The Kremlin Letter (1970)

A lot of fun.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Just how seriously John Huston took any of this is hard to say but "The Kremlin Letter" is still one of his most entertaining pictures. A shaggy dog story with a plot that is virtually impossible to follow, it's possibly his daftest picture since "Beat the Devil". An all-star cast play various spies, both Russian and American, and they would all seem to be after the letter of the title; that much is clear...or is it! Huston himself wrote it, together with Gladys Hill, from a novel by Noel Behn though like "Beat the Devil" you feel as if they're making it up as they go along, which is all part of the fairly nasty fun. The superb cast act with the straightest of faces, (there's a great cameo from Orson Welles while Max Von Sydow and Bibi Andersson as usual walk away with it). Sold at the time as a serious antidote to the Bond movies the film wasn't a success but is now seen as a cult classic.

Don't know why, but this so-called espionage thriller is one of the worst films in this genre. Lot of A-list had beens, but the dramatically staging bland, loosely knitted screenplay almost killed all of them. The early Barbara Parkins didn't show any acting talent, she looked like a robot, was so terrible to watch. The opponent side of the Russian intelligence guys looked more like working for the British or American, they all acted and more likely living in the West, except the snowy winter scenes tried to give you how Russian's winter was so bitterly cold, all these guys didn't give any realistic feeling as Russians. The Americans in this so-called thriller, all looked like having a dinner party, waltzed through the whole film by just delivering the deadbeat, poorly pre-arranged theater-like dialog, making this film so impatiently to watch along. If the Cold War spies vs spies battles were like what we saw in this film, then they were just made-up jokes.

We are dealing with a few sacred monsters, starting with director John Huston (who casted himself in a small role in the film), then Orson Welles and George Sanders. Nigel Green, Richard Boone, Patrick O'Neal, are not sacred monsters, but they do their job well, are good actors. Barbara Parkins (the beauty from "Puppet on a Chain", "Bear Island" and "Valley of the Dolls") is a sexy innocence. Bibi Andersson(a favorite of Ingmar Bergman) makes a great role. Max von Sydow (another favorite of Ingmar Bergman) is brilliant too, as usual. And the great actress Lila Kedrova (Madame Hortense in "Zorba the Greek") has a role too small for her huge talent. A very special film about the sacrifices that spies have to make for their own homelands... or others homelands.

Majestically directed by Huston, stuffed with great performances including Richard Boon, John O'Shea, Nigel Green, and especially Max Von Sydow who is in compelling form. Bibi Andersson is a revelation, so full of tenderness, anger and despair.Full of engaging characters, unexpected scenes, and plenty of twists this is a neglected classic of the genre.It needs a proper DVD release with plenty of extras, before all those involved pass away (Bibi Andersson and Barbara Parkins are the only principals still with us) Despite being central to the plot Orson Wells has little more than a cameo. O'Shea is little known now but deserves a larger entry in the footnotes of the secret agent roll.