O Espião de Corinto

Add Seberg and Greece to Chabrol and you'd expect something to sizzle. Unfortunately sizzle is not quite the right word - damp squib, maybe? The plot, such as it is, has been well set out by others so I won't rehash that. Whilst the story and the events are ridiculous, there is, nevertheless, a certain style here. The opening scene, where a magician enters Greece and the Greek border guards find the incriminating goods, promises a good film (I understand that this scene was cut from the version originally shown in the UK - as it's one of the best scenes goodness knows what it must have been like watching it back then). But sadly it's all downhill from there although the style and flair are still there. Who could fail to admire the dapper, but ruthless, killer in his white suit, white shirt, red tie and matching red-banded straw boater? Fortunately Chabrol returned to more masterful output a year later with "Les Biches", a film that is so far removed from this it's hard to believe it's the same director.

And who on earth dreamt up the dumb English language title for the US release? Surely "The Road to Corinth" would have worked.

I'm quite a big fan of French director Claude Chabrol's work that I have seen. This spy thriller is the earliest film of his that I have encountered and, to be honest, it's also the worst one so far in my opinion. It was one of many 60's spy films made at the time, a genre that was at the zenith of its popularity in that decade. The story involves NATO radar being jammed by some secret devices located somewhere in Greece. An American agent investigating this is killed and his wife then goes on the run while trying to solve the mystery.

Frankly, it's a very uninteresting story-line and one that unfortunately makes matters worse by playing things for laughs a lot of the time. I guess this would be okay if it was even remotely funny but the result is more of a very light-weight and silly film. It's very much a million miles away from the more austere films that are for the most part typical of Chabrol. In fact after this movie he was about to begin a run of extremely interesting serious minded thrillers which must surely constitute the best phase of his career. He was far better when he made movies that focused on psychologically complex character relationships. Like his hero Alfred Hitchcock, with Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969), he came unstuck when he made populist, straight-forward 60's spy thrillers, the results being far less interesting than his darker psychological works. The film is by no means a total washout though; after all it has exotic locations and the super chic actress Jean Seberg in the lead role. It's more overtly stylised than most Chabrol films, although admittedly his lower-key style was far better suited to him. So it's superficially quite good fun to an extent but is undoubtedly a weak film from this great director.

Even if he had the greatest longevity among the Nouvelle Vague crowd, Chabrol's work tends to be erratic - but, at his best (usually when directing psychological thrillers), he was up there with Hitchcock and Lang.

This was a film I had missed out on previously so, when it turned up again recently on late-night Italian TV, I made sure to catch it this time. Despite its credentials, it doesn't have a very good reputation and, watching it now, I can well understand why! The muddled storyline makes for an espionage thriller that's somewhat dreary (with the titular device serving as the proverbial "McGuffin"); nevertheless, it definitely benefits from a good cast (an appealing Jean Seberg, Christian Marquand, a rather glum-looking Saro Urzi, Chabrol himself in a small but important role - which, at one point, sees him disguised as a Greek Orthodox priest! - as well as regulars Maurice Ronet and Michel Bouquet - the latter, perhaps, coming off best of all), the lush cinematography of Greek locations (courtesy of Jean Rabier) and Pierre Jansen's lively score. Its tongue-in-cheek approach helps, too, resulting in the occasional amusing moment or quip (though the film never quite descends to the camp level of, say, MARIE-CHANTAL VS. DR. KHA [1965]).

All things considered, then, a very minor Chabrol which, interestingly enough, directly preceded LES BICHES (1968) - the film which heralded his greatest period (one that would last, more or less, till 1975's INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS). WHO'S GOT THE BLACK BOX? is out on R1 DVD through Pathfinder - but the company's hit-and-miss record and the disc's own bare-bones status don't give it much hope of an eventual purchase from me (unless they stick it in another Box Set somewhere down the line, though it seems that the only other title they have released outside of the already-existing 8-Disc Collection - and which I've been pondering about picking up for ages! - is PLEASURE PARTY [1975], available as a stand-alone SE)...

Claude Chabrol tried his hand repeatedly at the spy genre in the 1960s (when it was extremely popular, due to James Bond's success), but it wasn't really his forte: his style is just too cerebral and measured in its pace to generate much excitement. At least "The Road To Corinth" is an improvement over his two "Agent Tiger" efforts (which further suffered from an uncharismatic lead). In this one, Jean Seberg takes a while to appear, but she makes a fairly awesome heroine: brave, smart, sneaky, determined, and (to state the obvious) beautiful with a killer body. The attractive Greek locations, the flavorful music score and a collection of eccentric characters keep you watching, but as I said above the film is rarely exciting and its climax is more of an anticlimax. Worth seeing mostly as a diversion for Chabrol, just before he entered the most celebrated phase of his long career. **1/2 out of 4.

If the prospect of watching Jean Seberg dangle from a crane is appealing to you then perhaps you may get something out of this pointless exercise. As it sits there is really very little to recommend here other than the luminous beauty of the star.

The story, the smuggling of little black boxes that jam the Greek radar stations, is nothing to get excited about and director Claude Chabrol refuses to inject much in the way of action or suspense to offset it. Chabrol made a few spy flicks early in his career (see Our Agent Tiger) but this one must be considered the weakest.

The film opens with an anonymous quotation: `I don't ask you to believe it but I suggest that you dream about it.' There is a certain dream-like quality to the proceedings but this lackadaisical film is nearly anti-spy cinema. If the question is `Who has the black box?' the reply simply has to be `Who cares?'