Chasse aux espions

This is a very good spy film with an astonishingly novel story element. Amongst the 'actors' are two ferocious black panthers. They get loose from their cages in a train and spies from both sides are hunting them because of some microfilm concealed in the collar of one of them. Howard Duff plays the stalwart good guy American who was supposed to be transporting the panthers to a zoo. He is not a spy for either side. He meets the alluring Märta Torén amd falls for her. She is the one who concealed the mircrofilm in the panther's collar after drugging the panther. There are various mysterious men who may be goodies or may be baddies, and most of them have hunting rifles. George Sherman directs this caper and makes the most of it. The entire adventure takes place in the Swiss Alps. How many dogs and men will be killed by the panthers? How many will be killed by spies of the other side? This one is certainly different. The acting and production are good, but one may well be a bit more nervous the next time one visits the big cat section of a zoo.

Universal-International's grade B suspense film is built around an outre gimmick MacGuffin: incriminating microfilm is smuggled out of Italy on a train in the collar of a male black panther, which Howard Duff has been hired to transport along with its female mate to America. The rest of the show is the hunt for the deadly escaped panthers, with a group of unsavory spies also on their trail.

This movie desperately needed some star power to punch it up. Since Robert Mitchum starred in "The Night of the Hunter" and "Track of the Cat", two classics shot several years later, he would have been perfect as the lead, and throw in his famous co-star of the '40s, Jane Greer, and wow! But instead we have Duff and Marta Toren, plus a colorless supporting cast.

Lousy script gives zero sympathy to the beautiful panthers -instead they're described as symbolizing pure evil. Not for me, I was rooting for them from the git go.

I guess we'll have to wait for Ryan Coogler to direct a big-budget remake! At least he'll know who the true hero and heroine of this story are.

George Sherman, better known as a second feature or assistant director despite having an A flick like COMANCHEROS in his curriculum, comes up with a visually spectacular spy yarn in SPY HUNT, further enhanced by the entrancingly beautiful Marta Toren, herself a spy trying to conceal a negative with supposedly crucial data.

Although what the negative might contain, who it might belong to, and who the information is intended for is never clarified, it is safe to assume that either the action relates to WWII and Germanic-looking heavies are after it, or this is already the Cold War boiling over in the Italian/Swiss Alps.

Regardless of the conflict, it is a riveting film with credible dialogue, good acting from Duff, Friend, Douglas, Donn and Slezak, here playing against type a non-sleazy medical doctor and inn owner. The show, though, is stolen by the mesmerizing beauty of Toren and the panthers roaming wild over lovingly shot rocky, snowy, or arborous landscape. Great action sequences involving the felines, including a fight with a bloodhound. Truly wonderful cinematography by Irving Glassberg.

Well worth watching: 8/10.

The film is tense and exciting throughout. A panther has a message inserted into a collar around its neck, a message which is of great interest to some questionable characters. The panther escapes its cage and is tracked by Howard Duff, representing the U.S. and by parties who represent the subversives (Ivan Tresault being one of them). The entire film deals with the search and provides some very tense moments. Marta Toren is the beauty who has questionable credentials which have one guessing as to which side she is on. A good film which deserves some recognition.



J.W.

This is an Off-Beat "Out There" Story of a Female "Cold-War" Spy, Hiding Microfilm in the Collar of a Circus-Panther and the "Game is Afoot".

Marta Toren is the Spy and Howard Duff is the "Caught in the Web" Bystander.

The "Spy Hunt" of the Title is a bit Misleading...The Spy is Actually the "Hunter" and the "Hunt" is Literally a "Big-Game" Pursuit when the "Cats" (there are 2) Escape After a Thrilling Train-Wreck.

It Takes Place in the Mountains of Switzerland and the Expanding Cast...Adding a Journalist...an Artist...a Doctor/Innkeeper (Walter Slezack)...and More,

All Lodged Shoulder-to-Shoulder as the "Hunt" Takes Place. Everyone is a "Suspect" and May Not be What They Seem.

The Movie Fails in Some Respects with an Over-Use of Back-Screen at Times, at other Times the Scenery and the Hunt are Quite Impressive.

The Set-Up is Ludicrous (with the Cats used as a transporting mechanism in the first place),

but it is Certainly a Different Take and a Unique Back-Drop for the "Spy vs Spy" Game that was just Beginning its Long-Run and Became a Genre All its Own.

Slightly Above Average...

But can seem a bit Ridiculous...

the Tension is Terse, the Suspense Palatable, and the Ending, while somewhat Labored Satisfies.

The Beautiful, Short-Lived Marta Toren and the Off-Kilter Template Make it Definitely...

Worth a Watch

Note...The Cat-Wrangling is superb. The "Black-Panthers" are actually Mountain Lions with a Dye-Job.