La griffe

A ruthless CIA agent arrives at an Alps ski paradise to track down his son's deadly accident he thinks is really murder, and finds himself in a complex web of intrigue.

Well-staged, quite surprising minor Cold War espionage with magnificent snow-bound photography and exciting action sequences, hampered by bursts of gratuitous violence and an unpleasant hero.

Yul Brynner is "The Double Man" in this 1967 spy film also starring Britt Ekland, Clive Revill, Moira Lister, and Lloyd Nolan.

Brynner is Dan Slater, a CIA agent who travels to Austria after the death of his teenage son in a skiing accident. It's been written off as an accident, but Slater isn't convinced. He asks a former undercover agent (Clive Revill) for help, but ends up doing most of the investigating himself and soon realizes that this was no accident. But to what end? Slater stays in Austria hoping to figure out what the plan is, and who has initiated it and why. He eventually meets Gina (Ekland) after several attempts at meeting her on the slopes. Gina had seen his son on the lift.

The plot is soon revealed, leading to a dangerous confrontation.

Pretty good, with an excellent performance by Brynner as a cold, hard man who shows no emotion and perhaps feels none. Also, the scenery is gorgeous, as is Britt Ekland, at the height of her beauty here.

Someone here mentioned that the glossy spoofs are better remembered today, and perhaps that poster is correct. However, I don't think there's too much remarkable here. It's a serviceable film with a very intrusive music score.

See it for Brynner's performance.

A pretty solid little spy thriller; it's never as intelligent as the "Ipcress File", but it's far superior to its two sequels, for example. No great shakes here, but the combination of an intriguing story, great cinematography, good Brynner performance(s) and Schaffner's adequate direction leads to a thoroughly passable time-filler.

A good director, a pro cast, fantastic locations and solid cinematography. The bad: terrible music, lack of action, listless plot, an overly complicated scheme, less than interesting climax. Icy spy Yul seems to be emulating Charles Bronson: sullen and non-communicative. Britt Ekland has a thankless role and gets beat up. More of a mystery than a spy/action film.

The Double Man beat much of the competition into the Alps, when movies were helping to glamorise skiing holidays. While The Pink Panther had a ski lodge segment, The Double Man anticipates the cable car action and snowy settings of Where Eagles Dare and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Interesting to note that the director would soon be working on the iconic Planet Of The Apes.

Added to the admirable location work are the international cast. There are no stars besides Yul Brynner, but there are several actors I have a lot of time for. Clive Revill in particular adds a solid emotional punching bag for Brynner. His intense and downbeat performance is in contrast to his usual extroverted and comedy roles. Anton Diffring was too often cast as Nazi baddies, but could easily deliver menace without a uniform. He starred in several classic horror films of the period, like Circus of Horrors and The Man Who Cheated Death. A young Britt Ekland amply provides glamour here, before she broke it big as a Bond girl.

I grew up watching this movie on TV and always tuned in for the cast, the twisty plot and especially the music. It's a little OTT in places but frantically catchy, pumping up the excitement even when there's little of it on screen. The special effects work is subtle and really convincing in selling the central twist...

I'm very pleased to see that at least this is out now on DVD in Germany, with an English language voice track option.