Scorpio (1973)
Directed by Michael Winner

Film Review

Ten years after working together on Luchino Visconti's The Leopard, Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon find themselves sharing the same studio once more in this grim spy thriller.  Despite top notch performances from both actors, the film feels flat and formulaic and has certainly not aged as well as some other notable thrillers of the 1970s.  Apart from a few memorable action sequences, Michael Winner's direction generally lacks imagination, and resorts too often to stereotypical shorthand.  However, the film's main Achilles heel is its bland, cliché-laden script, which includes some truly awful dialogue.  Trivia buffs should note that the film's title is a reference to the star sign of the film's two lead actors and its director - a hint perhaps that inspiration really was in dangerously short supply.

Film Synopsis

Cross is a CIA agent who is looking forward to a peaceful retirement with his wife Sarah.  He doesn't know that his boss McLeod suspects he has been passing on secrets to the Soviets and intends to liquidate him.  Another agent, Jean Laurier, code-named Scorpio, is sent to kill Cross as he makes his way across Europe.  Cross is meeting up with his Russian counterpart Zharkov in Vienna when his wife is shot dead by CIA agents.

Bent on revenge, Cross makes a hasty return to America, determined to find the man responsible for his wife's death and kill him.  Concrete evidence then comes to light confirming that Cross may have been heavily involved in working for foreign powers in the past.  This revelation galvanises the CIA's determination to have him eliminated, and the only man for the job is Scorpio, the agency's most efficient executioner...