TRIPLE CROSS (1966)

In late 1930s England, the Gelignite Gang is making headlines for a series of safecracking crimes, but we see that the Gang is actually one man, Eddie Chapman (Christopher Plummer, pictured) whom the police eventually catch up with while he's vacationing on one of the Channel Islands. While he's imprisoned, the island is occupied by German forces and he offers to be a spy for the Germans if they let him go. Colonel Steinhager (Gert Forbe) and his mistress the Countess (Romy Schneider) visit him in prison (where the Countess is whistled at by the rowdy prisoners) and they accept his offer. Chapman's death is faked and he is given his assignments by Baron Von Grunen (Yul Brynner). First he is parachuted into England in what turns out to be a loyalty test; Von Grunen thinks he will not transmit information so he is actually dropped in France, but in the nick of time, Chapman figures it out and passes with flying colors. Then he's sent on his real mission: to blow up a British weapons factory. Once in England, he makes contact with the military and offers his services to them as a double agent. They fake the explosion and back in Germany, Chapman gets an Iron Cross, despite some suspicions among the Nazi brass. He is sent back to get information about some bombing targets and again works with the British to supply false coordinates. The title comes from the idea, touched on in the final scene, that maybe there was a third element here that he was more loyal to than either Germany or England.

This is based on a true story; Chapman was real and this movie was based in part on his autobiography (and his story was told more recently in a well-received book called Agent Zigzag). While this movie is always watchable, it's rarely compelling. In some ways, it's unique in the genre of mid-60s spy films. It's not campy, it's not slam-bang action, and it's not disillusioned gloomy like John LeCarre films can be. Plummer was probably anxious to distance himself from the character of Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, but some of his actorly traits here smack of Von Trapp mannerisms. His best scene is one in which he is about to kill himself with a poison pill because he thinks the Germans have figured out his game and are about to torture him. More interesting are Frobe as one of his handlers and Brynner as a Nazi whom we eventually find somewhat sympathetic. Romy Schneider has little to do except look good. Trevor Howard has a small role. The tense musical score tends to get over the top at times. The production values are good, though the atmosphere rarely seems of the 1940s, but the script and the overall tone could have used some more work. [TCM]