The Jigsaw Man

Every great actor must have at least ONE on the CV they would not want anyone to find out about and for the likes of Caine and Olivier, ( I STILL cannot believe they were in this!), this is IT. Lacks EVERYTHING: pace, style, excitement, camera work, plot, score etc. etc. Unlike my REAL pet hates, such as John Wayne's "The Green Berets", I cannot even get really excited enough to hate this turkey, but just regard it in the way you would a really boring and unsatisfactory meal in a third rate restaurant - something you have gone through, but will never repeat by returning. Regard this film in the same way or, even better, save two hours of your life by doing something better than recording this when it is shown at 1.30a.m. on Channel Zog, (for I cannot imagine any other way you are going to get to see it), and wasting the time to view it later.

Michael Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier are involved in this routine movie (probably rent was due and the fellows were late on payment) which is completely useless. A former British spy who betrayed his own country is sent back from Russia on a mission. But suddenly (well, not so suddenly) the story twists to an unexpected (well, not so unexpected) ending. No actor seems to be interested in what is happening and the Italian dub (above all Olivier) is rather poor. The plot makes little sense and . If you look for a spy movie with Michael Caine, watch "The Ipcress File" or "The fourth protocol",instead. They would be a very much better choice.

I had seen a documentary about espionage a couple of weeks before seeing this film on TV by chance and i found it simply amusing. The parallels between the film character Philip Kimberly and Kim Philby of real life are too many for this to be just a coincidence (not to mention the name of the film character which seems itself to be some anagram of Kim Philby).

All in all this is a nice film if you like espionage with a little comedy on the side. As for the comment of the other reviewer about the film being hard to follow: i didn't think it was THAT hard to follow. Besides, this being an espionage movie, if it wasn't a teensy bit hard to follow what would be the fun in it?

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.

The direction is antiquated (long, boring conversations between two people in underlit offices, as the camera switches from a close-up of one person to a close-up of the other, and so on), and the script is confusing (though it clears up a bit on the second viewing). However, the film is saved EXCLUSIVELY by its cast, and especially by the star chemistry between Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier; the few scenes they share together are the best in the film. Caine pulls off a terrific Russian accent, too. (**)