Leofwine_draca THE JIGSAW MAN is an unremarkable spy drama of the 1980s that manages to be boring rather than thrilling, routine rather than intriguing. It doesn't help that it has no suspense whatsoever, it just goes through the motions throughout and veers into silliness on more than one occasion. Terence Young directs for the penultimate time in his career and is a long way from his glory Bond days of the 1960s here. Michael Caine is the miscast protagonist, a Russian spy who undergoes facial surgery in order to go undercover back in Britain once his cover is blown. An extraordinary cast of famous faces propel the story along, but you can't help find them more than a little wasted. Laurence Olivier is the handler, Robert Powell a fellow agent, and Susan George doesn't seem to have aged a day since STRAW DOGS. Charles Gray delivers an impeccably pompous turn while Vladek Sheybal, Michael Medwin, David Kelly, and Anthony Dawson do little more than provide mildly interesting cameos.

csrothwec Every great actor must have at least ONE on the CV they would not want anyone to find out about and for the likes of Caine and Olivier, ( I STILL cannot believe they were in this!), this is IT. Lacks EVERYTHING: pace, style, excitement, camera work, plot, score etc. etc. Unlike my REAL pet hates, such as John Wayne's "The Green Berets", I cannot even get really excited enough to hate this turkey, but just regard it in the way you would a really boring and unsatisfactory meal in a third rate restaurant - something you have gone through, but will never repeat by returning. Regard this film in the same way or, even better, save two hours of your life by doing something better than recording this when it is shown at 1.30a.m. on Channel Zog, (for I cannot imagine any other way you are going to get to see it), and wasting the time to view it later.

lost-in-limbo Sir Philip Kimberley is a former M16 intelligent general who defected to the Russians in the 70s, returns back to his home country after faking his death. He receives plastic surgery on his face, so he could go into England to pick up very important documents that he has hidden which has KGB agents working in England. Knowing that the British thinks his dead, he escapes the KGB men and defects back to the British as a Russian spy. He goes on to basically play each other off, in the hope he can pick up a large amount of doe and go on to live a new life, along with his daughter."The Jigsaw Man" is pretty much a fundamental Cold War thriller, which feels clammy and looks like a cheap b-grade spy film. The routine material (taken off Dorothea Bennett's novel) wants to be crafty with many plot tricks involving double crossings, disguises, ever-changing accents and secret documents. But with these aspects, there's just too much restraint and haggard developments in what is mainly a story and dialogue driven outing. You'll need these elements to be strong and convincing, but a stated script completely drags and spits out some bawdy lines. The serious nature of it, can come across quite laughable and ludicrous. While the chunky plot offers a labyrinth of turns, it can be meandering and vapid in many shady situations. These twisty developments running through the story are well organised, but never in a astute manner. Thrills are minimal, but the elaborately taut layout breaks out for an action flourish towards the latter end. Even then, the minor pockets of get-up-and-go just can't break the slumber for too long. Terence Young's pedestrian direction seems to go missing in very long spells, but Freddie Francis' polished photography and John Cameron's steamily leeching music score doesn't follow the same fate. The cast is an excellent one. Michael Caine is decent enough, even though it's not quite an inspired performance and provides nothing more then a sour-face. Laurence Olivier provides class, but again he's left with not too much on offer. One very underrated Robert Powell gives a reliably understated turn and Susan George is sparklingly potent in her supporting role.Incredibly patchy and at times hollow, but still a sturdy espionage thriller. The main problem is that it lingers about in too many chewy sequences then really getting on with it.

knurft2003 I saw this movie with my girlfriend, now wife, in 1984. Being the only two people in the theater on the second day of the movie should have given us a clue but that fact only really made sense when we left the theater 45 minutes later, well before the end. Expecting a decent thriller, Michael Caine worthy, we couldn't grasp the fact that this movie made it into the cinema in the first place! Of course I was 20 year younger then and i have seen some very, very bad movies since but none of them made the impression "The Jigsaw Man" did! Since that day my wife and I qualify bad, boring movies as "Even The Jigsaw Man was better". This movie has played a major part in our movie-viewing life for the last 20 years as THE "Bad Movie Benchmark".