The script is too talky and confused, and the storytelling suffers from too much going on to hide a rather thin structure for a film that is too long in the first place, a lack of excitement or nail-biting danger and three alternative endings that manage to be drawn-out and abrupt. Dany Robin doesn't have anything to do and doesn't register as a result. John Vernon tries hard and has some nice deadpan humour but was severely underused for his villain to be any more of a threat. There are too many characters, and a lot of them are thinly sketched, and nobody else really shines in their roles with Frederick Stafford especially stone-faced and wooden throughout. On the other hand, the film's pacing is plodding, and while there are some nice touches- the murder scene- and an entertaining cameo Hitchcock didn't seem to have his heart in it as much of it seemed rather flat. John Forsythe was quite good also, and Phillippe Noiret is engaging. Roscoe Lee Brown's is very colourfully characterised also. Karin Dor was the most impressive, she was deserving of more to do but she was intensely sensual and seemed to genuinely care about her situation. The brief torture scene was suspenseful and shocking also, and Hitchcock's cameo was very entertaining. The murder was also Topaz's most memorable scene for me, mainly because of how stunningly aesthetic it was. It is a well made film, the sets are attractive and atmospheric enough and the camera work and editing in Juanita's murder scene was brilliant. I cannot say though that it is an irredeemable film, because it isn't and I have yet to see a Hitchcock film to be so. Topaz I don't think is Alfred Hitchcock's- my favourite director- weakest film, Jamaica Inn still gets my vote for that. I've also read the novel and the film adaptation is excellent.
#Topaz impression review movie#
They wouldn't find this movie interesting in the least-especially due to Uris' assertion that the French were in bed with the Russians, so to speak (say it isn't so!). Ultimately, this brave man is forced to take another approach, as he understands that world peace might be at stake if something doesn't happen and fast! This film is a highly entertaining but cerebral look at the Cold War that would be of interest to most anyone but a die-hard nationalistic French person. The focus of all this is a lone brave agent that stumbles upon the story but he finds due to infiltration, his own countrymen either don't care or won't allow themselves to believe that their country is so compromised. The story is set in France and their government is inundated with Communists and Communist spies posing as defenders of the Republic. This movie is a background story about how the Cuban Missile Crisis came to the attention of the US government. This and the prior film, THE TORN CURTAIN are both about the battle between Communism and Democracy instead of the usual individual stories about murder. This is a pretty odd Hitchcock film because the territory is pretty unfamiliar to his audiences.