The Double Man (1967)

Another spy movie from the 'golden era' of the genre in the mid sixties to early seventies, The Double Man (1967), like the last couple we looked at, has a literary basis, but not a Helen MacInnes novel this time, but rather a late fifties effort titled 'Legacy of a Spy' by Henry S Maxfield.  It is apparently only a loose adaptation of the novel and a UK production, despite the American star and director and the Austrian locations.  Indeed, it does everything it can to convince the viewer that it is a big budget US studio production, which, by and large, it succeeds in doing.  It is far slicker than either of the MacInnes adaptations, (which were both US studio backed productions), with a decent script and a relatively complex, but entirely comprehensible, plot.  Yul Brynner stars as a CIA operative lured from Washington to Austria after he teenaged son dies in an apparent ski-ing accident while attending a ski school run by a former colleague.  Evidence of murder quickly emerges, with Brynner questioning who he can trust as he investigates.  A KGB plot to replace him with a double and thereby infiltrate the KGB gradually unfolds.  To the film's credit, while on the surface the main plot device might seem bizarre, the manner in which it is presented and the details of the KGB plan make it, fr the duration of the film at least, seem believable.

Yul Brynner usually came across an odd choice when cast as a leading man - his persona always seemed too distant and too ambivalent to be a conventional and sympathetic hero.  He always looked more comfortable cast in more authoritarian roles, where he wasn't required to emote or visibly empathise too much.  All of which made him the perfect casting for the lead in The Double Man, where he plays an absolutely cold hearted CIA officer, for whom any display of emotion or affection is regarded as a sign of weakness.  Of course, he actually plays a dual role, also portraying the villainous doppelganger the KGB are trying to replace him with.  The film's climax hinges on the fact that, no matter how much of a cold bastard the double is, he can never be as emotionally repressed as the real Brynner.  The Double Man sensibly keeps its main cast of characters relatively small, allowing them a chance to develop and the audience to understand and, in some cases, empathise with them.  While Brynner provides a strong central character, he is more than ably supported by Clive Revill as his ex-British agent turned teacher friend, who has lost his nerve with regard to the espionage business, Anton Diffring as KGB officer behind the substitution plot and Britt Eckland as a crucial witness and eventual romantic interest.  While never the strongest of actresses, Eckland nevertheless puts in a decent performance, as her character ends up caught between the two Brynners.  

But the film's biggest asset is Franklin J Schaffner's direction, which moves the film along at a steady enough pace that it never flags too badly, but that also allows the plot to develop properly, without it feeling rushed or disjointed.  The scenery, in the form of the snowy vistas of the Austrian Alps provides a striking (and nicely photographed) backdrop, but never overshadows the action.  Despite the giveaway of the title, Schaffner still manages to build up a degree of suspense with regard to the nature of the plot unfolding around Brynner's character.  Probably Schaffner's greatest strength as a director was his ability to tell a story without resort to lengthy expository dialogue, whether directing on an epic scale, as in Patton (1970) or Nicholas and Alexander (1971), or smaller scale dramas like Welcome Home (1989) or The Best Man (1964), and regardless of genre, moving between historical subjects like The Warlord (1965) and science fiction in Planet of the Apes (1968).  While The Double Man was a film that, by his own admission, Schaffner did solely for money, he nonetheless does a thoroughly professional job.  It might not be an outstanding entry in the spy movie stakes, but it is nevertheless an enjoyable and well made piece of entertainment.