The Serpent (1973)

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Evidently inspired by the Kim Philby case, and Dirk Bogarde would have made the perfect Kim Philby - his character and role here immediately makes you think of Philby.In the spy world no one is what he appears to be, everyone is lying as convincingly as possible, and if they are convincing enough they have a chance of getting away with it, but these chances grow inevitably slimmer the longer they stay on as fakers. That is about the sense morale of this film, where everyone acts suspiciously from beginning to end, even Henry Fonda, who thinks he knows everything but is duped nonetheless. Philippe Noiret makes the most honest part, he is under suspicion from the beginning and seems to have accepted from the beginning to be a chronic suspect. Yul Brynner is the most convincing of all and the greatest cheat of all. The ladies are suave enough, especially Virna Lisi representing Italy in this international party, while they have very little to say, except in France - the only tender scene is what makes Philippe Noiret the most sympathetic in the cast.This is not a thriller or any action film but almost callous in its scientific representation of an intricate kettle of spies. It tries to hit a documentary character and almost succeeds, but the story is not very credible. Kim Philby was a true story indeed, and a lot of damage he did, but here the same kind of case is exaggerated into almost absurdity. It gets too technical, and all the international actors can't save its lack of blood and humanity. It's interesting but not more than that, and afterwards you shrug your shoulders and are satisfied with not having to see it again.

I'm not sure what problem viewers are having with the multiple languages. My DVD player lets me turn on an English-only version. No subtitles needed.I had been looking for this movie since I first saw it in 1973, and finally stumbled across it a couple of years ago. The only things I remembered was that it was a movie about a "mole," the scene where the picture of Mt. Ararat was switched, and the spy exchange at the end.This isn't the most action-packed spy movie around, and certainly isn't in the mold of '60s and '70s James Bond and 007. But in many ways it is the way espionage is really done: slow and meticulous. The pacing sort of reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Prototypical Cold War thriller deals about an aging soviet spy named Vlassov (here Yul Brynner plays Russian Colonel Alexei Vlassov , as such, Brynner plays a character of his own nationality ; Brynner's full birth name was Yuli Borisovich Bryner) who attempts to defect the East world . The CIA chief named Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) interrogates him, using polygrapher (interrogator played by Robert Alda), computer programming , and other means . Then Davies must decide if he's saying the truth .This complex espionage picture is packed with thrills, suspense, tension and extraordinary performances . This movie was made and released about two years after its source French novel "The Thirteenth Who Committed Suicide" by Pierre Nord was first published in 1971 . Good spy movie , in fact the Spy agencies featured in this film include the CIA, KGB, Mi6 and the West German intelligence service . It's a slow moving spy-movie with emphasis on de-glamorizing espionage . Sensational acting by two big star names, Yul Brynner as spy who defects with a fistful of important documents and Henry Fonda as chief who must discover the truth . Strong secondary cast with Dirk Bogarde, Farley Granger, Philippe Noiret, gorgeous Virna Lisi and several others . Interesting and thrilling screenplay by the same producer and director Henry Verneuil . Atmospheric musical composed by Ennio Morricone and conducted by Bruno Nicolai . Superbyly realistic and adequate cinematography by Claude Renoir .The picture was splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil, a Turkish director working in France from the 40s . Although not a director of great reputation among the critics, his movies have almost all been aimed squarely at the commercial market. Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ with Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, ¨The burglars(1971)¨ with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨ and ¨The 25th hour¨, espionage as ¨ Night flight from Moscow¨ and even directed one Western : ¨Guns of San Sebastian¨ (68). He seemed to have dropped out of the film-making after 1976, but in 1981 unexpectedly reappeared with yet another of his caper film : ¨Thousand millions of dollars¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable, a must see for French cinema lovers and Fonda and Bryner fans

Finally I was able to see the thriller The Serpent on DVD under a new but poor title NIGHT TRAIN FROM MOSCOW (why this has been changed I don't know). Any film that has Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda & Dirk Bogarde has to be worth watching but this is rarely shown on TV so I was pleased to find the recent Pathfinder DVD release. The film is very much in the trend of your typical spy drama from the sixties (see The Spy who came in from the Cold and The Quiller Memorandum) despite being made in 1973. Brynner is Vlassov a valuable KGB agent who defects on the condition he supplies the CIA with information regarding Double Agents operating in the West. Question: Is he telling the truth or is he himself another carefully placed spy? It's up to CIA head Henry Fonda with the help of British Intelligence Representative Dirk Bogarde to determine this. Phillipe Noiret, Farley Granger, Robert Alda (father of Alan) and Virna Lisi provide the support in an intriguing thriller. Although some of the plot twists are predictable and there's a lengthy absence of the 3 main protagonists in the second act, the pace is just right as opposed to other Bond alternative spy dramas where slow pacing and no action result in boredom.Surprising therefore that The Serpent isn't more widely known as it's a gem of a thriller with a good ending.