This WW II suspense story pleasurably takes a different tack than usual thrillers. Take a classic movie like "The Day of the Jackal" - Edward Fox as the Jackal is the ultimate in precision and expertise -we watch him methodically go through each step of a complicated assassination attempt. But here instead we have an ordinary guy, nicely underplayed by handsome young star Peter Brown (co-star of hit TV Western "Lawman"). He's a downed pilot, who escapes from Stalag 47, pressed (against his better judgment) into a dangerous undercover mission posing as a Frenchman with secret documents hidden in his boots' lining.
He's unprepared and not very good at this assignment: at one point he can't even remember his fake French name! But that only enhances the suspense.
Telly Savalas plays a character named just "Beret" - a Frenchman wearing a beret but we can see hair on his neck, not the usual bald dome that made Telly as superstar. The script stresses wariness, but cleverly has Swedish star Ulla Jacobsson cast as a potential romantic interest who befriends Brown in the train station traveling to the city of Nancy in France -she seems much more likely to be undercover to manipulate Brown than Telly. It's all resolved in a well-paced final reel leading to a nicely patriotic conclusion.
Others may quibble with long-established conventions, such as all characters speaking in English rather than subtitled various languages, making it easier to watch for American TV audiences, but this well-constructed story is truly relatable -not all heroes have the skills and audacity of a James Bond.
He's unprepared and not very good at this assignment: at one point he can't even remember his fake French name! But that only enhances the suspense.
Telly Savalas plays a character named just "Beret" - a Frenchman wearing a beret but we can see hair on his neck, not the usual bald dome that made Telly as superstar. The script stresses wariness, but cleverly has Swedish star Ulla Jacobsson cast as a potential romantic interest who befriends Brown in the train station traveling to the city of Nancy in France -she seems much more likely to be undercover to manipulate Brown than Telly. It's all resolved in a well-paced final reel leading to a nicely patriotic conclusion.
Others may quibble with long-established conventions, such as all characters speaking in English rather than subtitled various languages, making it easier to watch for American TV audiences, but this well-constructed story is truly relatable -not all heroes have the skills and audacity of a James Bond.