Topaz
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Short description
Topaz is a Cold War thriller set in 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official defects to the West, he brings with him word of a Soviet intelligence network operating under the code name Topaz, with agents placed inside the French government and NATO. A French agent, André Devereaux, is drawn into the investigation. His work takes him from Copenhagen to Cuba, where he looks into Soviet activity on the island, and then back to France, where he must uncover who among the senior ranks is working for Moscow. The pressure of the case reaches into his own household, as his family becomes part of the story.
Alfred Hitchcock directed the film, the fortieth of the forty-three features listed for him in chronological order, arriving between Torn Curtain and Frenzy. Samuel A. Taylor wrote the screenplay, and the large credited cast of sixty-five is led by Frederick Stafford as Devereaux, alongside Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret. It was produced by Universal Pictures and Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions.
Released in December 1969, the film runs 127 minutes and falls among the director's later works. Made for about four million dollars, it returned roughly six million worldwide, a modest result. On IMDb it holds 6.2 out of 10 from around 21,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from some 434 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from thirty-one reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Philippe Noiret broke his leg in the spring of 1968 after falling off a horse. Therefore, his agent told Hitchcock that the actor could not film without crutches.
- According to Alfred Hitchcock, this was another of his experimental films. The plot development is shown through dialogue and, primarily, through the use of color (red, yellow, and white). The director later admitted the experiment was unsuccessful.
- The film was based on the real adventures of French spy Philippe de Vojoili and the 'Sapphire' scandals of 1962, during which high-ranking French officials were exposed as Soviet spies.
- Hitchcock considered this work a disaster, as it went into production without a finished script, which was completely contrary to his usual method of working with complete preparation, and even the actors were not fully cast, not to mention the fact that the ending had not yet been devised. As a result, Hitchcock filmed two versions of this film with completely different endings (the short version of the film is 127 minutes, the long version is 143 minutes).
- Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) brought on Leon Uris (1924-2003), author of the 1967 novel, as a co-writer of the screenplay, which they then adapted for the screen together. While working on the script, Uris disliked the famous director’s eccentric sense of humor, and Hitchcock, in turn, was disappointed by what he perceived as Uris's disregard for his requests to make the villains more human. He felt they had become stereotypical monsters. Uris left the project before finishing the adaptation.
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