Topaz (1969)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock | 127 minutes | drama, thriller, crime | Actors: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Claude Jade, Michel Subor, Per-Axel Arosenius, Roscoe Lee Browne, John Forsythe, Edmon Ryan, Sonja Kolthoff, Tina Hedström, John Van Drelen Donald Randolph, Roberto Contreras, Carlos Rivas, Roger Til, Lewis Charles, Sándor Szabó, Anna Navarro, Lew Brown, John Roper, George Skaff

Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s biggest dip in his career was during the 1960s. His muse Grace Kelly had left Hollywood for good to become Princess of Monaco and his favorite male protagonists Cary Grant and James Stewart had grown too old to play the leading man. ‘The Birds’ (1963) and ‘Marnie’ (1964), with Hitchcock’s new favorite blonde Tippi Hedren in the lead role, were not so bad, but then followed two films that for many fans of the great master are the least of his oeuvre. goods. In 1965 there was ‘Torn Curtain’ and four years later ‘Topaz’ followed. The film world changed in those years. Hitchcock felt that he had to move with the times, that he could no longer get away with the style he was familiar with. The film in which this forced adaptation is most apparent is ‘Topaz’, which sorely lacks the Hitchcock stamp. Only in a few scenes does he show that he is one of the most virtuoso filmmakers of all time.

‘Topaz’ is set in the middle of the Cold War, during the weeks leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford) is a French intelligence officer stationed in Washington DC, where he is best friends with local authorities. than his boss would like. At the insistence of CIA agent Mike Nordstrom (John Forsythe), André is sent out to gather more information about possible Russian cruise missiles that might be in Cuba. André’s mission takes him to the Hotel Theresa in New York, where he manages to extract secret information from Cuban revolutionary Rico Parra (John Vernon). He decides to travel to Cuba to see things with his own eyes. There he meets Juanita de Cordoba (Karen Dor), the widow of a hero of the revolution who is also secretly a resistance heroine, as well as Parra’s sweetheart. When things get out of hand in Cuba, André heads back to the US, where a defected KGB agent (Per-Axel Arosenius) declares that a bigwig in the French government is passing on NATO secrets to Moscow. This man is only known by the name ‘Topaz’. It is André’s job to get to the bottom of this.

Topaz, a Leon Uris bestseller based on the true story of a communist agent in the entourage of French general Charles de Gaulle, formed the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s 51st film. Under the contract between Uris and Universal Studios, he had to script his book himself. However, the result was not at all to Hitchcock’s liking. Struggling with a script he believed could not be made into a movie, Hitchcock called his good friend Samuel Taylor (who wrote the scripts for 1954’s Sabrina and 1958 Vertigo) and asked him to re-edit the script. It would be the only time Hitchcock started filming before the screenplay was finished. He was not used to this chaotic way of working and you can clearly see that in the film. He struggled especially with the ending. No less than three different closing scenes were shot, where the director could not figure out with Universal which ending it should be. The final choice, that of the studio, turns out to be quite an anticlimax.

This film also takes a bit too much on its fork. ‘Topaz’ was said to have been prepared and filmed for two years and the scenes were shot in Copenhagen, Paris, Wiesbaden, New York, Washington DC, Salinas, California and at three Universal recording studios. Actually, that’s a bit too much of a good thing, because each location has its own intrigue. The middle part, which takes place in Cuba, is the strongest. Hitchcock has a number of opportunities in these scenes to show what he can do with a camera and he grabs it with both hands. In particular, a murder scene shown from above is a picture. But this is one of the few highlights. The cast of semi-known and downright unknown actors doesn’t help boost the status of ‘Topaz’ either. Main character Frederick Stafford – Hitch actually wanted Sean Connery – does not appeal to the viewer. The presence of the French toppers Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret is of no avail. The only one who seems to be really having fun in his role is John Vernon, who gets to live out as a Cuban revolutionary, complete with Fidel’s beard. Furthermore, the beautiful Karin Dor (Bond girl in ‘You Only Live Twice’ from 1967) is fascinating as Juanita de Cordoba.

Lucky for Hitchcock that only a single film he made would be as disappointing as ‘Topaz’. The standard is of course also higher if your palmares consists of masterpieces such as ‘Rear Window’ (1954) and ‘Vertigo’. Any other filmmaker would want him to reach the level of this lesser Hitchcock. The cast may not be that appealing, the script too cluttered and the production at times sloppy, but it still remains a Hitchcock. But the disappointing ‘Topaz’ is in fact only really worthwhile for the notorious collector.