Night Flight from Moscow
| Night Flight from Moscow | |
|---|---|
 Film poster under title Le Serpent | |
| Directed by | Henri Verneuil |
| Written by | Henri Verneuil Gilles Perrault |
| Produced by | Henri Verneuil |
| Starring | Yul Brynner Henry Fonda Dirk Bogarde |
| Cinematography | Claude Renoir |
| Edited by | Pierre Gillette |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Distributed by | Pathfinder Pictures |
Release date | 7 April 1973 |
Running time | 113 minutes |
| Countries | France Italy West Germany |
| Languages | English French German |
Night Flight from Moscow (also known as Le Serpent[1]) is a 1973 thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Henri Verneuil, and starring Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, and Philippe Noiret. The score was composed by Ennio Morricone.
Plot
Aleksey Teodorovic Vlassov (Yul Brynner) is a high ranking KGB official who defects while in France. He has with him highly-classified information as part of a deal with Western intelligence for his arrival in the United States. The debriefing is held at Langley by DCI Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) and MI6 representative Philip Boyle (Dirk Bogarde). Vlassov hands off a list of enemy agents in Western Europe including a deep penetration into NATO.
Davies wants to begin operations to arrest the agents; however, those on the list suddenly begin to die off. The CIA also has suspicions over the authenticity of Vlassov's claims. The CIA discovers that a defection photo of Vlassov was taken in the Soviet Union, not in Turkey, judging from the contours of Mount Ararat in the background. Vlassov also fails a lie detector test after he angrily protests about sexual related questions asked by the CIA during the test.
Cast
- Yul Brynner as Alexsey Teodorovic Vlassov
- Henry Fonda as Allan Davies
- Dirk Bogarde as Philip Boyle
- Philippe Noiret as Lucien Berthon
- Michel Bouquet as Tavel
- Martin Held as Lepke
- Virna Lisi as Annabel Lee
- Paola Pitagora as Jeannine Santelli
- Elga Andersen as Kate Cross
- Marie Dubois as Suzanne
- Nathalie Nerval as Tatiana Vlassov
- Farley Granger as Computer Programming Director
- Luigi Diberti as Lefevre
- Robert Alda as Man interrogated by Tavel
Reception
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2015) |
A contemporary review by Tony Mastroianni in the Cleveland Press stated this film about espionage demonstrated how already in 1973 the computer had replaced the dagger. The reviewer also concluded the film had "more good moments than bad".[2]
References
- ^ "The Serpent / Night Flight from Moscow". unifrance.org. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ^ Mastroianni, Tony (1973-11-23). "Review: CIA spy film: It's not Dullesville". Cleveland State University Library. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
External links
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- 1973 films
- 1970s spy films
- 1970s psychological thriller films
- French spy films
- French thriller films
- French films
- Italian films
- West German films
- English-language films
- Films directed by Henri Verneuil
- Cold War spy films
- Films scored by Ennio Morricone
- Central Intelligence Agency in fiction
- Films set in France
- Films set in Germany
- Films set in London
- Films set in Virginia
- 1970s thriller film stubs
- 1970s French film stubs