Misteraser Critics,are you kidding us

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

MartinHafer According to IMDb, this film is loosely based on a real historical incident--though how much, I have absolutely no idea! When the film begins, Eddie Chapman (Christopher Plummer) is hanging out on the island of Jersey during WWII. Although British, the island (off the French Coast) was seized by the Germans long before this. Any way, Eddie ends up getting arrested by the Germans and instead of acting afraid, he's very smug. He then announces that he's more than willing to work for the Nazis as a spy...provided they pay well! The Germans are a bit skeptical to say the least, but over time he earns their trust. But what is Eddie to do when they actually drop him into Britain and order him to blow up a defense plant?! And, for exactly WHO does Eddie work?This is a very unusual and interesting espionage film. Much of this is because for so much of the movie, you aren't sure who Eddie works for or what's in store for him. Christopher Plummer is very nice in the lead and it helps that he has the likes of Trevor Howard, Gert Fröbe, Yul Brynner and, especially, Romy Schneider in the film as well. My only complaint, and it's very minor, is that the film might have worked a bit better if the story was tightened up a bit...but it still was interesting and worth seeing.

denis888 I love war movies, and especially WWII ones. Also, a theme of a double agent who was involved in some very high levels of power of 2 sides, and was into some very high levels of authorities seems a very captivating plot. Plus, come a great cast of outstanding actors, such as Christopher Plummer as Eddie Chapman, Romy Schneider as Countess, Trevor Howard as British Intelligence Officer, Gert Fröbe as Col. Steinhager, Claudine Auger as Paulette, Yul Brynner as Col. Baron Von Grunen - so, the final result may seem a thrilling watch. Well, it was not, sadly. The very good and promising start of a movie gave us some large hope for better, but then, the film fell onto a trap of slow tempo, very predictable twists and very trite clichés. Plummer is good here yes, cool, polishes, withdrawn, sarcastic ( as he later would prove as a Duke Of Wellington in a great, sadly underestimated 1970's Waterloo), but he cannot save this otherwise plodded and oftentimes messy array of unexpected comic twists, unconvincing drama, very poorly depicted personal conflicts. Generally, the movie makes you yawn and wait for a quicker ending. Yul Brinner is not bad here, too, but this highly comic, artificial accent brings all down to a pure farce. My opinion? Not that bad, sure, but not good at all, either. A very middle-of-the-road run, a very medium try at the highly potential story.

malcolmgsw To anyone interested in the true story of Eddie Chapman I suggest that they round the book "Agent Zigzag".This film is an attempt to do a clone James Bond film complete with inappropriate 60s song blaring out over the credits.The first problem is that Christopher Plummer is totally miscast as Eddie Chapman.A couple of years later it would be Michael Caine who would have been chosen.The story veers so far from the true Chapman story as to be a complete fiction.There was no countess in the real story.It really is absurd particularly when she appears in a different haute couture creation in every scene.Chapman actually got very friendly with his German spy master,not as shown in the film.He was kept in a secret house in Hendon whilst in the UK.Along with his mistress.A lot of damage was done to a dummy factory,not to De Havillands itself.So in the end this tiresome fabrication ends up falling flat on its face.

OJT Right from the start I was captivated by this story which is fiction inspired by a true story of the the undercover agent Chapman, used from the book by Frank Owen. We're introduced to a British bank robber, or more like jewelry thief, which gets caught and put in prison while on holiday on the island of Jersey, which not much later is occupied by Germans during the outbreak of the 2nd world war. After some time he convinces the Germans that he is not a patriot. The film has the feel as an James Bond film from the 60'ies. Christopher Plummer is just as horny as Bond, the the film makers is probably doing too much out of that. No wonder, though, since director Terence Young was a main director of the James Bond films. He was the director of "Dr. No" in 1962 and the following "From Russia with love" and "Thunderball", before this one. The film language is very alike.I find the film very cozy and entertaining watching. With a good good feel of the 60'ies film making. Which I'm not old enough to remember, but which I've seen depicted on film a thousand times., though I'd is mad of being the 40'ies.This film wasn't very popular in the British intelligence, which allegedly tried to drop this bring made. It was also mean to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this story, but he was advised not to do so. Terence Young was handles the script, and made a quite different film from what Hitchcock would have made. Young has used a lot of former Bond actors in this, in addition to a good Christopher Plummer, and when Yul Brunner as a German commandant.On the nag entice side, the story will be, like many agent stories, a bit confusing to many. I also find the women stories less charming than they are made to be. So it ends if as an well made and entertaining watch, but by far a classic. To be a classic, it way to tedious and too much of a rip-off f the earliest Janes Bond-stories.