L'agente speciale Mackintosh

Thrilling and exciting picture with an extraordinary duo , Paul Newman and Dominique Sanda , they form an awesome pair in this interesting flick . This is an entertaining movie full of all usual trimmings : car pursuits , fistfights , noisy action , getaway and capture . It deals with a member of British Intelligence named Reardon (Paul Newman) who undergoes a risked assignment ordered by Mackintosh (Harry Andrews) . As he is recruited , assuming a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught , imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization led by a mysterious leader (Michael Hordern) . Reardon have to expose a communist traitor and he also must catch him . The intrigue involves a Conservative Member of the British Parliament, Sir George Wheeler (James Mason) , who is best known for his frequent political diatribes on the British government . Meanwhile , Reardon goes in action , being helped by a beautiful agent (Dominique Sanda in her first Hollywood movie for French actress) .

A cold war spy thriller with all the edge-of-seat ingredients : suspense , thrills , a complex intrigue , twists and turns . Intriguing and thrilling script , being one of the first produced screenplays of Walter Hill who later became an action thriller director . Paul Newman is first rate as a secret agent assigned a dangerous mission accompanied by a beauty Dominique Sanda . Wily and excellent , as always , James Mason as a cunning Parliament member with dark aims . This is the first of two movies that actors Paul Newman and James Mason made together , the other was Verdict . It's also the second of two movies that director John Huston and actor Paul Newman made together , he first was The judge Roy Bean , made the previous year . Supporting cast is frankly magnificent , such as Ian Bannen , Nigel Patrick , Michael Hordern , Percy Herbert , the last film of Noel Purcell and Niall MacGinnis and special mention to Harry Andrews as Mackintosh . This film and its source novel were loosely based on the identification, defection and escape from Wormwood Scrubs Prison in 1966 of Russian spy George Blake who was working in British intelligence as a double agent but was not one of the Cambridge Five spies . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Oswald Morris filmed on location in London , Ireland and Malta . Enjoyable musical score by the great Maurice Jarre , including a catching leitmotif .

The motion picture was well produced by John Foreman who financed various Huston films such as The Man Who Would Be King ; being stunningly directed by the great John Huston at his best . Director John Huston made this spy movie not longer after he had helmed another espionage film , Kremlin's letter . The picture was made in a good time of the 70s and 80s when Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City, (1972 ), the afore-mentioned The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987). Rating : 7 above average , worthwhile watching , though P.G. , parents guide , for its violence and beatings . This is one of John Huston's main films , a model of his kind , the spy genre , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to thriller film . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing exciting scenes and unforgettable dialogs .

The Mackintosh Man is taken from the excellent novel The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley. The book is far, far better than the film.

Paul Newman plays Reardon, a spy who poses as a convict. He goes to prison and befriends Slade, a Russian double agent played by Ian Bannen. When Slade is sprung from prison by a secret organisation, Reardon goes with him and infiltrates their gang.

The action moves from Ireland to Malta, and there's lot of intrigue and double-crosses. You'd think with all that going for it, the film would be entertaining, but it isn't. For one thing, it has a murky look throughout. For another, it is badly scripted and leaves out far too much of the important explanatory information that makes it work in the novel. The result is intolerable, because it is a confusing mess. Owing to the script's muddled nature, the actors give downbeat performances which further hurt an already disappointing film.

British agent Joseph Rearden (Paul Newman) meets his superior MacKintosh and Mrs Smith who direct him to steal diamonds from mysterious mail deliveries. He gets arrested after an anonymous tip and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He joins Slade, a KGB mole in British intelligence, in a prison escape. They are drugged and brought to a vast secret organization. Meanwhile, politician Sir George Wheeler (James Mason) rails against the government and MacKintosh informs him of infiltrating the escape organization.

The first act is rather stale. John Huston directs the material in a standard manner. The trial is boring. It would have worked much better to start with Newman arriving in prison. His intelligence background should be revealed much later as a shocking twist. The pacing and plotting is rather slow and methodical. It is competently made and it has the great Paul Newman. It's well into the second half when they finally have a car chase. Otherwise, the drama is rather limited.

John Huston directed this little-seen thriller that stars Paul Newman as Joseph Reardon, a member of British Intelligence sent on an undercover mission by his boss Mr. Mackintosh(played by Harry Andrews) in a prison where he is given a fictitious criminal background in order to infiltrate a criminal gang where the leaders are imprisoned. He assists in their eventual escape which leads from Ireland to Malta. His contact(played by Dominique Sanda) is a beautiful but aloof woman who has her own personal reasons for the assignment, which includes a Parliament member(played by James Mason) who isn't what he pretends to be... OK espionage thriller with good cast and direction, though the plot does seem overly complicated at times.

While never actively bad, this thriller just isn't exceptional. The first half isn't bad (we keep wondering why Newman is doing these things, and we wonder where he's going and what's going to happen), though it somehow lacks "oomph" to everything. In the second half, it starts to get dull. You won't be clear on everything in the end, and the climax came off more as a whimper than a bang. Nowhere near the worst movie in the world, but you can give it a miss despite Huston directing and Newman starring. This didn't do very well at the box office when it first came out, and it's easy to see why.