The Salzburg Connection

Bill Mathison, a lawyer from the United States, becomes embroiled in mysterious events during a stay in Salzburg. It all begins with the disappearance of a photographer who had taken pictures for a book about Austrian lakes. Shortly afterwards, diver Richard Bryant is found dead.

Bill meets his wife Anna and, together with an American woman, becomes embroiled in a dangerous hunt for Nazi documents. Both Eastern and Western intelligence agencies are interested in lists sunk in Lake Toplitz, which contain the names of all Nazi collaborators...

The underrated Barry Newman plays the lead role as a lawyer in this fairly intriguing spy thriller centred around Nazi documents in Lake Toplitz, but he's far from Petrocelli here- matter of fact, not sure if he's an agent. It's never clear, and that transcends to what happens in the plot and its characters. It's muddled at times, as well as dull, but it's salvaged by some tense moments, at least in the first hour. The last fifteen minutes it loses some steam. Not much action, except for one car chase, but it's fairly enjoyable on a moderate level and it helps that the scenery is grand, there's a nice gloomy atmosphere of cloak and dagger and good acting. Karen Jansen as an agent is absolutely smoking hot.

A film set in Austria about Nazi's starring Barry Newman (Petrocelli) as a lawyer and the beautiful Anna Karina whose husband has been murdered, this should have been a winner. Alas not quite, not awful by any means, it just lacks that vital spark.

Salzburg looks lovely as well, Newman is excellent as Mathison, as is Karen Jensen as Elissa Lang who is keeping an eye on Mathisons comings and goings. Espionage at its most convuleted as a lot of the characters we don't know where there allegiances lie, even the Americans.. Hopefully at the end when we see Mathison and Anna drive into the distance they have a happy life.

The Salzburg Connection is based on a novel by Helen MacInnes, and is a rather unoriginal spy thriller with the usual ingredients that characterise practically all early '70s movies within the genre: a convoluted plot, double-crosses, triple-crosses, characters with secrets, and attractive European settings. Barry Newman is actually rather good in the leading role, and is nicely supported by Anna Karina.

American lawyer William Mathison (Barry Newman) is vacationing in Switzerland when he is asked by an American publishing firm to go to Salzburg, Austria, to contact a photographer who has written a book about Austrian lakes. Mathison immediately realises that something is amiss when he reaches the photographer's small Salzburg shop and finds the photographer missing, and his anxious wife Anna Bryant (Anna Karina) being protected with near-claustrophobic zeal by her brother Johann (Klaus Maria Brandeur). Johann initially suspects that Mathison is a secret agent and refuses to give him any information. Gradually, though, Mathison realises that Anna's husband has been murdered, having found a chest in an Austrian lake containing a list of Nazi collaborators from WWII. Agents from all over the world, including Russia, Israel, Germany, Austria and America, want to get hold of the chest. Mathison finds himself playing a delicate game of cat-and-mouse, in which he can trust virtually no-one, such as KGB sex-pot Elisa Lang (Karen Jensen) who attempts to seduce him by posing as a free-wheeling American tourist, and elderly Austrian Felix Zauner (Wolfgang Preiss), whose name is on the list because he collaborated with the Nazis during the war in order to save the life of his wife.

The film could've been pretty good, but it misses rather too many opportunities. Newman and Karina, as I've already said, are quite good, and Jensen as the KGB lady-spy also registers well. Furthermore, the locations are pleasing to the eye. But other than these scant positives, the film is a somewhat poor affair. Lee H. Katzin directs sloppily, far too frequently punctuating his movie with gimmicky editing techniques such as meaningless freeze-frames and unnecessary slow motion sequences. Katzin also ruins several key scenes by failing to make it clear quite what's going on (e.g. the finale, in which Newman and Preiss approach an abandoned gunnery post on a mountainside, is terribly rushed and seems to make little sense). At a mere 93 minutes, the film tries to cram in a heck of a lot of plotting and counter-plotting, yet too many of the characters are so hurriedly introduced that it's hard to remember who they are or what agency they work for. One scene that I DID like, however, involved Karina being kidnapped by spies and whisked away in their car. Newman - a veteran of earlier car chase movies - takes a shortcut in his own car and manages to get in front of the baddies. In a clever twist on the traditional concept of a car chase, he slows down their getaway by driving so SLOWLY that the police eventually turn up to find out who's holding up the traffic! A rare ingenious moment in an otherwise dull potboiler.

I had very high expectations from this production. The presence of the super beautiful Anna Karina, of the charming Barry Newman from the spectacular "Vanishing Point" and "Fear Is the Key", then Wolfgang Preiss from the exceptional Mabuse series, the presence of Miss California Karen Jensen, Nazi mysteries and Salzburg as the place of action... But, everything was revealed from the first minutes and continued until the end: a total failure! A story no one believes in. If the Nazis had made a list of those who collaborated with them, they certainly would not have been in a metal box at the bottom of a mountain lake in a tourist area of Austria. And Klaus Maria Brandauer is false and the same in all his films.

You can jump in and out and see what someone thinks a spy movie should look like. TV movie score for sure. I almost anticipated commercials. Don't try to follow any story line; just enjoy how the actors do what they are told to do. You can hear the director coaching, while looking at his watch. Can only imagine what went on in editing.

But it is fun to look at!

Just what vacation was Barry on anyway? He must be some lawyer back home - a Bond/Flint type practicing law?

Lawyer picks up college grad and immediately invite her to his room; poor innocent American! He's in for a surprise for sure.

Anna Bryant is a joy, as she tries hard to carry the role. Barry keeps up, and along with Karen Jensen make it viewable.

One last thought: is not Walt Bissell always great?!!