English author Anthony Price wrote a string of 19 well-crafted novels dealing with espionage, published 1970/1989, within which are depicted adventures of an Oxford University Professor of history, with a specialty in Arabic, Dr. David Audley, whose exertions doubling as a British intelligence agent during the Cold War for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence were related in an esteemed series made for television, "Chessgame". This engrossing feature film, having as its source the third novel in the group, "Colonel Butler's Wolf", is an interesting tale having virtually no padding. A growing number of academically superior Oxford students are experiencing either defamation, leading to expulsion, or sudden violent death, and a veteran Master at the University, an erstwhile spy, requests for Audley (Terence Stamp) to assist in the affair because he fears that the KGB is behind the tragic incidents, as a method of destroying a breeding ground for Western intelligence operatives. Audley is initially skeptical, but soon begins to believe that the astute Master is, indeed, on to something sinister, and he thereupon decides to intertwine his own wife, Faith (Carmen du Sautoy) with his customary staff in an unconventional and hazardous endeavour to overcome the Soviet Forces of Evil. This is the final of three features released in conjunction with "Chessgame", and although it is less effective than the best of the trio, COLD WAR KILLERS (1986), it nonetheless profits from a largely realistic and intelligent screenplay, efficient leadership from director Roger Tucker, and first-class editing by Paul Griffiths-Davies. As with each entry within the extended Audley canon of Price, whichever the format, all of the primary characters are participants in a riskful game, the ground rules of which devolve upon a single gambit: that of acquiring more information than one must divulge, with a result that double and triple crosses are recurrent. The designing by James Weatherup is appropriate as ever, and minimalist scoring of Christopher Gunning contributes strongly to the film's sequences of suspense. Each member of the cast is competent, with Stamps, du Sautoy and Michael Culver all excellent, as will be expected.
