Topaz (4 Stars)

This is a film about a fictional French spy, André Devereaux, who helped the American secret service find out about the Russian deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962. His work is hampered by a ring of Russian double agents in high French government positions, codenamed Topaz.

I've been told that in the circles of Alfred Hitchcock fans this is considered to be his worst film. I don't consider myself to be a "Hitchcock fan", so I disagree. Looking on as an outsider I can hazard a guess why they have this opinion. Those who admire his films think of him as the master of suspense, so they criticise any of his films lacking in suspense. They discard his early comedies -- which I personally consider to be his best films -- as a learning phase before he fully mastered his craft. "Topaz" is a true-to-life spy thriller which concentrates on the daily routine of espionage, so the action doesn't reach the excitement levels of James Bond, but there are also no mysteries to be solved. Is this why Hitchcock fans don't like it? Maybe.

The film was made at a difficult time in Hitchcock's career. After massive successes with "Psycho" (1960) and "The Birds" (1963), his next two films, "Marnie" (1964) and "Torn Curtain" (1966), flopped. Audiences and critics alike thought Hitchcock was washed out. Expectancies for "Topaz" were low, especially when the press reported that the film was being made with no big stars. This was a shock for the American public. For the last 30 years his films had featured top Hollywood stars, and now he was making a film with relative nobodies. When "Topaz" was finished it was presented to preview audiences to gauge the public's opinion. In the questionnaires it was almost universally hated. The audiences criticised that it was too long, and more than anything else they criticised the ending (a duel scene) as illogical. Hitchcock reacted by making sweeping changes. Before the film was officially released he shortened the film by 30 minutes, and he replaced the duel with a different ending (a suicide). The original actors were no longer available, so he filmed with a double whose face wasn't shown, which reminds me of Ed Wood. Hitchcock didn't feel happy with this ending, so after the film was already in the cinemas he made a third ending (a plane flight to Moscow) using spare footage that he hadn't needed for the film.

The DVD I watched today is the unshortened version, but with the third ending. The other two endings are added as DVD extras. After watching the duel I have to ask myself what Hitchcock was thinking. The preview audiences were justified in hating it, and the ending used (the plane flight) makes better sense. It's been said, in reference to this film, that Hitchcock's second rate films are better than most directors' best films. Even though I'm not a Hitchcock fan I would agree.