The File of the Golden Goose

"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.

If you are a big fan of Yul Brynner who plays the role of a U.S. Secret Service agent named Peter Novak, you will enjoy his great performance dealing with Scotland Yard policemen and a very dangerous counterfeiting ring of thugs. Novak joins up with his partner, Edward Woodward,(Arthur Thompson) who works for Scotland Yard and the two of them decide to work their way into this counterfeiting gang who are very clever and will kill you at the drop of a dime. Peter Novak runs into all kinds of situations and even a brothel and message parlors. This film runs rather long and it seemed to me they could have cut a great deal of this film on the cutting room floor, and the ending was very disappointing. However, all the actors in this film gave an outstanding performance and it was great to see this Classic 1969 film.

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.

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.

Quite routine as can be for a crime feature, but there's somewhat a dreary and hardened underbelly. The investigation that transpires is predictably weary as you feel like your watching something out of a old- school crime TV episode… but what it has going for it is that the grimy locations help with the moody ambiance and the main performances up it a notch. Yul Brynner is in the lead and along side are Edward Woodward and Charles Gray as a shady, if eccentric villain "The Owl". So there are some real solid acting chops on show.

An American secret service agent working with Scotland Yard goes about trying to infiltrate a dangerous counterfeit ring looking to upscale their business. Brynner plays it tough as nails (but there's something a little more to his psyche that be shows minor cracks), while Woodward is the chatty local partner who's assigned to Brynner's American agent. I thought it was going to play out like some buddy feature (as the two shared a fitting combination with some British humour), but it soon moves away from that angle midway through when the thick script brings in the villains and the scheming begins (also slowing things down) as our protagonist (Brynner) sets his plans in motion by snooping and trying to uncover the mastermind behind this counterfeit ring. In between this are some intense exchanges, beat-downs, nasty encounters and sauna visiting amongst the London views.

There's clichés aplenty amongst the smokescreen of genre staples and throw in that racy big band score typical of the era. The plot is rather thin, as you can feel it being stretched out with the amount of repetitive actions occurring and its revelation feels abrupt making little headway, but I always found Brynner to be a very watchable actor despite that detached-persona and it does possess a dangerous edge never making the character feel too safe. The earnest direction is tranquil in manner and the handling rather practical in style, as the pace is leisured throughout making a little sluggish. Although its does come to a crushing end in the final stages with a downbeat final shot.

"He's rather a tough nut".