Crossplot

This film, basically a vehicle for Roger Moore, is a 90 minute television-style action adventure film. Roger Moore plays an advertising executive who utilises an Eastern European girl in a promotional campaign who just happens to be sharing a house with spies and unwittingly discovers their darstadly plot. This now provides a perfect opportunity for Roger Moore to slip into his Simon Templar/James Bond persona and save the day.

This film lies somewhere between an extended Saint episode and an early James Bond movie, but as Roger Moore was the best James Bond, (as we all know), this film is nevertheless enjoyable just for his suave, Mr smooth 1960's London swinger acting. The original Austin Powers.

Nothing exceptional, however this film is reasonably enjoyable in a mild mannered way. You could certainly do worse.

Following his turn as the infamous Simon Templar but before the likes of Lord Brett Sinclair and 007, Roger Moore starred in the little-known Crossplot. A hugely entertaining late 60s Bond-esque clone that plays like a feature-length ITC drama crossed with a Hitchcockian thriller even if the writing is nothing special and often exceptionally convoluted. Still, the film has an undeniable charm to its antics, largely thanks to Moore's natural panache and delightful cast; on a personal note seeing Francis Matthews in anything delights me greatly. Ripping along at a breakneck pace, Crossplot is certainly a product of its time but with noble ambitions by director Alvin Rakoff, an upbeat Barry-esque score by Stanley Black and hilarious moments of havoc, the film is a mild-mannered mini triumph from Moore's then ongoing bid to play 007.

This movie came on right after The Saint one morning so I left it on, Sir Rogers foray into his six-year long audition for James Bond continues. This movie is fun because of him. The man was born with a natural panache. I love the sixties vibe but mostly "Moore" of the same.

A boyish pre-James-Bond Roger Moore plays advertising executive Gary Fenn in this preposterous tale about uncovering a sinister plot in London. "Crossplot," directed by Alvin Rakoff, is more 60s nostalgia than exciting movie-making. The dated costumes and hairstyles, the period dancing and songs, and the misfire mix of comedy and espionage seem like an early Bond film gone haywire. The presence of Bernard Lee, who distinguished himself as "M" in the Bond series, adds to the faux-Bond look, but adds little to the proceedings. The flimsy plot gets underway when a photograph is substituted in an advertising proposal, and Moore pursues an elusive model for his campaign. The writers were likely inhaling something stronger than Lucky Strike when they came up with this idea. Claudie Lange plays the exotic model as though she had studied under a drag queen doing Gina Lollabrigida, and she gives new meaning to wooden. Only her ample bosoms show any charisma. The scenes between her and Moore lack any chemistry, and the photo shoot destroys her supposed appeal for the advertising as she poses and grins embarrassingly for the camera. While Martha Hyer looks lovely, well coiffed, and classy as Claudie's aunt, she has little to do but make eyes at Moore and keep her hair in place.

The story wanders over London and the English countryside, but the sights offer little distraction from the nonsense. "Crossplot" does offer a pastiche of scenes culled from other, better movies. A sequence that takes place in an antique car and period costumes seems like it was lifted from "The Great Chase," but without the talent involved in that film. Like the Bond films, the villains all have lousy aim, and the mechanics of the plot when it unravels make no sense whatsoever. A helicopter chase has been included to remind viewers that "From Russia with Love" was a far better film and starred a far better actor. The scene in which Moore disrupts a wedding is more than an echo of Cary Grant's antics in the auction scene in "North by Northwest." Only die-hard fans of Roger Moore will relish this movie, although he was admittedly more appealing here than in much of his later work. Either "Crossplot" was made as an audition for Moore to play James Bond or as a tax write-off for its investors. Either way the audience suffers.

Gary Fenn (Roger Moore) is a talented advertising executive who finds the perfect target and calculates the events which mean that only one girl will be good enough for his bosses. Things go wrong, when Gary meets a Hungarian refugee, Marla Kugash (Claudie Lange), and he is innocently entangled in an assassination attempt. Gary meets her among the anti-war movement in the bohemian depths of swinging London. She is in the company of a young man, Tarquin (Alexis Kanner), who is extremely protective of her and overtly aggressive to Fenn. Marla accompanies Fenn to a photo-shoot; however, she admits she is in fear of her life, and seems unsettled by the presence of her aunt Jo Grinling (Martha Hyer). When the mysterious Hungarian model begins to work for Gary's modeling agency, and he becomes romantically involved with her, the most disastrous events precipitate. This playboy has killer instincts !. He had to stop a murder - and someone had to stop him!

British thriller full of political intrigue, blackmail, murder, action-packed, chases and professionally directed by Alvin Rakoff, a specialist in productions for the small screen. This film with a modest budget is part of the fashion of films inaugurated by Sean Connery's James Bond in the early 60s. That's why 'Crossplot' falls into the 'Euro-Spy' genre that was very common in that decade and early seventies. Roger Moore and Bernard Lee are ironically cast as an advert exec and his client in this comedy thriller, four years before they meet again as Bond and his boss. They starred together: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Moonraker (1979); this Crossplot (1969) is the only theatrical movie, outside of the Bond movies, that the two acted in together. Starring Roger Moore gives a likeable acting as a London modeling agency executive who involuntarily becomes an instrument of a terrorist organization that intends a political assassination. This film was the first top-billed lead starring role in an English language production for Sir Roger Moore. While the beautiful Belgian Claude Lange -who worked a lot in the Italian cinema- plays a young Hungarian, an illegal refugee who becomes involved with Moore and eventually falls in love for him. There's also various familiar faces from British cinema, among which the following are worth highlighting: Francis Matthews, Dudley Sutton, Ursula Howells, Michael Culver, Gabrielle Drake, Bernard Lee and the Hammer queen Veronica Carlson. Apart from its tense finale and some action set pieces as the helicopter relentlessly chasing the protagonists, the script is commonplace. There's some nice Eastmancolor cinematography by cameraman Brendan J Stafford a veteran -and one time director- of movies whose career went back to the earliest days of British soound cinema.

The motion picture was mediocrely directed by Alvin Rakoff and nothing special. Alvin directed episode of The Saint, titled: ¨The Ex-King of Diamonds¨ (1969), that's why he was hired by the producers, as well as several production personnel who had worked on Sir Roger Moore's television series. Alvin is a craftsman filmmaker, he's Canadian director both cinema and television. He directed more than 100 television, film and stage productions. As well as a producer of much of his screen and stage work, Alvin is also a prolific writer of original screenplays, adaptations, theatre musicals, plays, and three novels. He made all kinds of genres in films as: ¨Dirty Tricks¨ , ¨Death Ship¨, ¨Hoffman¨, ¨The Comedy Man¨,¨ The anniversary¨, ¨Long Distance¨, ¨Room 43¨, ¨Crossplot¨, and several others. ¨Crossplot¨ (1969) rating: 4.5/10. An average film, only for the very fans of Roger Moore and Euro-spy genre.