The Kremlin Letter (1970)

Directed by John Huston. Starring Patrick O’Neal, Richard Boone, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Dean Jagger, Barbara Parkins, Orson Welles, Nigel Green, Micheál MacLíammóir, George Sanders, Ronald Radd, Raf Vallone, Niall MacGinnis, Anthony Chinn. [PG]

Watching this condensed translation of Noel Behn’s espionage bestseller is like starting a serialized TV program on episode 3, and because the network cut the number of ordered episodes, the showrunner has to start cramming from here on out. Complications aplenty in this depiction of a covert CIA operation in Moscow to ferret out a bogus letter signifying an alliance between the Soviet Union and the U.S. to threaten China, and with human interest being so thin and the dialogue and behavior being so self-serious without a real sense of danger, it’s too much of a chore to bother trying to sort it all out. Casting is more interesting than the plotting, such as Welles as a Communist Party officer, Sanders as an aging and sad-eyed drag queen, Parkins as a safecracker for foot fetishists, and von Sydow and Andersson together yet again away from the watchful eye of Ingmar Bergman. Edward Scaife’s photography is notable, and the pitiless finale is something to admire, but it’s hard not to speculate how much more effective it would have been had the previous two hours not been so busy and uninvolving. Director Huston puts in an appearance in an early scene.

45/100