The Death of Me Yet (1971)
The editor of a small-town newspaper has his past unexpectedly catch up with him: he finds out that a Soviet agent who knew him when he was a spy has been sent to the U.S. to kill him.
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Save your money for something good and enjoyable
One of my all time favorites.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
In 1964. KGB agent McClure lives in a faux American town in Russia to train him to infiltrate seamlessly all masterminded by KGB bigwig Richard Basehart. Meg Foster palsy his wife in the faux town who fell in love with him while "playing house." We next see him 6 years later as Paul Towers, a small-town newspaper publisher idyllically married to luscious Rosemary Forsyth in the all-American dream. After his COO, Vandamme, commits suicide with the Feds closing in on his dealings with a Russian agent, Dana Elcar, Forsyth's brother and a large military contractor, asks McClure to take over as COO while hard-nosed investigator Chalk (Darren McGavin) investigates everyone and trusts no one. Forsyth knows her husband loves her and is faithful but she also senses that there is a part of him that he has closed off from her. She laments, "There's that sign again; No trespassing!" She also characterizes Chalk as a meat grinder she once stuck her finger in. All this sets up a chain of events that changes everything forever. Is McClure still working for the Russians or as he bought into his American life? Has Chalk figured out who he really is? or was? This cold-war thriller has neat twists and turns, terrific acting, indelible characters, good action, and some great repartee with no slow moments. The production values are shoddy, consistent with most TV movies of this vintage -but the rest is exciting and poignant. THe ending will stay with you for a long time!
My fave line is when the wife says to Doug McClure that Darren McGavin reminds her of a meat grinder she once caught her finger in.After that my brother and I would always yell "MEAT GRINDER" whenever Darren McGavin came on the screen.I remember the film as lots of fun and fast paced. I wish I could see it again just for how old fashioned everything would look.....If you wonder why the script on this TV movie is outstanding compared to many of the TV movies of the time, it might have something to do with being part written by Whit Masterson, who also wrote Orson Welles A Touch of Evil back in 1958.
John Llewelyn Moxey IS the quintessential movie-of-the-week director. Always economical with his dialog and camera work, he knows how to intersperse emotional impact with action and pacing as well as anyone. The Death Of Me Yet is a fascinating Cold-War-Era story.McClure plays a trained Soviet agent who is sent to the US to become a trusted citizen in a small Midwestern community in a town whose main employer is a military contractor. It is basically the "sleeper cell" concept with which we are all-too-familiar today. He plays his role to the hilt as a small town Editor and devoted husband to Rosemary Forsyth with whom he is deeply in love. The trouble, of course, is that he loves his new life. In his mind, heart, and soul, he has become an American. Enter deliciously menacing KGB agent and former mentor Richard Basehart. Then McClure's life really begins to unravel when a gritty, grizzled, and somewhat sadistic FBI agent named Chalk (think Laird Krieger in "I Wake Up Screaming") gets on his tail and begins to suspect who and what McClure really is.The biggest flaw in the movie is that McClure has so much better chemistry with vibrant and vulnerable Soviet girlfriend Meg Foster than with frigid Rosemary Forsyth and Richard Basehart is so much more willing (at least seemingly) to work out a satisfactory compromise for McClure to get on with his wife than the grimly determined Chalk that even the most patriotic American must question his choice a bit. And Forsyth is just awful as an actress. That said, it's still a great deal of clever and fast-moving fun as long as you view the shoddy production values in its context as a movie-of-the week.
This is a Cold War kind of movie. Doug McClure plays an All-American small-town Editor who really loves his wife and his town. He loves them so much he would like to forget that he came over to America as a Russian spy. But a series of events forces him to make tough decisions about where his loyalties are. It really kept me thinking and it is full of surprises. It's not shown a lot, so if you get a chance to see it, even with commercials, I think you should.