Scorpio (1973)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The Worst Film Ever

That was an excellent one.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Retiring CIA agent Burt Lancaster is targeted for death by his own operatives for treason (seems he's been involved in some dirty dealings with Russian forces on the side); his assigned assassin, nicknamed "Scorpio", is the younger man whom Lancaster's been training to replace him, so he finds a workable partner in the trainee's girlfriend to form a defensive strategy. Handsome Michael Winner film, though not an exciting one. The drama feels like hollowed-out melodrama, with so many camera set-ups and crisscrossing action that it quickly becomes tedious in place of suspenseful. Jerry Fielding's score is lively, and the film is certainly intelligent and well-produced, but there isn't a soul here to sympathize with. *1/2 from ****

Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon are the star cast of this archetypal seventies spy film where, as the final line goes, "the only rule is to stay in the game". A taciturn Lancaster is Cross, a veteran CIA agent who comes under suspicion of double play by the young wisecracks who run the shop. Cross's hit-man Jean Laurier aka Scorpio, a French mercenary played by Alain Delon, is hired by top officer McLeod to get rid of the old man but something tells him there's more to it and he decides to wait. Soon, Cross knows the time on his watch and is on the run, seeking refuge in Vienna with his KGB counterpart and buddy Sergei Zharkov (Paul Scofield in a posture reminiscent of Fernando Rey in French Connection) while trying to reunite with his wife (Joanne Linville) and quit the game. Though not convinced of Cross's alleged defection, Scorpio finally agrees to go after him. Ensues a twisted tale of foul play, double entendre and grim realpolitik. Though not an unforgettable classic nor, by any means, an extravaganza, and despite obvious flaws – among which the sketchy synchronising, some phony dialogue and the occasional action blunder – Scorpio is a highly entertaining and at all times suspenseful flick, which hardly ever loses pace and offers a great platform for a no-nonsense performance by the bulky Lancaster and the sly Delon. Unlike Costa Gavras, director Michael Winner clearly chooses story intrigue over naturalism or verisimilitude, and turns in a solid thriller with overall likable types. Certainly, there is no moral authority here, and not even so much as true friendship or love – he who trusts will get stung.

Retirement is not always possible for a spy, particularly an agent caught in the no-man's-land between the two superpowers... Cross (Burt Lancaster) is such a spy in Michael Winner's 'Scorpio.' Released at a time when disclosures about CIA and FBI abuses were receiving wider acceptance, 'Scorpio' might have become a controversial success, but was forestalled by Costa-Gavras' more factual 'State of Siege.'A melodramatic and threatening spy film, 'Scorpio' had two rival protagonists: Cross, an experienced CIA agent being hunted by his former colleagues, and a former French paratroop officer, Jean Laurier (Alain Delon), now a 'CIA contract button man,' a professional assassin, code-name Scorpio... Irritated by the Frenchman's independence, the CIA chief McLeod (John Colicos) has had heroin planted in his bedroom to make the hired killer more pliable... Threatened with a drug arrest, Scorpio has no choice but to accept the assignment to kill Cross, although McLeod sugars the pill with promises of a fat bonus and Cross' job as the CIA's man in the Middle East...Although told that Cross has been a double-agent working for the "opposition," Scorpio remains doubtful... In the meantime, by a series of clever tricks and tactics, Cross has not only managed to evade the CIA men following him, but has arrived in the favorite city for cinematic intrigue, Vienna, Austria...The most part of the film's action and some of its best sequences take place in the country on the Danube River where the mystery surrounding Cross deepens... In a nighttime rendezvous on a deserted street, Cross is met by a Viennese worker who is whistling, perhaps as a signal or out of habit, the "lnternationale."The husky-voiced Cross says, "It's been a long time since Spain," to which the man responds, "The best died there," and gives Cross directions to meet two more "cut-outs." This kind of political reference occurred frequently in the film's dialog as part of the sympathetic characterization of Cross as envisioned by an intelligent and well written script...In a sequence that was easily the equal of some of the best spy films, Cross and his Soviet counterpart, Sergei Zharkov (Paul Scofield), laughingly discuss their mutual reject for their bosses and the identical young men who support both the CIA and KGB... While Cross accepts Zharkov's evaluation of themselves as a pair of premature anti-fascists, he can not understand Zharkov's professed belief in Communism after years spent in a Stalinist labor camp and the recent invasion of Czechoslovakia... In a later scene when Zharkov tries to get help from his superiors and is refused, the embassy official is given a dose of Zharkov's irony when told of his resemblance to another man 'who didn't leave his name, but was trying to build socialism in one country out of the bones from a Charnel house' –as strong an indictment of Stalin's Russia as any Cold War film, but more intelligent and more skillfully presented...The film's major element was the state of tension in which the audience was held, until the final minutes viewers could be certain of Cross true identity, and CIA director, the eccentric hated human being represented by McLeod...The CIA chief appeared more ruthless than any other character... He was willing to frame Scorpio on a false charge, to endanger his own agents needlessly and even to have Cross' wife murdered in an unsuccessfully burglary attempt... There was even a hint of Nazi persecution, since one of Cross' wartime friends, Max (Shmul Rodensky), was killed during an interrogation conducted by a local Viennese thug who had laughed cleverly at the mention of Max's imprisonment in a concentration camp...The problem of Cross's guilt or innocence concentrated on Scorpio, who knew enough to distrust McLeod yet is pushed to fulfill his assignment... In a nighttime scene shot in a huge enclosed botanical garden, Scorpio meets Cross and their dialog is a clever mixture of plot development and characterization... To the Frenchman's direct question whether he is a traitor or not, Cross tells Scorpio that he reminds him of a little girl in her white Communion dress looking for God, but that since Scorpio has the soul of a torturer his need is even greater... Cross denies being a double-agent and tells Scorpio that McLeod wanted him eliminated as well...Scorpio's conversations gave the film its uniquely complex political coloration... Lancaster gave his character the air of a worldly wise cynic whose ties to the Russians were as mercenary as they were emotional.. With considerable assets in three separate bank accounts, Cross' dismissal of Zharkov's Communist blind faith had a firm basis... Yet, Cross had all the 1930's liberal hypotheses: The whistled "Internationale," the reference to Spain, the twenty-year friendship with Zharkov, his obvious affection for Max and Cross' contacts among Washington, D.C. area Blacks were all hints of his real political sympathies... His warnings to Scorpio were justified, and Cross's treason seemed minor compared to the CIA's criminal behavior... The traditional reference points (affection for his wife and friends) all proclaimed Cross' innocence, and in fact, the CIA stood more condemned in the film... If it hadn't been for its irregular pacing, the juxtaposition of slow, talky scenes with far too gymnastic thriller consequences, 'Scorpio' might have been a domestic 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.' The spy film that did eventually serve this role appeared in 1975, in Sydney Pollack's 'Three Days of the Condor.'

Back in the 1970s when Capitalism and Communism were fighting the cold war with undercover activities, a film such as this was able to play on our fears of the "good" guys as well as the "bad" guys. So, along with Burt Lancaster's aging C.I.A. agent, Cross, we can't know whom to trust. We like Burt, but we also like Alain Delon (Scorpio) the free agent assigned to assassinate him. We loathe John Colicos as the C.I.A. chief, yet he's supposedly working for our side. We like Paul Scofield's Zharkov, yet he's a commie. (Indeed, Scofield who is a master of cold characters has never been so charming.) The film offers great action scenes as well as unmitigated suspense. There is a superlative cast, and a lot of surprises. (Burt ain't named Cross for nothin'.) If you are a fan of thrillers, or even you aren't, this one's a must see!