Film Review
A Dandy in Aspic is not a
particularly well-regarded film but when one compares it with the James
Bond movies of the late 1960s, it is not too difficult to work out
which is the superior spy thriller. Whilst the Bond movies had
degenerated into formulaic self-parody, substituting comic book fantasy
for realism,
A Dandy in Aspic
is actually a pretty respectable attempt at a Cold War thriller, its
labyrinthine plot, ambiguous characters and sombre location filming
easily evoking the murky world of political espionage.
The film is often faulted for its uneven pace and curious mix of
styles, which can be attributed to its production difficulties.
During the location shoot in Berlin, director Anthony Mann suffered a
fatal heart attack, and Laurence Harvey stepped into the breach to
direct the last two weeks of filming. Harvey, the film's
leading actor (who had previously distinguished himself
in Jack Clayton's
Room at the Top (1959) and
John Frankenheimer's
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)),
was by no means a novice director - he had previously
directed
The Ceremony (1963).
However, having to fill Mann's shoes under what must have been
extremely distressing circumstances was clearly a challenge. It's
a miracle the film was ever completed and an even bigger miracle that
it holds together as well as it does.
The film's fragmented nature seems to be appropriate for its subject, a
man with a fractured identity who finds himself trapped in a Kafkaesque
reality where no one is quite what he seems. There is an
unsettling dreamlike quality to this film, which flits back and forth
between gritty realism and camp playfulness, the demarcation between
the two becoming less apparent as the story progresses. Where
there is humour, it is humour with an extremely sinister underbelly.
On the surface, Laurence Harvey's debonair spy is almost a proto-Roger
Moore James Bond, but if we look a little closer we see a troubled and
weary man whose one wish is to regain his lost identity. By
contrast, the other agents in the film are as two-dimensional as those
in an Ian Fleming novel, ranging from the twisted sociopath Gatiss (Tom
Courtenay at his most chilling) to the camp totty-obsessed Prentiss
(Peter Cook's audition piece for a role in the
Carry On films, probably).
The more superficial the supporting characters appear, the more they
resemble painted dolls (echoing the puppet motif of the opening credits
sequence), dolls who are mindlessly enacting a bizarre game that lacks
both rules and a purpose.
A
Dandy in Aspic is by no means a run-of-the-mill spy
thriller. It is in fact an intelligent, deeply unsettling
existentialist drama which, in a wryly black comedic fashion, shows how
important a well-defined sense of identity is to the human
psyche.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Eberlin, a British intelligence operative, is surprised when his
superiors assign him to find and assassinate a troublesome KGB agent
named Krasnevin. The truth is that Eberlin is himself Krasnevin,
a double agent who has been in the employ of the Soviets for nearly
twenty years. Partnered with a ruthless British agent named
Gatiss, Eberlin is sent to West Berlin, where Krasnevin was apparently
last sighted. Realising that the net is fast closing in on
him, Eberlin makes several attempts to cross the border into East
Germany, without success. His Russian paymasters consider him too
valuable to allow him to return home, so Eberlin has no choice but to
play along with Gatiss. The latter is contacted by the KGB,
who offer to hand over Krasnevin in exchange for a large sum of
money. Eberlin expects he is about to be betrayed and so is
unprepared for what happens next. Another British agent turns up
dead, with documents on him that prove he is Krasnevin. It
appears the hunt is over. But is it...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.