The Kremlin LetterThe Kremlin Letter is an American spy lm[2]
directedby John Huston, starring Richard Boone, Orson Welles,Max
von Sydow,Bibi Andersson,Patrick O'Neal andGeorge Sanders. It was
released in February 1970 by 20thCentury-Fox.[3]The screenplay was
co-written by Huston and GladysHill as a faithful adaptation of the
novel by NoelBehn, who had worked for the United States
ArmysCounterintelligenceCorps.[4]Saidbyreviewerstobebeautifully[5]andengagingly[6]photographed,
thelm is a highly complex and realistic tale of bitter in-trigue
and espionage[6] set in the winter of 1969-1970 atthe height of the
US-Soviet Cold War.The Kremlin Letter was a commercial failure and
thinlyreviewed in 1970, but the lm has gathered steady
praisefromsome critics throughout the decades since its
release.French lmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville called The Krem-lin
Letter masterly and "...sawit as establishing the stan-dard for
cinema.[7]1 PlotLate in 1969, a brilliant young United States Navy
intelli-gence ocer named Charles Rone (Patrick O'Neal) ndshis
commission revoked so that he can be recruited intoan espionage
mission. Rone is told that the mission isbeing undertaken
independently of governmental intelli-gence agencies, as was
commonplace prior to World WarII, when espionage operations were
handled by a smallcommunity of agents operating on a freelance
basis.Rone is told that the primary operator in that community,a
brutal, sadistic, conscienceless assassin named RobertStuydevant,
did not adapt to the post-war shift to govern-ment intelligence
agencies, and the independent networkof spies disbanded, with
Stuydevant disappearing and re-portedly later committing suicide.
Now, the governmenthas suered a signicant failure in an important
intelli-gence operation and has turned back to the
independentagents for help.This time, The Highwayman (Dean Jagger),
anothermember of the old group of independent spies is the
manleading the eort to reassemble the network to take onthis
mission. Another member of the group has recentlydied, and Rone has
been tabbed as his replacement, due toRones exceptional analytical
skills, eidetic memory andability to speak eight languages, each
with a native accent.Rone meets with The Highwayman and another
groupmembernamedWard(RichardBoone), thelatterofwhom takes on the
role of Rones primary tutor. Theyrst task Rone with rounding up
three other membersof the group: Janis (Nigel Green), a drug dealer
andpanderer, The Warlock (George Sanders), a
culturallysophisticated homosexual, and The Erector Set
(NiallMacGinnis), a highly skilled thief and burglar.Janis begs o
of the mission, saying that he won't workfor The Highwayman, but
only for Stuydevant, whomhe believes would never have killed
himself. Rone -nally bribes him into agreeing to participate. The
War-lock joins the operation without hesitation, but The Erec-tor
Sets hands have become too arthritic to be of use.Instead, he sends
his beautiful daughter B.A. (BarbaraParkins) in his place, as he
has trained her to be as ca-pable as is he. B.A. and Rone soon
become romanticallyinvolved.The groups mission is the retrieval of
a letter, writtenwithout proper authorization, that promises United
Statesaid to the Soviet Union in destroying Chinese atomicweapons
plants. The letter had been solicited on be-half of an unknown
high-level Soviet ocial by DmitriPolyakov, who had previously been
selling Soviet secretsto the United States that he had obtained
from that sameSoviet ocial. Upon nding out about the letter,
whichwas a de facto declaration of war against China, U.S.and
British authorities had contacted Polyakov and ar-ranged to
purchase it back from him. However, Polyakovthen committed suicide
after being apprehended by So-viet counter-intelligence under
ColonelYakov Kosnov(Max von Sydow).The group blackmails Captain
Potkin (Ronald Radd), theSoviet head of counter-intelligence in the
U.S., threaten-ing his family to force him to allow them the use of
hisusually-vacant apartment in Moscow. Once they arrivein the
Soviet Union, the terminally ill Highwayman sac-rices his life,
attempting to divert the attention of So-viet counter-intelligence
away from the remainder of theteam. Rone is assigned to remain at
the apartment withWard and accept reports verbally from other team
mem-bers, Rones memory allowing them to avoid the use ofwritten
records. Janis, The Warlock and B.A. then set outto establish
themselves in various parts of Russian societyas they try to
ascertain the identity of Polyakovs contact.Janis enters a
partnership with a local brothel operator,who points him to a
Chinese man known as Kitai asa possible source for drugs to which
they can keep theirprostitutes addicted. Upon meeting the Kitai,
Janis dis-12 2 CASTcerns that the man is also a spy. Janis also
happens tospot Kosnov leaving a local night club with a womanwhom
he discovers was Polyakovs devoted wife, ErikaBeck (Bibi
Andersson). She is now married to Kosnov,so B.A. plants a listening
device in their bedroom. Af-ter that, B.A. takes up with a local
small-time thief andblack market operator, though she nds herself
terriblyunhappy and wishes only to return home to her father.In the
meantime, the Warlock integrates himself into thelocal community of
intellectual homosexuals, starting anaair with a university
professor. He then meets one ofthe professors students who was
Polyakovs former loverand who informs himthat Polyakov had had a
relationshipwith Vladimir Bresnavitch (Orson Welles) of the
SovietCentral Committee.Bresnavitch turns out to have an
adversarial relationshipwith Kosnov,whose activities Bresnavitch
oversees onbehalf of the Committee. According to Kosnov, the
an-imosity between the two men went back many years towhen
Bresnavitch sought to oust Kosnov from his job,in favor of
Stuydevant. Prior to that time, Kosnov andStuydevant had been
friendly, with each one trusting theother to allow his agents to
operate in the others terri-tory. However, with the pressure from
Bresnavitch, Kos-nov decided he had to do something spectacular to
keephis job, so he betrayed Stuydevants trust and captured
hisagents, employing a great deal of brutality and earning
thelasting enmity of Stuydevant himself.Upon deducing that
Bresnavitch had used Polyakov tofence stolen art works in Paris,
Ward decides to go therein search of any possible leads. On the day
of his return,the groups mission is destroyed when Potkin returns
tothe Soviet Union and informs Bresnavitch about the oper-ation.
Janis, B.A. and Ward are apprehended, while TheWarlock commits
suicide just before capture and Ronenarrowly escapes. Rone tries
visiting the Kitai to arrangere-purchase of the letter, but the
Kitai responds by tryingto kill him and Rone determines that the
Chinese havepossession of the letter.Rone then turns to Erika, with
whom he has been havingan aair while posing as a Russian gigolo
named Yorgi.He hopes to get her to inquire with her husband
aboutthe condition of those captured. She informs him thatKosnov
participated in no such capture, and Rone real-izes that
Bresnavitch quietly orchestrated the raid withoutthe knowledge of
Soviet counter-intelligence, a clear in-dicator that he was
Polyakovs traitorous high-level Sovietocial contact. Rones
questions reveal to Erika his trueidentity and he promises to help
her escape to the West.She tells him she will try to ascertain the
fates of the cap-tured agents and later reports back that B.A. has
takenpoison and is expected to die, while one of the men isdead and
the other has survived and is being held captive.Rone threatens to
expose Bresnavitch unless Ward, thesurviving agent, is released.
Bresnavitch agrees, and Roneand Ward then arrange to leave the next
day. Disapprov-ing of Rones plans to aid Erika, Ward lures her into
a trapand kills her. Kosnov believes that her lover Yorgi killedher
and tracks down Rone, though unaware of Rones trueidentity, in
search of revenge. But Ward enters, leadingKosnov to observe that I
seem to know you. Ward saysthat the two men have a lot of old
corpses to dig up andtalk about. He begins listing the names of the
agents be-trayed by Kosnov and says that the time has come for
ret-ribution, as he shoots Kosnov in the kneecap. Kosnovstares at
Ward in disbelief, saying No, it isn't. It can'tbe. Ward then
closes on him o-camera and Kosnov be-gins screaming in torment.As
they head for a plane to leave the country, Rone shareswith Ward
his conclusions that Ward is in fact Sturdevantand intends to stay,
having made a deal with Bresnavitchto take over as the head of
Soviet counter-intelligence.Ward denies it, but only coyly, and
then reveals that B.A.is not dead. He says that she will be held to
ensure thatRone does not reveal the truth about him. Rone, verymuch
in love with B.A., vows that he'll get her back some-how. Ward oers
to release B.A. if Rone does one lastlittle thing, handing Rone an
envelope as Rone boardsthe plane. After seating himself, Rone opens
the enve-lope to nd a note which reads, Kill Potkins wife
anddaughters or I kill the girl.2 CastBibi Andersson - ErikaRichard
Boone - Ward/Robert SturdevantNigel Green - Lord Ashleys
Whore/JanisDean Jagger - HighwaymanLila Kedrova - SophieMichel
MacLammir - Sweet AlicePatrick O'Neal - Charles Rone/"YorgiBarbara
Parkins - B.A.Ronald Radd - Captain PotkinGeorge Sanders -
WarlockRaf Vallone - Puppet MakerMax von Sydow - Colonel
KosnovOrson Welles - BresnavitchAnthony Chinn - doctor KitaiSandor
Els (credited as Sandor Eles) - Lt. GrodinNiall MacGinnis - Erector
SetSteve Zacharias- Dittomachine33 ProductionThis entrance gate of
the Hispanic Society of America in NewYork was used for a location
shot (Rone and B.A. walking intothe Tillenger Foundation) and in
this 2008 photograph, still looksmuch like it did in the lm almost
forty years earlier.The lm shows its characters speaking Russian
withoutthe use of English subtitles by beginning such scenesin
Russian and then segueing into English. Many ofthescenes set
inMoscowwerelmedduring1969in the Finnish capitalcity of Helsinki
which featuresneoclassical buildings similar tothose
inLeningrad.There was also lming at locations in New York City(the
Hispanic Society of America, Central Park Zoo andGreenwich
Village), Italy and Mexico.[3][5] Mostly aerialstock footage from
the summer of 1969 showing Los An-geles, San Francisco, Chicago and
New York is also seenin the lm.4 ReactionVincent Canby of the New
York Times called the moviedepressing.[8] Variety had already noted
in a pre-releasereviewthat
TheKremlinLetter"...makesforvaluableviewing, but
withthepiecingtogetheranotherthing.Thusisthisnastinessofthespybusinessgraphicallydescribed.
It is an engagingly photographed piece ofbusiness.[6] A much later
TV Guide review said the lmwas Beautifully photographed... a
hopelessly convolutedspy drama with so many intricate interweavings
that youtruly need a scorecard to keep track of the
plotters.[5]Craig Butler of Allmovie wrote, Although it has its
par-tisans, most consider The Kremlin Letter to be a big
disap-pointment... the plot of the novel upon which it is basedis
simply too dense to be translated to the screen in a lmof normal
length. Butler went on to note that RichardBoone really shines,
turning in a very ne performancethat leaves the rest of the actors
in the dust... there arethose who will greatly enjoy Kremlin for
its twisted plot-ting and cynicism...[9]In 2009 the lm was listed
in 100 Greatest Spy Movies: ASpecial Collectors Edition from the
Editors of AmericanHistory [magazine].[2]Jerry Kutner wrote Among
the lms of 1970, John Hus-tons The Kremlin Letter was as
unself-consciously noiras his '40s and '50s work.[10]There has
always been a strong undercurrent of signif-icant praise for the
lm. In 2005, UCLA scholar BobHudson noted in the journal Lingua
Romana that Frenchlmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville "...used the term
magiste-rial in praise of John Hustons The Kremlin Letter
(1970),which he had just viewed the night before the
interview.Despite the commercial failure of the lm, Melville sawit
as establishing the standard for cinema, and explainedhis quest as
an attempt to achieve such grandeur.[7] TheTime Out Film Guide
calls The Kremlin Letter power-ful... possibly the clearest
statement of Hustons vision ofa cruel and senseless world in
operation.[11]5 References[1] Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century
Fox: A Corporateand Financial History (The ScarecrowFilmmakers
Series).Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN
978-0-8108-4244-1. p256[2] Seymour, Gene. 100 Greatest Spy Movies:
A SpecialCollectors Edition from the Editors of American
History.2009. Weider History Group.[3] hollywood.com, The Kremlin
Letter, retrieved 31 Decem-ber 2008[4] nytimes.com, Noel Behn, 70,
Novelist, Producer andScreenwriter, 31 July 1998, retrieved 31
December 2008[5] tvguide.com, The Kremlin Letter, retrieved 31
December2008[6] variety.com, The KremlinLetter, 1January1970,
re-trieved 31 December 2008[7] Hudson, Bob, "J.-P. Melvilles Quest
for the Absolute:Persistent Perfectionism and Realistic Obsession
in HisLast Films, Lingua Romana: a journal of French, Ital-ian and
Romanian culture, fall 2005 (volume 4, issue 1),retrieved 31
December 2008[8] Canby, Vincent, "Film of 'Kremlin Letter' Weaves
Espi-onage Tale, New York Times, 2 February 1970, retrieved31
December 2008.4 6 EXTERNAL LINKS[9] Butler, Craig, The Kremlin
Letter, allmovie.com, retrieved31 December 2008[10] Kutner, Jerry
C., Beyond the Golden Age - Film Noir Sincethe '50s,
brightlightslm.com, 1994, 2006, retrieved 31December 2008:[11]
timeout.com, The Kremlin Letter, retrieved 31 December20086
External linksThe Kremlin Letter at the Internet Movie DatabaseThe
Kremlin Letter at AllMovie57 Text and image sources, contributors,
and licenses7.1 Text TheKremlinLetterSource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kremlin_Letter?oldid=670819530Contributors:
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