von Stauffemberg-alike , and a splendid Get Frobe as a cunning Colonel . Ample and stunning supporting cast with a magnificent Trevor Howard , and the beautiful Claudine Auger and Romy Schneider, among others . Here appears uncredited prestigious secondaries , such as Gordon Jackson , Howard Vernon , Bernard Fresson and Gordon Jackson . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Henry Alekan , Terence Young's usual cameraman (Mayerling , Poppies are also flowers) . Enjoyable musical score by George Garvarentz in a James Bond style . The motion picture was professionaly directed by Terence Young , but contains some flaws and gaps , though tension at times, as well . The film was realized in his best period when he made the classic Bonds films (Dr No, From Russia with love and Thunderball). In fact Young directed actors who played in James Bond movies as Claudine Auger-Thunderball and Anthony Dawson-Dr. No and also performed Gert Frobe who made Goldfinger and Terence wanted his Dr. No leading lady Ursula Andress to star opposite Christopher Plummer . Rating : 6/10 : Acceptable and passable.

Quite right, it is definitely not a German plane. The aircraft is a 1946 French SNCAC Martinet.

This was enjoyable to watch on a quiet evening at home. It was particularly interesting for me because I knew nothing of Edward Chapman's charmed life and wartime exploits so now I would like to know more about him and I'll be tempted to read up a bit and do some research about him.

The film was well made with good production values and direction. My complaint is with the editing which was off kilter at times. The story line was abrupt and frequently resulted in too many fast changes. For instance we needed to see how Edward Chapman got passage on the vessel to Lisbon.

Terence Young directed the first two James Bond films and magnificently set the style of the series. He tries to bring some of that flamboyance to "Triple Cross", down to a title song which should have been sung by Shirley Bassey. But this wartime shaggy-dog espionage yarn resisted the 007 treatment and laid a big egg.

Compared with, say, "Five Fingers" or "I Was Monty's Double", "Triple Cross" is sluggish. It's a European co-production, always a difficult diplomatic problem, and the cast is a mini-United Nations: a Canadian as the secret agent, a British spy master, Germans, an Austrian love interest and Yul Brynner, whose origins (like those of the slab in "2001") were still a total mystery.

Christopher Plummer is sleek and sardonic as Eddie Chapman, a master safe cracker and in reality a working class charmer from North East England who had been a Guardsman; here he seems more of a toff, like Raffles or Bond. The bare bones of his story were true and incredible enough not to need polishing.

Eddie was in jail in the Channel Island of Jersey when the Germans occupied it in 1940 (by air, not as shown here from ships docked directly under Chapman's cell). He offered himself as a Nazi spy to get back to England. There he immediately re-ratted and got sent to Germany, where he trained other agents whom the British caught and turned. The unsuspecting Nazis were so pleased with his apparent perfidy that he was given the Iron Cross. Hence the film's title.

Brynner is a "good German" colonel, an anti-Nazi aristo who pays the price of involvement in the Hitler assassination plot. Among other heel-clickers who think they are controlling Chapman is Gert Frobe-- so that's what Goldfinger was up to before he became a card sharp in Miami. Trevor Howard sports an ugly little ginger beard. Romy Schneider, no longer the plump little ingenue of the Sissi trilogy, is sharp-jawed and wan as Eddie's aristocratic girlfriend.

Their lack of chemistry underscores Plummer's lack of sex appeal. He was losing the kudos he had gained as Baron von Trapp-- maybe he'd have felt more at ease in Brynner's part-- and his stellar status was as brief as Julie Andrews's. Eddie Chapman fared better. Given a blanket amnesty at the war's end, he married and lived long, prosperously and respectably.

The film has an excellent true life story about Eddie Chapman. His exploits during World War Two are an excellent read and offer great potential for a film about his exploits.

Director Terence Young of 1960s James Bond films fame brings together an ensemble cast like a Bond alumni. Lead by Christopher Plummer who plays his role adequately but a pound shop Sean Connery from said Bond films.

The film drags in places and with better direction and casting could have been a great war film. As it is, what we have is a very average film of a story deserving a classic film. A shame because in places the story is suspenseful, makes you think as Chapman crosses the English to the Nazi's, then vice versa all for personal gain as well as for King and country? A film that is crying out to be remade?