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Topaz (1969)
Actor(s): Per-Axel Arosenius, Roscoe Lee Browne, Karin Dor, John Forsythe, Tina Hedström
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
Creator(s): Primary Contributor Dany RobinPrimary Contributor Frederick Stafford
EAN: 9780783235615
Format(s): Closed-captionedColorOriginal recording reissuedOriginal recording remasteredNTSC
ISBN: 0783235615
Label: Universal Studios
Language(s): English Analog Original Language
List Price: $14.98
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Package Dimensions:
Height: 1.12"
Width: 4.19"
Length: 1.12"
Weight: 0.38 lbs.
Product Group: Video
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: 1999-08-03
Running Time: 143minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1969-12-19
UPC: 096898470537
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com:
Alfred Hitchcock hadn't made a spy thriller since the 1930s, so his 1969 adaptation of Leon Uris's bestseller seemed like a curious choice for the director. But Hitchcock makes Uris's story of the West's investigation into the Soviet Union's dealings with Cuba his own. Frederick Stafford plays a French intelligence agent who works with his American counterpart (John Forsythe) to break up a Soviet spy ring. The film is a bit flat dramatically and visually, and there are sequences that seem to occupy Hitchcock's attention more than others. A minor work all around, with at least two alternative endings shot by Hitchcock. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews Average rating - 3.5
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-11-16
Content: Great Hitchcock film reminding me of how things have changed as well as not changed with governments and the world.
Summary: Great Hitchcock
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-07-14
Content: A great Hitchcock film. It's the supposed effort of one French intelligence
man & the US to expose the Russian missile buildup in Cuba in 1962. The mix of fact & fiction is seamless. I found it to be entertaining & full of twists & turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. Hitchcock in top form.
Summary: Topaz
Rating - 1 Date: 2008-04-27
Content: I'm a fan of Hitchcock and have seen most of his films. I missed Topaz when it came out, so I borrowed the VHS tape. What a waste of time! This is the worst Hitchcock film I've ever seen and one of the worst films ever.
This is nominally a spy thriller, but at every point where suspense is possible, Hitch defuses the thrills. There's way too much talk, and the few action scenes are predictable and flat. The tradecraft is unbelievable: what intelligence officer waits across the street while his operative waves to him and then walks into a hotel filled with Cubans?
The actors are wooden and glum, with the exception of Phillipe Noiret, who manages to inject his character with some shades of feeling.
It feels like a bad propaganda film, one made by the State Department to warn the Russians that we're serious about the Monroe Doctrine.
Summary: terrible
Rating - 5 Date: 2008-01-27
Content: I saw this movie for the first time today and must say that it is a first rate espionage thriller. The movie has a great cast and a great cast of characters. It is smart and exciting. This is a cold war espionage movie of the first order and I rank it right up there with The Spy That Came In From The Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Everything about this movie is top notch and I would expect nothing less from the master Alfred Hitchcock.
Summary: Topaz
Rating - 3 Date: 2007-06-18
Content: "Topaz" is a tired Cold War thriller from the Master.
After the disaster of "Torn Curtain", Hitchcock had a go at making another "Bond-like" film but once again he missed the mark and never tried it again. If he had not made the brilliant "Frenzy" three years later one could easily have come to the conclusion that he was well past his best.
One of the major problems with "Topaz" is that the actors are all second-rate - particulary Frederick Stafford in the lead role of a French intelligence agent.
There are some interesting touches - for example the scene in the flower shop where we can't hear what the actors are saying - but this film smacks of a once-great director struggling to find his feet in the "modern" cinema.
"Topaz" should be seen once by all Hitchcock fans, but despite the advocacy of Leonard Maltin and other reviewers, Hitchcock's third-to-last film doesn't have much to recommend it.
Summary: A disappointing cold-war thriller from the Master
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