He directed more than fifty films between 1925 and 1976. My mission this winter is to watch the lesser known ones that I have never seen or heard of. So last night I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz, released in 1969.
This, as it happens, was his pre-penultimate film. (Playing cards as a child my uncle would declare a hand to be the last and eventually he would concede that it could be the ante pre-penultimate.) Topaz is a romantic espionage thriller. A Russian defector, a French spy and the Cuban missile crisis provide the backdrop for a story set in Copenhagen, Washington DC, New York, Cuba and Paris. It is a conventional thriller but with Hitch’s signature written all over it. Tension is built-up and released, close-ups are lingered over, the lighting saturates the characters’ faces and there is not a dull moment. The music is by Maurice Jarre and although the cast is relatively unknown, two great French actors, favourites of Jean-Luc Godard, appear; Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret.
A film genre that I particularly enjoy is comedy-caper and a recent find is The Assassination Bureau starring Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas (who quite often remembers to adopt an English accent). It was released in 1969 and unashamedly piggybacks on Diana Rigg’s role as Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers between 1965 and 1968. She and Oliver Reed are sparring partners straight out of the Steed/Peel mould.
Highbrow? Certainly not. Low budget with special effects worthy of Thunderbirds, unconvincing sets and plenty of back projection. It’s super and Philippe Noiret is in it too.
