The Spy Who Conned Me
Eddie Chapman (Christopher Plummer) is a smooth operator, blowing up safes under the noise of a back firing car outside of the buildings and leaving a calling card before absconding with the pick of the jewels he steals. But whilst in Jersey he is caught and locked up for his crimes on the island which is where he spots the invasion of German soldiers as they marched on to the island. Spotting an opportunity he convinces those in command to let him work as a spy for Germany at which point his execution is faked and he spends time in France being trained by the Germans before being sent to London. But he hands himself in and becomes a double spy working for the British as long as he is pardoned, compensated and receives a wartime commendation for his work.
Eddie Chapman was an actual person who was a criminal, who ended up in prison and ended up convincing the Germans to allow him to be a spy before then becoming a double spy for the British. And his time as a double spy was an eventful one as he was involved in various double crosses and dangerous situations through out the war. Unfortunately "Triple Cross" doesn't do justice to this story and is a slow un-involving drama which fails to give us interesting characters, excitement and frequently suffers from poor editing.
So as already mentioned "Triple Cross" is all about Eddie Chapman, the smooth operating thief who ends up a double agent and it starts with a series of robberies where the unhurried Chapman sifts through the goods before leaving the scene of the crime even going as far to have a policeman help push his getaway car outside of the building. Unfortunately whilst all the ingredients are there from the audaciousness of Chapman to ask a cop to aid his escape to the leaving of a calling card it just isn't exciting. And unfortunately when it comes to Eddie being a smooth operator with an eye for a shapely woman it isn't smooth enough to be entertaining even when he sneaks out of a German cell to bed a female prisoner called Paulette.
This lack of excitement flows through out the entire movie and suffers under what for me is some poor editing. Almost every scene which sees people having a conversation is chopped about with it so it feels like the people were filmed at separate times, saying their lines but not actually talking too each other. It is part of the reason why at 2 hours and 20 minutes "Triple Cross" feels even longer as there is no flow to the scenes to make time pass.
Never the less "Triple Cross" has one redeeming quality and that is a good cast with Christopher Plummer doing his best to make Eddie Chapman exciting, smooth and confident in an almost crooked James Bond kind of way. Plus the likes of Yul Brynner, Gert Fröbe and Trevor Howard are all solid if forgettable due to awkward characters.
What this all boils down to is that "Triple Cross" could have been a very exciting war time thriller but the final product whilst having a good cast and some entertaining scenes including one which features a gun which shoots around corners lacks pace, excitement and decent editing to make it flow.
