Topaz (film)

Topaz is a 1969 American film of the so-called anti-communist propaganda genre, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, Claude Jade, Michel Subor, Karin Dor, John Vernon, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and John Forsythe in the leading roles.

The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Leon Uris and published in 1967 by McGraw-Hill.

Plot

The film's plot begins in 1962, in the setting of the Cold War, with an imposing Red Army military parade in Red Square. Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, a Soviet intelligence officer, Boris Kusenov (Per-Axel Arosenius), with the help of CIA agents, defects to the United States along with his wife and daughter.

In the United States

The Soviet defector reveals two fundamental facts to the CIA agents: Cuba is going to receive missiles from the Soviet Union and an organization called Topaz exists within the French intelligence services, which transfers information from NATO to the Soviet Union through a «mole».

US agent Nordstrom (John Forsythe), who had been Kusenov's interrogator, briefs his colleague and friend André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford), of the French Foreign Documentation and Counter-Intelligence Service, of the existence of a document signed by the governments of Cuba and the Soviet Union in which the bases of military relations and everything related to missiles were established. Soviets in Cuba. Said document was in the possession of Enrique Parra (John Vernon), a Cuban delegate to the United Nations Organization who was in New York to attend an assembly, for which he asks Devereaux to try to get hold of a copy of said document..

Andre accompanied his daughter Michèle (Claude Jade) and her husband François (Michel Subor) on their honeymoon trip to New York. In New York, André contacts one of his agents, Philippe Dubois ( Roscoe Lee Browne ), who gets an interview with Parra under the pretext of writing a report for Ebony . Taking advantage of the hubbub at the Cuban embassy (located in Harlem), the venality of a secretary and the arrogance of Parra who agrees to greet the masses from the balcony, Dubois manages to take some photos of the text of the agreement. But upon being discovered, he must go on the run, pursued by the embassy guards. Back in the street, he pretends to run over André to pass him the camera and disappears into the crowd. A bodyguard from Parra arrives, stands André up, looks him up and down, and finally lets go.

Now the CIA agents only need photos of the missiles in Cuba and Nordstrom proposes that André go to Cuba to get them

In Cuba

André flies to Cuba as a business attache at the French embassy, despite the anger and anxiety of his wife Nicole (Dany Robin) who suspects he has a mistress in Cuba. Indeed, André has a lover, the beautiful brunette Juanita de Córdoba (Karin Dor), the young widow of a hero of the revolution. Juanita is now a counterrevolutionary spy, commanding an anti-Castro network and even taking advantage of her close relations with Parra to get first-hand information.

Upon arriving at Juanita's house, André finds Parra who says goodbye and the two rivals challenge each other. Then, in the bedroom and before going to bed, the French agent asks his lover to get, if possible, photos of the missiles.

Juanita sends a couple of her servants to the port under the pretext of a picnic. There they take photos of the Russian ships unloading the missiles, but they are discovered, detained and taken to the headquarters of the General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI). Where they will be tortured, but not before hiding her camera in the hollow beam of a bridge, where one of Juanita's pawns picks it up. The film is quickly developed and the images transferred to microfilm which is hidden in André's typewriter.

Meanwhile, André witnesses, as an employee of the embassy, a great harangue by Fidel Castro to the town, where Parra's bodyguard recognizes him. In turn, in the basement of the DGI, Juanita's maid babbles in Parra's ear the name of her boss: Juanita de Córdoba. Immediately a raid is organized in the house of Córdoba in which inquiries are made and the betrayal is confirmed. Parra takes Juanita in her arms, hugs her and, whispering to her, tells her that she does not want the executioners to dismember her beautiful body. Whereupon she shoots a bullet through her heart. He then calls the airport to have André arrested, but the Frenchman has just taken off. The customs officers did not find anything unusual in his luggage.

To his surprise, in Washington D.C. he can't find his wife, Nicole has returned to Paris alone. Besides, his bosses are furious, what did he do in Cuba for Havana to complain about the "unfriendly attitude" of the French attaché? André immediately decides to go after his wife's footsteps.

In Paris

In Paris he finds his wife and daughter Michèle, in an attempt to reconcile. He also organizes a gathering for his friends and colleagues at the fancy restaurant Chez Pierre, seeking to reveal the mole's identity. The service begins and André declares that there is a spy sitting at the table. In the sudden silence only Jarré (Philippe Noiret) begins to voraciously eat liverwurst and drink large gulps of wine. In his nervous state, he says that it seems to him that this is just an attempt at disinformation by the Russians, since he knows from a reliable source that Kusenov died two years ago. And he leaves.

But in the afternoon, Jarré, very restless, goes to see his boss in the Topaz network, Granville (Michel Piccoli). A senior French official, an old friend of André's. Granville, instead of calming down Jarré, challenges him. He has attracted attention and also annoys her because he is expecting a gallant visitor. When he gets lost he finds Nicole, she was the one Granville was waiting for. And as they embrace in the foyer, hanging on the wall is an old photo in a painting, Nicole between Granville and André, in jackets, berets, and rifles, youthful and friendly, taken during their years in the French Resistance some two decades ago..

André, now suspicious of Jarré, sends his son-in-law François (a journalist and cartoonist) to harass him under the pretext of interviewing him for a newspaper; but Jarré, cornered, calls his bodyguard. André and Michèle, alarmed, arrive at the apartment shortly after and find him dead, fallen from his balcony without a trace of François. Later, his father and daughter return to their apartment, where Nicole is waiting for them. Suddenly François comes hesitantly, the bodyguards beat him, but he was able to come to his senses. He heard them calling a phone number and fled. But the young man remembers the number and André finds out that this is the number of his old friend Granville. Nicole sees Jarré's portrait and understands that her lover is the head of the Topaz network. Unable to bear it, she with her eyes full of tears she confesses everything to her family.

Alternate endings

1. Hitchcock was called out for urgent family affairs and one of his assistants, Herbert Coleman, was the one who shot the end of the film. The same is a scene where André and Granville face in a stadium. But the tests before the premiere were not good and finally this one was dismissed.
2. Therefore, Hitchcock developed another alternative: Granville takes a plane and takes refuge in the Soviet Union. This is the premiere in the UK.
3. For the European Union, especially for France, a cut-off final was created, in which Granville, after being expelled from a diplomatic summit, was shot dead in his department. You only see the curtains closed and you hear a shot.

Cast / Dubbing

• Frederick Stafford - André Devereaux - José Luis Sansalvador
• Dany Robin - Nicole Devereaux - Elsa Fabrégas
• Claude Jade - Michèle Picard - Rosa Guiñón
• Michel Subor - François Picard - Manuel Cano
• Karin Dor - Juanita De Cordoba - Maria Luisa Solá
• John Vernon - Rico Parra - Pepe Mediavilla
• Michel Piccoli - Jacques Granville - Dioniso Maciás
• Philippe Noiret - Henri Jarre - Joaquín Díaz
• John Forsythe - Michael Nordstrom - Rafael Luis Calvo

Comments

• When it was released, the film was not a success. His anti-communism was judged too short-range and Fidel Castro was in the 1960s an idol for many in the West.
• The position of the tortured couple resembles the Piedad de Miguel Angel.
• It has been claimed that the script is very close to that of the film The sapphire affair, while the character of André recalls the French spy Philippe Thyraud of Vosjoli.
• Granville ' s escape to the Soviet Union was rejected by the French government and therefore an alternative end had to be rolled for the premiere in that country.
• In France the title was changed by L'Etau (The lathe), because «Topaze» was already the title of several adaptations of an eponymous play by Marcel Pagnol.
• Hitchcock appears at the airport with a woman who takes him in a wheelchair. He sees an acquaintance, rises to greet him and both retire walking.
• The actor Philippe Noiret (Jarré) had fractured a leg a few months before the shooting and had to use crutches. This is why the script was adapted for his character to suffer from a drop.
• Remembering a phone number to which another spoke was easy in the 1960s, as to speak it was necessary to load the coil and order the number to the operator.
• Although the movie Topaz be very modern for its rhythm and its environments, it is outdated by the fact that all the characters speak English. Today it is customary to use subtitles when you hear a language that is not the main one.

Director's cameo

Hitchcock shows up at the airport with a woman who takes him in a wheelchair. Hitchcock sees an acquaintance, stands up to greet him, and they both walk away.