ma-cortes The film has suspense , tension , emotion , mystery and specially in its final a little bit of violence . Following the death of his son , in the Austrian Alps , ¨The Key Man¨ , a high ranking officer in the CIA called Dan Slater (Yul Brynner) , has to face off the most daring plot ever concocted by the secret agents of two worlds : East and West , during the Cold War . In Austria he decides to investigate and step by step finds out that the death of his son was no a skiing accident . A retired , prior undercover operative , Frank Wheatley (Clive Revill) , whom he had hoped would watch out for his son helps Dan seeks out the real killers . By the way , Dan meets socialite Gina (Britt Ekland , though Ulla Jacobsson was offered first this role) , the companion of rich and mature Mrs. Carrington (Moira Lister) , who puts him on the alright trails o perhaps fake clues . Eventually , rare inconsistencies begin appearing leading Dan to conclude that Russian secret service led by Col. Berthold (Anton Diffring) attempting a mysterious kidnapping . Suspenseful movie packs thrills , intrigue , frantic action , twists and turns . This complex piece of espionage is notable for its snow-capped scenery and its thrilling intrigue from start to finish . Interesting as well as amusing screenplay from Alfred Hayes and Frank Tarloff based on Henry Maxfield's novel titled "Legacy of a Spy". However , the movie's script was similar to the then recently released Spy with my face (1965) and its TV counter-part The agent of T.I.A. : The Double Affair (1964) . Although the picture has various ingredients for entertainment , the screenplay is also complex , including inexplicable incidents , the plot has gaps , in spite of it results to be pretty fun . Nice acting by Yul Brynner as cold and emotion-less agent , a top-notch performance who steals the show and gorgeous Britt Ekland's first major movie role . Support cast is pretty good such as Lloyd Nolan as Major Edwards who assigns him the dangerous mission , Clive Revill as undercover agent , Moira Lister as wealthy Mistress and Brandon Brady as Russian agent . Special mention for Anton Diffring in his ordinary German face and cool , clipped diction , as he replaced an actor who dropped out ; here Anton plays magnificently a Russian operative who attempts to substitute starring with a double of its own in order to obtain a mole in the highest echelons of the CIA agency . Diffring was a character actor who worked continuously in movies due to his aristocratic style , making him ideal for typecasting in British and later American films as Nazis and other vile , despicable roles , what was ironic about his typecasting as a Nazi is that he fled Nazi Germany in 1939 .Lively and enjoyable musical score by Ernie Freeman , including catching sounds throughout . Colorful cinematography by Dennis Coop , shot on location in wonderful outdoors as the mountain range vista seen in the film is the Tyrolean Alps situated in the state of Tyrol in western Austria . Good aerial scenes and spectacular snowy landscapes carried out by the late aerial cameraman John Jordan who died whilst working on Catch 22 (1970) . It was released before the snow-laden James Bond movie On her Majesty's secret service (1969), Jordan worked on both these spy movies . Lavishly produced by Hal E Chester , he was a juvenile actor , then a producer of low-budget movies in Hollywood, before he moved in 1955 to Britain, where he set up his own production company to take advantage of the lower costs of filming ; over the next 15 years he turned out a wide range of pictures, which often featured American stars such as Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Paul Newman and Yul Brynner . The picture was well directed by Franklin J. Schaffner . He made excellent motion pictures such as "The Planet of the Apes", "Patton, " "Papillon" , ¨"Nicholas and Alexandra" , after the flop of his film titled " Islands in the Stream ", in which went on to coincide with the actor of "Patton" , George C. Scott , he decided to embark on a project more commercial and successful as "The Boys From Brazil" ; however , ¨Sphinx¨ ,¨Lionheart¨, ¨Si Giorgio¨ were other box office failures . Rating : Better than average , worthwhile watching .

rruess-1 I watched this movie in the wee hours of the morning and probably should not have done so as I was not too sure who was the survivor in the end. I do not like to have a movie end that way, but the location scenes were very good and makes me want to return there again.Cannot an American movie be made without the overkill of the "barroom brawl" smash and bang portion that, in my opinion, ruins the whole movie. Someone has to come crashing through plate glass windows, destroy mountains of dishes and glassware and demolish a whole kitchen or other room for "sensationalism". This cheap addition makes me not like whatever else (good story, good acting, beautiful scenery) may be in that movie. Americans are destructive orientated and I guess we thrive on the addition of this junk.

Theo Robertson CIA agent Dan Slater learns that his 16 year old son has been killed in a skiing accident in Switzerland and goes to collect the body . He finds out that his son's death may not have been an accident The 1960s was a decade of wannabe Bond B movies most of them either forgettable or just plain embarrassing . THE DOUBLE MAN is a film that doesn't want to emulate the crazy fast paced antics of James Bond . Instead it has a style similar to something John Le Carre would have written It's not a bad cold war thriller but it is a very and I do mean VERY talkative one with the first hour composed of Dan Slater asking everyone who knew his son if he'd been murdered . Then when the major plot twist is revealed halfway through that the dastardly commies murdered Slater Jnr in order to bring his father to Switzerland you'll find yourself asking some obvious questions like Why did the baddies have to come up with such an intricate plan ? Surely they could have murdered him and home and replaced him with the impostor ?Ah yes the impostor ! How on Earth would this work in reality ? He may know Slater drinks 4 cups of black coffee a day but how would he be able to keep up the pretense for any effective period of time ? It's the sort of film that thinks it's being intelligent but because of the plotting it's far from clever

Smalling-2 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.