The Kremlin Letter

Infobox Film
name = The Kremlin Letter


image_size = 200px
caption = Theatrical poster for "The Kremlin Letter"
director = John Huston
producer = Carter DeHaven
Sam Wiesenthal
writer = John Huston
Gladys Hill
starring = Bibi Andersson
Richard Boone
Nigel Green
Dean Jagger
music = Robert Jackson Drasnin
cinematography = Edward Scaife
editing = Russell Lloyd
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = flagicon|US February 1, 1970
flagicon|Finland April 10
flagicon|Germany April 17
flagicon|Denmark June 21, 1971
runtime = 120 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English/Russian
budget =
amg_id = 1:97970
imdb_id = 0065950

"The Kremlin Letter" is a 1970 American espionage film, released by 20th Century-Fox. Directed by John Huston from a screenplay that Huston co-wrote with Gladys Hill (adapted from the novel by Noel Behn), the film is a complex tale of intrigue and espionage set in the days of the US-Soviet Cold War.

Plot

O'Neal plays a naval man drafted into the secret service because he has a photographic memory and is able to speak fluent Russian. He is given the task of retrieving the eponymous letter. Helping him is a motley team of undercover (and underworld) sorts, including Richard Boone as O'Neal's superior, charming and menacing both at the same time, George Sanders as a drag artist, and a beautiful safecracker (who opens safes with her feet while lying on her back), played by Barbara Parkins, with whom O'Neal falls in love. The characterizations and the acting are first-rate. Huston, who also plays a small role, directs with a deceptive touch of nonchalance that seems to imply wariness and uninvolvement but in fact, the film is a highly absorbing tale that sustains interest from beginning to end.

Cast

*Bibi Andersson as Erika (Beck) Kosnov, Prostitute/Kosnov's wife
*Richard Boone as Ward/Uncle
*Nigel Green as The Whore
*Dean Jagger as Highwayman
*Lila Kedrova as Madam Sophie
*Micheál MacLiammóir as Sweet Alice
*Patrick O'Neal as Charles Rone/Yorgi
*Barbara Parkins as B.A.
*Ronald Radd as Captain Potkin
*George Sanders as Warlock
*Raf Vallone as Puppet Maker
*Max von Sydow as Colonel Kosnov
*Orson Welles as Bresnavitch, Head of Soviet Politburo/Grodin's Father-in-Law
*Sandor Elès as Lt. Grodin (as Sandor Eles)
*Niall MacGinnis as Erector Set

Background and production notes

* One of the film's admirers was the French master of "film noir" Jean-Pierre Melville.
* An interesting technique used in the film to surmount the problem of having Russian characters speak in their own language while translating their dialogue into English without the use of English subtitles was to have the characters start speaking in Russian and gradually segueing into English. Such a practice has been little used since.
* Many of the scenes set to be in Communist Russia were filmed in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki, which features similar neoclassical buildings to Leningrad. Helsinki was quite a popular backdrop for similar films at the time.

External links