Topaz is a 1969 American espionage thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In Copenhagen in 1962, a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer defects to the West with his wife and daughter. CIA agent Mike Nordstrom (John Forsythe) debriefs him and learns that Russian ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads are to be placed in Cuba. Nordstrom enlists the aid of his friend and French agent André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford), encouraging him to accompany his daughter Michèle (Claude Jade) on her honeymoon with journalist François Picard (Michel Subor) as a premise to get him to New York City. Devereaux accepts, but his wife Nicole (Dany Robin) is worried for him. In New York City, Devereaux entrusts a familiar contact, Philippe Dubois (Roscoe Lee Browne) to get hold of some seriously damaging papers concerning Soviet plans in Cuba from the visiting Cuban official Rico Parra (John Vernon). Parra is in New York to appear at the United Nations and stays at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem to show solidarity with the African American community, which the Cuban Communists and their Soviet masters frequently propagandize as the masses. Dubois, taking the identity of a black journalist from Ebony magazine, sneaks into the hotel, which is seething with visitors and surrounded by an enthusiastic mob. He bribes Parras secretary into taking the documents from Parras office to photograph, but Parra realizes the plans are gone and catches Dubois photographing the documents. While being chased by and shot at by Cuban revolutionaries, Dubois purposefully bumps into Devereaux -- who was watching events from the other side of the street -- and slips the camera into his hand. A Cuban guard helps Devereaux to get up, stares at him, and lets him go. Dubois photos confirm that the Soviets are secretly transporting and placing missiles in Cuba. Devereaux, ignoring his wifes fear and accusations of infidelity, jets off to Cuba to find out more details. He catches up with his mistress, Juanita de Cordoba (Karin Dor), who is a widow to a wealthy hero of the Revolution. As leader of the local underground resistance network, Juanita works undercover to collect information as Parras lover. Upon his arrival, Devereaux finds Parra leaving Juanitas mansion, and Parra indicated he was just in New York City, but the visit was routine and uneventful. During a scene of intimacy in the mansion, Devereaux asks Juanita to take photos of the missiles as they are unloaded from Russian boats at the harbor. Juanita instructs her loyal domestic staff to help take the photos. Carlotta and Pablo Mendoza pose as picnickers on a hill overlooking the harbor and photograph the unloading of Soviet missiles. They are discovered when hungry seagulls descend upon their lunch and give their position away. The two are able to hide the incriminating film in the railing of a bridge. Soon after, Parras man, during a mass rally and lengthy speech by the líder máximo, recognizes Devereauxs face from the incident in front of the hotel. Parra, who has heard from the maimed and tortured female underground member that Juanita is their leader, confronts Juanita and, hugging her in his arms, shoots her to save her from being tortured to death. Her dress spreads beneath her collapsing body like a purple bloodstain on the black-and-white pavement tiles. At the Havana airport, Devereaux is searched thoroughly at the departure gate, but the Cuban authorities are unable to find the carefully hidden microfilms, which provide crucial information for the CIA about Soviet activities in Cuba. When Devereaux arrives back in Washington, DC, he finds his home empty: his wife deserted him due to his Cuban love affair and returned to Paris. Devereaux is also recalled to Paris, but before he leaves, he is informed by Nordstrom about the existence of a Soviet spy organization called Topaz within the French intelligence service. He is given the name of one certain member, NATO official Henri Jarré (Philippe Noiret), who leaked documents to the KGB. When he arrives in Paris, Devereaux attempts to get to the bottom of the leak, while his daughter Michèle wants to reconcile her parents. He invites some of his old friends and colleagues, including Jarré, to a lunch at a fine restaurant under the auspices of helping Devereaux prepare for his inquiry. While Jarré eats, Devereaux tells the others about Topaz in order to provoke some reaction. Jarré answers that all this is a piece of misinformation, since he knows that the Russian official in fact died a year ago. Soon after, Jarré begins to panic, and visits the man who is the leader of the spy ring, Jacques Granville (Michel Piccoli), who answers the door in his night gown, waiting for somebody. Granville tells Jarré that is was a mistake to say that the Russian official was dead, as the Americans will just check and realize that Jarré is lying. As Jarré is leaving Granvilles house, Devereauxs wife arrives to meet Granville. As they kiss, we see a photo on a stand of Devereaux, Nicole, and Granville, who were old friends from their days together in the French Resistance. Devereaux sends his son-in-law, François, to interview and extract information from Jarré. François calls Devereaux from Jarrés home, but the call is cut short. Devereaux and Michèle rush together to Jarrés flat and find him dead, a staged suicide as if Jarré had jumped out of the window; François has disappeared. Devereaux and Michèle return to Nicoles, and a short time later François arrives. After being clubbed and kidnapped, he recovered and managed to escape from his captors car. He has overheard a phone number and shows a sketch of Jarré. Nicole, who was staring at the window then turns around and tells her family, with tearful eyes, that the phone number is Granvilles, so he must be the leader of the Topaz organization. Granville is exposed and then commits suicide (in the USA and French versions) or flees to the Soviet Union (in the British version).
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 07:29:47 +0000
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