Zev A very good spy thriller despite its age. Its treatment of the Germans, the Allies and the love affair is surprisingly sophisticated with many shades of gray and many interesting characters and an unexpected ending to the love affair. Based on a true story, it tells the tale of an American-born Swedish citizen who is coerced into spying for the allies and who soon adopts the cause for other reasons. The spy-craft, and the many deceptions and tricks are quite believable.But for some reason I wasn't accepting the movie as the flawless work that it seemed to be, and found it difficult to define why, at first.For one thing, the constant narration is pretty annoying. They should have just shown the story instead of having him feed us the story.Holden, as Erickson, seemed a bit flat as a character. But then it struck me: I just couldn't tune in to him as a character because I could not understand his motivations. They portray him as a cold businessman at first, coerced into spying, yet he acts way way beyond someone who has been blackmailed. I could not understand why he not only fully co-operated at first, but even contributed beyond the minimum and never looked for a way out. As another example of strange behaviour, he could have treated his friend differently after the staged betrayal was performed for the Nazis, and after he proved himself a loyal friend. But he just followed his instructions blindly even though there was no danger. In fact, he could have avoided danger by telling him it was an act, seeing as his friend didn't believe him anyways. They also used the blackmail trick a bit too often on many characters, and I never understood why they all gave in so easily. I thought of several ways they could have found a way out so why couldn't they try as well? In short, these behaviour flaws bothered me. But it's definitely worth a watch nevertheless, and it may even impress you as a forgotten classic.

SnoopyStyle It's WWII. Former American Eric Erickson (William Holden) is blacklisted by the US for importing oil from Germany while living in neutral Sweden. He gave up his US Citizenship back in 1930. He's approached by Collins to spy on the Germans in exchange for getting out of the blacklist. He comes up with a fantasy to build refineries in Sweden for Germany to infiltrate the Nazi world using his friend Baron von Oldenburg. Collins keeps pushing him to gather intel and recruit others. He is surprised to find his contact in Germany is the Nazi fanatic Marianne Möllendorf. He recruits the Baron by blackmailing him through his POW son in Russia. He recruits refinery manager Otto Holtz by giving him a letter despite his fanatical young boy. Wilhelm Kortner discovers his espionage but Eric turns the table and blackmails him instead.It's based on the real Eric Erickson. It has some interesting espionage bits and some great scenes. I would really like to lose the narration although I understand the need to explain his inner thoughts. There is just too much narration especially in the beginning and it doesn't stop. It's also a long movie that could be tightened up. It needs to maintain a higher level of tension all the way through. However the real spy story is very compelling and the movie is able to translate some of that onto the screen.

dhitman The picture captures the true feeling of the war and the heroic attempt of a few people to contribute to the destruction of a dictatorship.The line " you can read about a hundred atrocities, hear about a thousand, but you only have to see one" will always stay with me.I wonder why Eric Erickson has not been mentioned in history as a hero of World War Two? He was very similar to Oscar Shindler. I would hope that the real story of Eric Erickson is told some day. Lilli Palmer was wonderful and injected the reality of the war inside Germany throughout the picture. She was the most believable of all the characters. The scenes in the prison and her character's death were very realistic and left you with how helpless they were under the Nazi regime.Next to " The Bridge On The River Kwai" this is William Holden's best picture.

Nazi_Fighter_David Born in Brooklyn, Eric Erickson (William Holden) is a naturalized Swedish businessman neutral enough to deal with both the Germans and Allies, until he discovers his name on a published list of Nazi sympathizers...Shocked and angry, he soon discovers that his inclusion on that list is a device to force him to work for British Intelligence whose representative, a sarcastic Collins (Hugh Griffith), he meets at the Stockholm Grand Hotel...Collins not only admits the blackmail, but compounds it by having the conversation taped to enforce Eric's cooperation, since the Swedes strongly value their neutrality... Disarmed as well as astonished by Collins' cynicism, Eric has to agree to become a spy, while the spy master, between courses of his luncheon, admits he would 'deal with thieves, liars, procurers, traitors, and sluts' to get the job done...Not only must Eric supply information on the German oil industry, he also has to act the part of someone on the Allied blacklist... Despite his real sympathies, Eric must make spiteful remarks about the Allies, and more importantly, has to drop sneering remarks about Jews and to insult publicly his Jewish best friend within hearing of the German ambassador... The friendship with the Third Reich's diplomat is needed to secure official sanction for Eric's plan to construct German oil refineries in Sweden—the means by which he is to secure the information the Allies want... Eric not only humors the optimal negotiator, he also promises him a share in the company he is forming and charmingly pays him the money lost in weekly bridge games... Eric begins his frequent business trips to Germany with a gala reception during which he makes contact with another agent, an irresistible woman with whom he is to pretend to have an affair, Mariana (Lilli Palmer).Mariana, wife of a high-ranking German officer, is both an idealist and an efficient spy... She would embrace and kiss Eric for the sake of any Gestapo man trailing them and then shake hands before getting down to the business of encoding messages... Her shock at Eric's selfish reasons for being a spy contrasted with her own, a firmly loyal belief in the Catholic religion to fight the Anti-Christ, Hitler... In perhaps the film's most moving scene, she tells Eric that 'one must not think of the war simply in terms of hundreds of tanks and thousand of planes and units of men, like some sort of wrestling match on a gigantic scale... but in terms of a single truck on its way to a concentration camp and what's shivering inside in.'Unlike many other spy films set during the war, 'The Counterfeit Traitor' stressed the personal and emotional cost of espionage: Eric, the spy-against-his-will, had not only to forsake his wife and friends who were upset by his apparent Nazi sympathies, he had also to witness Nazi atrocities... George Seaton's 'The Counterfeit Traitor' is sobering to a remarkable degree, mostly when Marianne discovers she has given her confession not to a priest; the questioning of Eric in Berlin's basement cell; Hitler Youth member Hans Holtz stealing Eric's briefcase with incriminating letter; and Eric's confrontation with Gestapo man Jaeger...