Reviews (21)

International Top-Cast
After a Russian officer defects to the United States, the gouvernment learns of a special French intelligence agent in Cuba, called Topaz. It seems Topaz has access to NATO secrets and in turn, deals that information to the Russians, which means a double agent must be involved somewhere. The Russian agent reveals all this to Michael Nordstrom (John Forsythe), who decides the best course of action to call on his friend and trusted associate,Andre Devereaux (Frederick Stafford, who spend some days with his wife Nicole (Dany Robin), his young-married daughter Michèle (Claude Jade) and his son-in-law Francois Picard (Michel Subor) in New York. So Devereaux heads off to Havana, where he hopes to learn more about Topaz and also scout the potential missiles that have been rumored to exist in the area. There his love Juanita (Karin Dor) is killed by diplomate Parra (John Vernon). Andre follows his family to Paris to find out, who leads "Topaz". Michèle ask her mother for help to Andre, but Nicole says "There's nothing I can do" - Nicole haves an affair with the leader von "Topaz"... This movie turns out to be decent enough, but it seems like a real let down, since it came from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Betrayal between all the persons, played by an international cast: young Claude Jade, made famous by Francois Truffaut's "Stolen Kisses" and "Bed & Board", as Andre's worried daughter, Dany Robin also from France as her mother, Michel Subor from Godard's "Little Soldier" as son-in-law, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret as "topaz"-spies, the german actress Karin Dor as the cuban lady in Hitchcock's most underrated thriller.

Good, But You Can Certainly Do Better
After 1966's "Torn Curtain" flopped, Hitchcock decided to make another spy thriller. "Topaz", based on Leon Uris's best - selling novel of the same name, is meant to be an exciting, suspenseful espionage thriller involving nuclear missiles in Cuba. Despite a few engaging sequences, that show Hitch still had it, the film comes off as a second - rate James Bond flick rather than a Hitchcock masterpiece.

John Forsythe (the only recognizable actor in the entire cast) plays a CIA agent who recruits a French Operative named Devereaux (Frederick Stafford, who gives a great performance despite the film's flaws)to help him find out if rumors of Russian missiles in Cuba are true. His investigation leaves behind a string of casualities who either kill themselves or get murdered. The plot seems cool, but it's slow - moving and hard to follow at some points.

The main thing that keeps "Topaz" afloat is the top - notch acting. Hitchcock clearly thought that great acting would triumph over starpower, which is why he filled the cast with highly talented unknowns. In the past, legends like Sean Connery, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and a host of others starred in Hitchcock masterpieces and gave great performances in their roles, but at same points were unconvincing. The acting in "Topaz" is flawless; I recommend it.

Decent Hitchcock espionage drama
Frederick Stafford playing a French intelligence officer collaborates with John Forsythe, an American counterpart to garner information concerning Russia's involvement in Cuba in 1962. A high ranking KGB official defects from Russia and his debriefing prompts Stafford to enter Cuba, at the urging of the U.S., to conduct surveillance on the import of missiles.

Stafford gathers intel provided by his Cuban mistress, a widow of a top revolutionary played by an attractive Karin Dor of James Bond fame. He manages to smuggle out the information under the suspicious eye of bearded Castro crony John Vernon.

Learning from Forsythe of the existence of an espionage ring, code named Topaz, a group of French politicos spying for the Russians, Stafford sets out to smash it.

Topaz lacked the gripping intrigue so often present in Hitchcock's work. My appreciation for his body of work led me to be generous with my rating.

Excellent spy movie.
This is an excellent film. First rate. It has an intelligent plot cleverly scripted by Samuel Taylor (Sabrina, Vertigo), based on Leon Uris's novel. Uris had probably access to inside information about the "Saffire" affair (whence "Topaz") and mingled fact and fiction as masters of his craft can do.

Hitchcock delivers suspense, humor, great cinematography, a story that unfolds with ease and relative verossimilitude. Karin Dor is very beatiful, and Frederick Sttafford cuts a fine figure of a man.

The bonus material includes an interview with Leonard Maltin, who shows great appreciation of the movie. However, he doesn't mention a factor which, in my view, stood in the way of its recognition when it was released and still stands now: Communist Cuba is presented as a place where torture is practiced, and its leaders are uncouth and ridiculous. The CIA men are the gooddies. Unforgivable in 1969, and even now, in Europe and it seems in the US where we must sing praises for "Comandante" and things like that. This is surely at least 70% of its lack of appreciation, and not the "transparencies" or the uncertanties about its ending.

One scene has been particularly praised, and it is only one among a score: when Cuban head Rico Parra (John Vernon) kills Juanita de Cordoba (Karin Dor). Not only the image is visually astounding, but the words: "You can't judge... not you" Rico says to Juanita before sparing her torture... bu shooting her. Also stunning the image where the two members of the Cuban resistance lie after martyrdom like Jesus and His Mother in Michelangelo's "Pietà". Wonderful movie, exiting, epic... without the excesses of the caritaturesque Bond series.

John Forsythe makes the film. Three different endings.
This is perhaps the only Alfred Hitchcock color film I have not seen, until now. It is a rarity for television. And it would be edited for television broadcast anyway. Now on DVD, you can see TOPAZ in its entirty. If you have seen TOPAZ before, well here is the surprise. There are three very different endings of the film you may have not seen yet. This DVD version will show them all to you. If the ending chosen leaves you flat, in the Bonus Material section, you can see all three alternate endings and decide the one you like best. John Forsythe (Bachelor Father [1957-62],Charlie's Angels [1976-1981] as voice of "Charlie", Dynasty [1981-89]) sure does make the beginning act of the film much more interesting to watch. I can not say this is the best of Hitchcock, but I would recommend: REAR WINDOW (1954) and ROPE (1948). ... Read more

Amazon.com

Eight years after the wry romantic sketch Antoine and Colette, François Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Léaud reunited to catch up with Truffaut's cinematic alter ego, Antoine Doinel, the troubled adolescent of The 400 Blows. Stolen Kisses opens with the now-grown Doinel sprung from military prison with a dishonorable discharge, drawn directly from Truffaut's own history of delinquency, but the parallels end there. Lovesick Doinel woos the perky but unresponsive object of his affections, Christine (Claude Jade) while he engages in a series of professions--hotel night watchman, private investigator, TV repairman--with mixed success and comic entanglements. But when he falls in love with the elegant wife of his client (Delphine Seyrig at her most beautiful and charming), Christine realizes she misses Antoine's persistence and clumsy passes, so she embarks on a seductive plan of her own. Truffaut's comic confection is full of deadpan gags and screwball chaos, a world away from the heavy seriousness of The 400 Blows, and Léaud is endearingly naive as thedetermined Doinel, forging ahead with more pluck and passion than aptitude. It may be Truffaut's most sweetly romantic film, a knowing man's embrace of eager innocence and storybook sentiment. Doinel returns two years later in Bed and Board. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

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The fourth film in François Truffaut's quasi-autobiographicalAntoine Doinel cycle finds the idealistic child-man (played by Truffaut's alter ego and French new wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud) married to his sweetheart Christine (Claude Jade) and still plugging away at odd jobs. When his experiments in the florist trade burn his bouquets to a smoky black ruin, he decides that it's time for another trade, and lands a job sending radio-controlled toy boats around a miniature harbor mock-up. It's about that time that he learns of his impending fatherhood, but he throws a monkey wrench into his new happiness when he becomes obsessed with a beautiful young Japanese woman (Hiroku Berghauer). Truffaut enlivens Doinel's courtyard apartment with the bustle and business of neighbors, creating a warm sense of community reminiscent of the works of Jean Renoir. He also pays homage to comic auteur Jacques Tati in meticulously constructed comic bits and a hilarious cameo by Tati's famous character, M. Hulot. However, he tempers the giddy screwball kookiness that characterized the previous film in the cycle, Stolen Kisses, with a less forgiving disposition toward Antoine's passionate irresponsibility and emotional impulsiveness. In one of Truffaut's finest moments ever, he plays out a conversation between the separated but still in love couple with a hard-earned sense of reflective maturity: "I love you," she confesses, "but I don't want to see you." It's a comedy with serious edges as Truffaut decides it's time for Antoine to grow up. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Amazon.com

This was François Truffaut's last film in the Antoine Doinelseries (the character followed from The 400 Blows to Bed and Board).Doinel is again played by Jean-Pierre Léaud as a bad boy whose own obsessions with his mother greatly affect his relationships with women.Here, our compulsive liar and general scamp is found out, time and time again, but, as the women of the film find, it's impossible to blame him entirely.In fact, it seems a French badge of honor to have your mistress show up at your door.The film stands on its own as a light and gentle comedy but carries much more resonance if watched in its proper place and order in the series.It also stars the devastatingly gorgeous Marie-France Pisier as an old acquaintance who calls Doinel on the carpet. --Keith Simanton ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Puzzle of Love
I enjoyed Truffant's early work, "400 Blows" and "Jules and Jim". They are real landmarks in Cinema, the "French New Wave," but by 1979 Truffant seems to be autobiographical with kiss and tell scenerios. His failures in love are examined. His final success in relationship is a clever romatic answer to a puzzle, a torn photograph of his latest lover. It's not overly convincing, but nobody makes movies with so much poetic conceit as the French. The women are beautiful, but I must say that the two blondes are difficult to tell apart and the captioning does not help. This is a date flick for college educated guy and gal, very romantic and sexy without the plumbing.

Infidelity
Of other women in Love on the Run, Claude Jade, as Christine, is quite winsome, as always. Christine is easily the most likable character in the film, but Truffaut shuffles her into the background for much of the film. Instead, Sabine occupies the role of Antoine's new love. Played by Dorothée, Sabine is reminiscent of the younger Christine and even exudes some of her innocent charm and grace. But she is not as vibrant a character, mainly because she is not adequately developed as a character until the film's last scene. By then, it's too late. In addition, Truffaut also sabotages Sabine's introduction. She is first seen rolling around on the floor with Antoine. Opening credits obscure much of the dark scene, anyway, and there is a bland pop-lite theme song, "L'amour en fuite," that plays with the credits. Audiences will not know whether to focus on the credits, the murky photography, or the song. It's disorienting. Compare this scene to Claude Jade's simple appearance in "Stolen Kisses", in which she appears like an angel out of the night, waving timidly at Antoine and miming cute, little messages to him through a glass barrier. Furthermore, the fact that Sabine is introduced before Christine even appears in the film is also confusing for audiences, considering that Bed and Board concluded with Antoine and Christine together again. Audiences will eventually realize that the marriage has probably collapsed again, but will wonder immediately, was Sabine the cause? Since we are already familiar with Christine from the previous films, we will instinctively sympathize for her, and since we know nothing of Sabine, we will instinctively view her negatively. Again, it's not flattering and it starts the film off on the wrong note. When last we saw Antoine Doinel (in Bed and Board), he had recently married his sweetheart Christine and their marriage had just survived Antoine's first infidelity with a Japanese woman. Now, in Love on the Run, eight years after their marriage, Antoine and Christine are separated once more. The reason for this marital strife is Antoine's repeated infidelity, although this is conveyed in the film as almost an afterthought. The film does not pause to reflect upon the emotional impact of this new marital crisis. Unlike "Bed and Board", which offered several bittersweet but touching scenes relating to Antoine's infidelity, Love on the Run just throws it in for comic effect and moves right on along.

An intimate and priceless gem.
I've seen this film roughly 30 times since it first came out and each time I see it I walk away with some new insight. The Antoine Doinel series shows just how versatile a director Trauffaut was. This is warm and engaging filmaking with elegantly drawn characters of wonderful complexity. And true to Truffaut style, not a single frame is wasted nor does any moment feel false or misconstrued. Trauffaut was an undisputed master and seeing a master work on this intimate a scale is a wonderful, exhilarating experience. I also walk away from seeing this film with a sense of sadness that this was the last of the series and Truffaut is no longer with us.

Doinel divorce Claude Jade
It's marvellous when Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade sitting in the taxi who brings them to Christine's lawyer: two different flashbacks of the kisses between Doinel and Claude Jade in the cage of Jade's parents("Stolen Kisses" and "Bed and Board") or when Claude Jade meets Marie-France Pisier, to find out, that Doinel changes all his memories. Not so charming like the last adventures of Antoine and Christine, but must seen by all Truffaut-Lovers.

A magic good humour
Truffaut was a terrific director. This movie have love, hopes, interest people and his lifes,everything to give us fun. ... Read more