The Cold War Spy thriller was all the rage during the swinging 60's, and virtually every major studio if not star of the era produced a glossy, high-budget contribution to this particular genre. THE DOUBLE MAN as its title suggests adapts the hackneyed lookalike plot within its framework, a device more often employed for humour (as Bob Hope did for example in the Secret Agent comedy MY FAVORITE SPY, in 1951), but here is treated as serious drama.
And there were few actors as serious as the resonant-voiced, cold-eyed Yul Brynner, cast as a solemn, emotionless CIA man Dan Slater, who visits the Austrian Alps to investigate the death of his young son in an apparent skiing accident, meeting a friend and former colleague Wheatley (Clive Revill) who now runs the school Slater's son attended before his passing. Slater begins to suspect his son was not the victim of an accident but murder, designed to lure him from the US into an espionage plot by Soviet agents, which indeed happens when it is revealed they intend swapping Slater with an agent who is an identical double, send him back to the States to infiltrate his CIA department while killing and disposing of Slater surreptitiously. Can Slater escape from the enemy agents and inform Wheatley and a locally-based CIA man of said double before he flies back to Washington?
The story itself is a slightly more interesting variation on usual Cold War shenanigans, but not especially convincing or exciting, with Brynner's taciturn visage making for a mostly unlikeable, unsympathetic hero. But it is well enough made in attractive alpine locations, nicely photographed by cameraman Denys Coop, with the film's best performance coming from Clive Revill as a slightly scarred but more congenial character who assists Brynner loyally in his investigations; Britt Ekland has a somewhat superfluous if decorative role as a young woman who witnessed the boy's last moments, with Anton Diffring smoothly villainous as the main Soviet agent.
Franklin J. Schaffner was a talented if rather overlooked filmmaker that had more prestigious productions ahead of him, such as the following PLANET OF THE APES and PATTON. Schaffner's handling sustains interest throughout despite some far-fetched complications, and the first time we see the alps bears a certain similarity to some of the opening scenes from the superior PLANET OF THE APES released the following year, albeit there in desert, rather than snowy locations.
So THE DOUBLE MAN is a small notch above the usual routine spy stories of the period thanks to some fine talents in front and behind the camera, very watchable if not especially memorable.
Rating- 6 and a Half out of 10.
And there were few actors as serious as the resonant-voiced, cold-eyed Yul Brynner, cast as a solemn, emotionless CIA man Dan Slater, who visits the Austrian Alps to investigate the death of his young son in an apparent skiing accident, meeting a friend and former colleague Wheatley (Clive Revill) who now runs the school Slater's son attended before his passing. Slater begins to suspect his son was not the victim of an accident but murder, designed to lure him from the US into an espionage plot by Soviet agents, which indeed happens when it is revealed they intend swapping Slater with an agent who is an identical double, send him back to the States to infiltrate his CIA department while killing and disposing of Slater surreptitiously. Can Slater escape from the enemy agents and inform Wheatley and a locally-based CIA man of said double before he flies back to Washington?
The story itself is a slightly more interesting variation on usual Cold War shenanigans, but not especially convincing or exciting, with Brynner's taciturn visage making for a mostly unlikeable, unsympathetic hero. But it is well enough made in attractive alpine locations, nicely photographed by cameraman Denys Coop, with the film's best performance coming from Clive Revill as a slightly scarred but more congenial character who assists Brynner loyally in his investigations; Britt Ekland has a somewhat superfluous if decorative role as a young woman who witnessed the boy's last moments, with Anton Diffring smoothly villainous as the main Soviet agent.
Franklin J. Schaffner was a talented if rather overlooked filmmaker that had more prestigious productions ahead of him, such as the following PLANET OF THE APES and PATTON. Schaffner's handling sustains interest throughout despite some far-fetched complications, and the first time we see the alps bears a certain similarity to some of the opening scenes from the superior PLANET OF THE APES released the following year, albeit there in desert, rather than snowy locations.
So THE DOUBLE MAN is a small notch above the usual routine spy stories of the period thanks to some fine talents in front and behind the camera, very watchable if not especially memorable.
Rating- 6 and a Half out of 10.