To Skin a Spy (1966)

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

After a few collaborations with José Giovanni (as a writer), all action films developed outside of France (Marrakech - L'homme de Marrakech), (Tokyo - Rififi in Tokyo), (Spain - Crime on a Summer Morning), in To Skin a Spy (1966) Avec la peau des autres, we got an original tale of spies, held in Vienna. Lino Ventura, as usual, is the tough guy coming out victorious, killing all the others. We have an important distribution with relevant actors such as Jean Bouise, Jean Servais, Marilu Tolo, Wolfgang Preiss (the famous Dr. Mabuse). Notable Organ music in the foreground signed Michel Magne. Very professional cinematography signed by Jean Boffety. It is a spy movie, not like the others. It has a healthy dose of realism.

Avec La Peau Des Autres/With the lives of others is an excellent spy thriller directed by Jacques Deray. He is considered an undisputed master of french thriller films. In many ways, there are very few directors in Anglophone cinema who can match the diversity and range of his films. For this film Jacques Deray chose Austrian capital Vienna as its setting. Much of the film concentrates its action to determine whether the head of a local Austrian network is a double agent or not ? This gives rise to a series of attacks, counter attacks, traps and wrong tracks whose sole purpose is to mislead the head of French information service. Everything appears to work well as all the leading characters are shown to speak French language but cultural differences do make their presence felt in many scenes. This can be deemed as a major handicap by certain viewers to fully comprehend the film's "raison d'être". This film boasts of a fine performance by French actor Lino Ventura as he plays his role with utmost care that nobody seems to stop him from carrying out his mission. Lastly, a film for those who state that Vienna has just music to show to the world.

Even if spy thrillers (which, naturally, proliferated during the Cold War) are favorites of mine, sometimes I find it hard to follow the films' convoluted plots -which, more often than not, end up not being all that interesting or even the central focus of the films themselves! However, I must say that this particular example takes the cake: never during the course of the 90-plus minutes of the film is it made at all clear just which side the various characters are on and what kind of information they're peddling! In spite of this, the film is rendered watchable by the typically gloomy East European settings, its constant double-crosses and moments of violence and, above all, its weathered gallery of performers - Lino Ventura, Jean Servais, Wolfgang Preiss, Jean Bouise and Rene' Koldehoff (the cast also includes Adrian Hoven and Marilu' Tolo, who's wasted as the only female in the group).

Although the screenplay was written by Jose Giovanni ,it was not representative of his work:his world was the world of romantic gangsters,cops,raiders or losers(often played by Lino Ventura or Alain Delon).He had often denounced death penalty long before it was abolished in his country.This is to my knowledge Giovanni's only attempt at a spy thriller.It's a routine work,but generally the plot is decipherable,which is not always the case with double agents stories.Effective directing by Jacques Deray who would have his hour of glory with Alain Delon ("la piscine" "Borsalino").Lino Ventura does a good job.