La loi de la CIA

I'm a tremendous fan of Italian Poliziotesschi movies (violent crime/detective thrillers) of the seventies, and seen so many of them that I modestly even daresay I'm an expert of the genre. That principally means that I know I should be skeptical when encountering a title that sounds entirely unfamiliar. The absolute highlights of this specific genre have long been identified and (re-)discovered already, and the chance there's still a hidden gem lurking beneath the surface is quite slim. But you never know, of course, and since the cast list of this "Covert Action" also contains no less than four interesting names, I really wanted to check it out. As secretly feared, the film is a giant waste of time and veteran director Guerrieri does not succeed in telling a half- interesting story or serving a few remotely exciting action sequences. The film has an impressive cast, as mentioned already, including names like Arthur Kennedy, Ivan Rassimov, Maurizio Merli (a natural born Poliziotesschi hero) and David Janssen. The latter depicts a former CIA-agent named Lester Horton who, after publishing a completely unsuccessful fiction novel, decides to base his next book on his own memoirs and factual CIA cases. This makes his old supervisor Maxwell (a badly ageing Arthur Kennedy) very nervous, and suddenly Lester and everybody in his surrounding are in lethal danger. Personally I never cared for David Janssen and I was much more interested in the characters of Italian heroes Merli and Rassimov. Their roles are regrettably downgraded to supportive ones, however. Merli plays a corrupt and heroin-addicted ex-colleague whose wife is having an affair with Janssen. If you ask me, it's fairly implausible to prefer a dull, fatigue and whiny writer over a vivid and fiery blonde deity like Merli, but whatever. Rassimov stars as Maxwell's henchman and his only task is to pop up everywhere and look menacing. Most of what's happening remains vague and largely unexplained for some reason and "Covert Action" doesn't contain any notably memorable moments. The entire film takes place in Athens, Greece, which results in a handful of beautiful filming locations, but that hardly justifies a recommendation.

At some point as a kid I must have had encountered this film, because I remember the scene where the guy is watching the cartoon porn in the cinema and gets shot in the back of the head. I hadn't thought of that scene in decades, had no idea of the name of the film, and must have caught it on television. How I can remember this but can't remember to take a towel to a swimming pool is beyond me.

A rather middle-aged line up of stars in this one too, I notice. David Janssen is an ex-CIA agent looking for a man called John Benson, who has recorded a cassette that could bring down the whole organisation. Only we the audience know that Benson has had his throat slit shortly after the film begins (well, I guess the killer knows it too). Janssen is drawing a lot of attention and is being followed around by stony-faced agent Ivan Rassimov, who brings him before the pure malice of Arthur Kennedy. Arthur doesn't like that Janssen now makes a living publishing novels about CIA operations and wants to know what he's up to, and he's not above getting Janssen the odd kicking to put his point across.

Janssen also hooks up with his buddy Maurizio Merli, another agent operating in Athens with a secret to hide and Janssen's lovely ex Corrine Clery as a girlfriend. Merli has his own problems - he knows where Benson's cassette is and he may also know who paid for the drug dealer to be shot at the start of the film. Kennedy also wants rid of Merli and has arranged for Merli to be 'taken care of' by his successor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (who doesn't do or say anything in this film). Philipe Leroy also drops in as a friendly Greek policeman and things start getting violent once everyone tries to track down the cassette.

I was quite taken with this one as I guess it is a throwback to the old Euro-spy films. It has quite a few twists in it and for a change Maurizio Merli has a bit more to his character than just being a punching and killing machine, although he gets to do that too. Clery nearly makes it to the end without getting naked (she doesn't make it though) and Arthur Kennedy plays the most gleefully evil villain I've seen in a long time. There's some truly cruel happens to Janssen in the film and Kennedy takes great delight in prolonging the agony. It's Kennedy and Merli that make the film, no doubt.

In summation:95% of Greece is made up of CIA agents.

To my knowledge, the late, great David Janssen made two European crime films in the 1970s: THE SWISS CONSPIRACY (which I saw theatrically back when it was originally released, and which is the lesser of the two), and this one, titled COVERT ACTION for the English language market. Janssen plays an ex-CIA agent who has become an author, writing both non-fiction exposes (Phillip Agee was in the news at this time) and fiction spy novels. The CIA is on his case, in the person of Arthur Kennedy, CIA chief in Athens, where Janssen is staying. Janssen is pursuing a case that interests him, while dodging the traps set for him by Kennedy (and NOT dodging them too--the scenes where he is captured by the CIA and sent in for deprogramming are harrowing in the extreme!), and trying to help Maurizio Merli, a former colleague with personal problems. Janssen also is having an affair with a lovely lady (of course!). David Janssen was the rare individual to have not one, not two, but THREE excellent TV series under his belt: RICHARD DIAMOND, THE FUGITIVE, and O'HARA: UNITED STATES TREASURY. A brooding, understated actor, he is perfect for this role and generates a real intensity and depth. Like Charles Bronson, he is able to communicate pain through his eyes, and he generates a lot of audience empathy. Director Romolo Guerrieri (uncle of Italian crime master Enzo Castellari) worked in peplum, spaghetti westerns, crime films, and Franco and Ciccio comedies as a writer and director and assistant director and second unit director before making this film, and he has a great eye, making fine use of the Greek location shooting, both the mean streets of the city and beautiful seascapes. For fans of European crime and spy films, this is a must-see, and it should also interest any David Janssen fans out there. I've loaned this video to a number of friends over the years, and everyone has enjoyed it, singling out Janssen's unique screen presence and happy to have another example of his work available. Let's hope someone decides to do a letterboxed DVD of this soon.