BACKWARD, UPSIDE DOWN AND SERPENTINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01365R000300210040-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: November 26, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/OflAt j 01365R00 002 00 0- j
C_ 1/, c 1. `I 7~e S c>yzr~~:rv t
2 G NOV 1973
amide
By 't'orn Shales
Perhaps not since Hitch-
cock's "Topaz" has there
been an espionage adven-
ture so lifeless, feckless and
early endless as Henri \'er-
7ncuii's "The Serpent," now
at the Uptown. In fact, it
makes "Topaz" look like a
'clever thriller and even
such dogs as John Huston's
recent The '%racintosh
Man" seem vital and coher-
ent.
"The Serpent" Is plagued
with one of the most critical
cases of inverted exposition
In movie history. Every plot
an
er -._L'. i tu.
shown yards of grainy foot-
from old Soviet news-
reels, with hoked-up inserts
that try to put Tul B.rynner,
as the KGB defector, into
Russian history. It. doesn't
work, and neilker does
Brynner, who plays his part
as a combination Siamese
king and cowboy robot--two
of his past movie roles, as it
happens.
The film has a rather
amazing cast, including
.turn is revealed in the least Henry Fonda (as CIA chief
suspenseful and credible ',Alan Davies"), Dirk
Bo-
way possible, and when it's gal-de, Philippe Noiret and,
? it over you get the feeling very briefly, V"irna Nisi. We
the story has been told back- also find out whatever hap-
ward, upside down, inside pened to both Robert Alda
out or all three. and Barley Gran er; they.
Though pieced together ended up with small parts in
with fragments of actual clinkers like this one.
events----including such hot The story wanders over to
topics as the shot-down U I;tin'ope and there stoops to
plane piloted by Francis a cliche from the movies of
- ? Gary Powers-the tale yore: the mysterious killer
seems outlandish at eve ITwhose face is hidden but
juncture. It be this with a who carries an identifying
messy defection to the West itnmick. In this case, the
by a high-ranking official of gimmick is a cigarette case
the Soviet secret police, the g
"KGB." No sooner is this with a gold serpent on it.
prize package of defector- There may be a civilized
dom delivered to the CIA story here someplace, but
headquarters in suburban Verneuil never finds it. The
NVashington than intensive ruthlessness of espionage
questioning begins-when, has been quite exhaustively
he is repeatedly asked, clid belabored in plenty of other
he last have sexual relations film;, anyway, and during
with his wife? these clays of detente, the
This completed, the film project seems especially
plods on. An apparentlY an- misbegotten.
r;ry narrator tries turning it
Into a documentary on the
CIA. The agency stores data
on "40 million punch cards,"
he tells its. Then we are
Even the cinematographer
neglected or refused to fo-
cus his camera. Just as well.
The pallid blur on the
screen is an apt visual
counterpart to the flounder-
i nu' script. "The Serpent"
should be the bottom half of
a double bill at an aban-
cloned drive-in.
Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-01365R000300210040-0