A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

One of my all time favorites.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Very entertaining late 60's Cold War romp through Britain and Germany. Excellent realism (Russian agent heroin user who longs for home simultaneously with the next hit!) and Laurence Harvey's cold, matter-of-fact demeanor as the disgruntled agent who is pretty much fed up with the whole political spy scene. He turned out to be a super choice for this role!Also, Mia Farrow is excellent as the ditsy, naive "bird" who takes a fancy to LH's counterpoint character. But the real kudos go to Peter Cook, the mod devil-may-care chap who supplies to LH all the pertinent spy goings-on with a mordant, off-color humorous style. (Note his playboy flirtations juxtaposed with his serious delineations of Home Office tidbits to LH at the penthouse tower bar in Germany.) Lionel Stander gets in a good dry line or two as a Russian agent who confronts LH in Germany. Quincy Jones gets my musical kudos for the tasteful soundtrack! Finally, the ending is also tastefully done, all too apropos for LH's downward spiraling lifestyle.

This is the last movie by a man who gave some of the best westerns ever made.After "Cimarron" (1960) ,he went to make epics ,the first of which ("El Cid" ) stands as his most sustained work in the sixties."A dandy in aspic" ,which was finished by his star,looks like a cross between "the Manchourian candidate " (which Laurence Harvey's presence reinforces) and "the spy who came in from the cold" ,with a dash of Jorge Luis Borges thrown in for good measure It's not as bad as its reputation.First the dance of the puppet ,during the cast and credits ,is worthy of Saul Bass (the puppet comes back at the end).Then the movie,entirely filmed on location,takes us to the wharfs of London and to Berlin at the time of the Wall.Like many works of the era ,it deals with cold war and is not worse than most of them.Nothing from James Bond,except maybe the scene with Harvey's secretary ,but it's not Moneypenny.A threatening world where men are only pawns in a game,or puppets in the hands of a string man we never see .The best moment is probably the automatic photo booth ,a scene which has been imitated since.SPOILER Unfortunately ,the part of Caroline (Mia Farrow) gets in the way.As soon as he's in Berlin,Eberlin meets her and we may think that the character bears some relation with the plot.But her presence is purely decorative and as Tom Courtenay says :"You've got no past and he's got no future" .

I loved Laurence Harvey in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. This is also a good performance. The spy stuff and his relationship with the character played by Tom Courtenay are interesting. Also interesting is the young Peter Cook in a "straight" role ( well sort of). Harvey brought such an air of sadness and despair to this kind of role ( much like his doomed brainwashed pawn in MC). I recall a scene where he is asked about his mother's death ( I believe) and he cannot remember how he felt. The life and emotion were drained out of him to create the perfect double agent. This kind of film was popular in the 60's as an antidote to James Bond and his clones. Others include THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and THE DEADLY AFFAIR. The great Anthony Mann started this film and was replaced by Harvey when Mann died.

Oh the trials and tribulations of being a spy. Alexander Eberlin (Lawrence Harvey) is in a bad way. You see, he's a Russian spy within the British Secret Service, and has been one for eighteen long years. He wants out, to go back to Russia but is forbidden to do so by his superiors. Things have just gotten worse for Eberlin too. He's been busy killing British agents on the sly and now suddenly he's been assigned to eliminate the person responsible - himself! As if that wasn't enough, the Brits think the assassin is a Russian agent, Pavel (Per Osscarson), who happens to be Eberlin's contact in London and an old friend. When Pavel turns up dead and is declared not to be the assassin after all, things get really complicated for Eberlin.This is credited as an Anthony Mann production but Mann died before filming was completed and star Lawrence Harvey took over. Given the interesting premise it's a shame the film is so disappointing. It drifts aimlessly never creating the tension you'd expect and in the end poor Eberlin is killed after being made a monkey of by the Brits and Russians alike. Yes it was cynical but so coldly so that the film leaves virtually no impression and that's the real crime.There is a marionette credit sequence which is nicely done and symbolic as all get out but subtle it ain't and Quincy Jones' vague and formless score fits this meandering film but gives no weight to the proceedings. There are some nice wide screen compositions and deep focus photography to amuse your eyes but all in all this was a doomed production from the beginning and never found its footing.