The File of the Golden Goose

I think it is safe to say that if Yul Brynner is able to pull off a role in your film, it doesn't matter how weak the story, script, or anything else is... Brynner seems to make anything more entertaining.

"The file of the golden goose" is entertaining stuff,if you are not asking too much.There are counterfeiters in those trouble times and their ambitions know no bounds ,they are spreading all over Europe ,including the United Kingdom,which is a shame.Fortunately ,Yul Brynner is at hand ,and with his colleague, he infiltrates the gang,pretending he is a specialist too.He meets Peter Van Eyck who is very fond of Turkish baths but ,against all expectations,is not the big boss.

Best scene: Brynner's colleague,meeting his wife in a shopping arcade and pretending he's never met her.

Nice cruise on the Thames.

THE FILE OF THE GOLDEN GOOSE is a British/American spy production that seems to have been made as an answer to the popularity of the James Bond franchise. Thus there are the requisite fisticuffs and characters being kidnapped and held hostage by bad guys and the like. At the same time, the milieu and plotting feel slightly more realistic, with a John Le Carre influence working behind the scenes. The skullduggery works quite well and Yul Brynner is a likeable presence who bounces off supporting actors like Edward Woodward. I'm not sure anyone could take Graham Crowden's villain seriously, but generally this is watchable, if flawed, stuff.

Yul Brynner (yes, Yul Brynner, believe it or not) plays a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned by Washington to investigate an international gang counterfeiting $100 bills in Europe. He teams up with a Scotland Yard detective played by Edward Woodward ("The Equalizer" in a future life).

The movie opens with the gang attempting to assassinate Brynner near the United Nations building in New York, because he has developed too much evidence. The gang misses, of course, but his girl friend is killed. Brynner travels to London, works undercover, and gets in good with the gang.

I gave this movie a 7 out of 10, if only because they got the right American law enforcement agency (Secret Service) investigating counterfeit.

U.S. secret service agent YUL BRYNNER is enlisted by Scotland Yard to infiltrate a forgery ring distributing phony U.S. currency in London. He joins a Scotland Yard man EDWARD WOODWARD in this story that appears to be a remake of T-MEN, a thriller from the '40s that starred Dennis O'Keefe in the Brynner role. This version starts in the same terse documentary style as the American film.

It's Brynner who decides the best way to capture the mob is to infiltrate them, with Woodward as his back-up, a man with a wife and two children. Brynner is motivated by revenge. His sweetheart was killed in America by men who meant to kill him. Brynner has his misgivings about Woodward. "A married man should be sitting behind a desk shoving papers." He's afraid Woodward won't be a good back-up for him since he refuses to carry a gun.

The London backgrounds add flavor to the story, but the script is a cumbersome one, lacking the tension of T-MEN. Dull stretches toward the middle of the story take away from interest for the overall story to have the desired effect. Sam Wanamaker's direction is much too sluggish for this kind of yarn. CHARLES GRAY does a nice job as "The Owl".

The storyline is so similar in detail to T-MEN that it's an example of how a 1940s film noir filmed in shadowy B&W can be so superior to this Technicolor remake shifted to London locales but otherwise much the same story, except for some minor changes toward the conclusion.

Summing up: Should have generated more suspense. A better editing job would have helped the sluggish pace of a film that is not without a certain amount of intrigue and danger.