Le Serpent [The Serpent] *** (1973, Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, Farley Granger, Philippe Noiret, Virna Lisi, Michel Bouquet) – Classic Movie Review 5992

Co-writer/ producer/ director Henri Verneuil’s 1973 French movie for the international market is a standard, Seventies realist spy-thriller, with a gritty, sombre tone. It boasts an exceptional star line-up, which is one of its main attractions. Nobody is going to argue with the casting of Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret, Farley Granger, Virna Lisi and Michel Bouquet.

Le Serpent [The Serpent] is, supposedly based on a true event in which defecting KGB Colonel Alexei Vlassov (Yul Brynner) is a Soviet spy who defects in France and is taken to America where Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) takes over the case. Vlassov is in a high diplomatic position and comes up with a long list of traitors who occupy positions of power in major Western countries.

Since it is low on excitement, the starry cast, the tense handling and the certain, smooth professionalism of the handling are more or less all the film has to offer, but that is just about enough. Claude Renoir’s cinematography, Ennio Morricone’s and Jacques Saulnier’s producton designs are all impeccable and add noticeable touches of class.

Farley Granger plays the Computer Programming Director, and also in the cast are Martin Held, Guy Tréjan, Marie Dubois, Elga Andersen, Robert Alda, Nathalie Nerval, André Falcon, Luigi Diberti, William Sabatier, Robert Party and Larry Dolgin.

Gilles Perrault writes the screenplay with Henri Verneuil.

Dirk Bogarde said he made it just to work with Henry Fonda, so that was a good call. But in Germany, where it was called Die Schlange, Bogarde’s name was in tiny under the title and his picture had disappeared from the poster.

It is also known as The Serpent and Night Flight from Moscow.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5992

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