The story revolves around a top British spy named Philip Kimberley who defected to Russia. The Russians give him plastic surgery and he comes out looking like Michael Caine (poor guy). They want him to return to England and locate some microfilm he had hidden that details all the payments to British double agents. Once back in his home country, he makes a break for it and contacts his daughter (Susan George) and old boss (Laurence Olivier).
I was in the mood for a good spy thriller so I dug out this VHS. After watching it, I'm still in the mood for a good spy thriller. The film is based on a book by Dorothea Bennett, who used real life Brit double agent Kim Philby as inspiration. Despite such ripe real life material and the re-teaming of the stellar Sleuth (1972) co-stars Caine and Olivier, this film is a bit of a mess. It runs pretty short (end credits kick in at the 85 minute mark) and several scenes show Olivier sporting a fake beard to match other scenes. Looked it up in Variety and, sure enough, it suffered major production issues. It started shooting in April 1982 but production was suspended on June 7, 1982 due to financial woes. The filmmakers didn't get back together to finish everything until November 1982. Former Bond director Terence Young is at the helm, but even he can't make it too exciting. Even glorious cinematographer Freddie Francis can't muster up enough good stuff for this. It is filled with lots of double crosses and the like, but they can't make up for strange bits like Charles Gray giving Robert Powell a monologue about his toupees, Caine doing bizarre Russian and American accents, or the montage of dumpy Caine training to be a bad ass killer.
