- Charlie Muffin, top British Intelligence operative, has just broken up a major Soviet spy network in England. However, a new Director with new ideas takes over and wants Charlie out. But then a high-ranking Soviet spy-master hints that he wants to defect, and both British Intelligence and the C.I.A. want him and will do anything to get him. Charlie may be the only man who can bring the defection off successfully, but is the whole thing an elaborate set-up? And when your so-called allies are stabbing each other and you in the back to get this prize, whom can Charlie trust on either side?—Tony-Scheinman
- Charlie Muffin is one of the top operatives in British Intelligence, despite his working-class background and scruffy appearance, and has been responsible for breaking up a major Soviet spy network in England, sending the network's leader Alexei Berenkov to prison for forty years. However, a new Director, Sir Henry Cuthbertson, has taken over and has reorganized the Department according to his own regimented and prejudicial ideas ... which don't include a true professional like Charlie, whom he looks down upon and despises, and has appointed two of his favorites, Snare and Harrison, to major field positions, despite their obvious lack of experience.
Charlie, Snare and Harrison are on assignment in East Berlin and are about to separately make the crossing over to West Berlin. Harrison has safely made the crossing earlier and Snare is about to do so; Charlie, who will make his own crossing by car later, is very nervous about the heightened security. Snare makes an uneventful crossing, and Charlie is about to drive through the checkpoint when sudden instinct makes him change his mind. He meets up with Gunther, an East Berliner trying to escape to the West, and gives him the car and necessary documents. With Charlie watching from a distance, Gunther drives the car into the East Berlin checkpoint, but the security people suddenly move in. Gunther is shot down while trying to run and the car is blown up by gunfire. Charlie makes his own crossing during the confusion and meets up with his fellow agents in West Berlin, who are stunned to see him alive having seen and reported his supposed death ... confirming in Charlie's mind that the whole thing was a set-up.
In Moscow, General Valery Kalenin, head of the KGB, is informed by his superior, General Kastanazy, of Berenkov's 40-year prison sentence. Kastanazy orders Kalenin to make sure that Berenkov is repatriated back to the Soviet Union within a reasonable amount of time ... or else.
Charlie visits Berenkov, with whom he has apparently become friendly, in prison for an interrogation which appears to Cuthbertson, Snare and Harrison to be a complete failure, and Cuthbertson is determined to have Charlie demoted as low as possible and has recommended as much to his Minister. However, Charlie proves that his interrogation "was one of the most productive [he] can ever remember having had with a captured spy" and has provided valuable information which Cuthbertson has been unable to realize.
That night, Charlie spends the evening with Janet, Cuthbertson's secretary and god-daughter, with whom he is having an affair. After learning that Cuthbertson will be placing the blame for his premature recommendations on someone else, Charlie promises that Cuthbertson will begging him for his help.
Later Charlie and his wife Edith leave on vacation, taking the Channel ferry to Europe, while in Moscow Kalenin formulates a plan to get Berenkov back.
At a reception at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Kalenin makes a public appearance (something which amazes William Braley, the Resident CIA operative, as Kalenin has never been seen in public before) and provokes interest by snubbing the Americans and concentrating his attentions on the British Embassy members present. Informed of this, both Garson Ruttgers, the Director of the CIA, and Cuthbertson come to the same conclusion ... Kalenin wants to defect, but to the British, not to the Americans. Knowing that two opportunities to contact Kalenin are coming up, one at a Trade Fair in Leipzig and one at a party at the British Embassy in Moscow, Cuthbertson dispatches Harrison to Leipzig and Snare to Moscow to contact Kalenin and make arrangements for the hoped-for defection, while Ruttgers, ariving in London and kept on the outside by Cuthbertson, is determined that his agency will be involved.
Harrison makes a very clumsy contact with Kalenin in Leipzig. Later that same night, he is cornered by KGB agents and accidently kills himself while trying to escape. Cuthbertson, learning of this, decides not to tell Snare.
At the British Embassy in Moscow, Snare meets briefly with Kalenin, who drops some pointed hints about how he can be contacted at a public park. When Snare goes to that park, he is seized almost immediately by KGB agents.
With no choice left, Cuthbertson is forced to ask Charlie for help. Charlie is certain that the whole thing is a set-up, but agrees on condition that he be allowed to operate without interference. He makes his own way to Moscow, successfully contacts Kalenin (learning from Kalenin that Harrison and Snare were identified to the KGB by the CIA) and settles the main details about Kalenin's crossing from Czechoslovakia into Austria and about the amount of money to be paid to Kalenin ($500,000 in U.S. currency).
Back in London at a meeting with Ruttgers and Braley in attendence, Cuthbertson tells Charlie that he has been forced by Ministerial pressure to make the Kalenin defection a joint British-U.S. operation (the U.S. State Department has threatened that the President may snub London in an upcoming European tour). Ruttgers is stunned to learn that Charlie has made successful contact without his knowing and is even more outraged by Charlie's insisting that the money be laundered by himself and Braley and that Braley must remain close to Charlie at all times (thereby neutralizing the threat of Charlie being exposed), but the threat of the facts about Snare and Harrison's exposure being revealed makes him give in.
Cuthbertson confronts Janet about her affair with Charlie and instructs her to keep him informed about Charlie. She agrees ... in exchange for expenses for "reasonable entertainment".
Charlie and Braley hit casinos in London and Europe, "washing" the money and taking down random serial numbers. Later, they meet with Kalenin in Prague and finalize the details of the crossing at an obscure Czech border point. Charlie is still very worried and makes no secret of his belief that the whole thing is a big mistake on their part. Meanwhile, Berenkov is not adapting well to prison life and is beginning to crumble, while in Moscow Kalenin's superiors berate him for his apparent lack of progress in getting Berenkov back.
Both Cuthbertson and Ruttgers decide to move 100 agents each into Austria to safeguard Kalenin and to go themselves to meet with Kalenin at the CIA safehouse in Vienna. Charlie arrives in Vienna and is briefed on the plan (part of which, such as that the car will contain a radio-controlled bomb, he is not told but which he guesses). Both he and Braley (who is now as uneasy as Charlie) make their concerns known to their respective bosses, but are both disregarded.
Charlie and Braley arrive that night at the border crossing point and, as per Kalenin's instructions, Charlie and the money cross over onto Czech soil to meet with the waiting Kalenin. After verifying the money, the two men cross over into Austria and drive with Braley to the Vienna safehouse. There, Charlie leaves them to hide the car while Kalenin and Braley enter the safehouse.
Cuthbertson and Ruttgers welcome Kalenin and outline the intended plan to get him out of Austria. However, to their surprise, Kalenin seems to know as much about it as they do, and they are even more amazed by his next words: that, in retaliation for the destruction of the Berenkov network and Berenkov's imprisonment, the Soviet Union had decided to both have Berenkov repatriated and deal to the Western Intelligence communities "as harmful a blow as possible." To that end, he used himself as bait and that the plan has worked perfectly; his men have captured the 200 British and American agents and now are in complete control of the house, and both Cuthbertson and Ruttgers will be going back with Kalenin to Moscow to be used as barter in exchange for Berenkov's release; the captured agents will be fingerprinted and photographed (making them useless for future Intelligence work) and then released. Cuthbertson at first can't believe that this is happening, but then he realizes that Charlie isn't there. Smiling, Kalenin confirms Cuthbertson's suspicions that Charlie had provided inside information and that Cuthbertson has only himself to blame because of his treatment of Charlie. The $500,000 is now Charlie's, and both Cuthbertson and Ruttgers realize with horror that they will not only be completely discredited but also made laughingstocks.
Later, Berenkov relaxes aboard a commercial flight to Moscow with a glass of champagne and toasts his absent friend.
In a Spanish-type villa, Charlie and Edith burn the recorded bills and relax. Charlie knows that he will be hunted, but assures Edith that no one will ever think of looking for the two of them where they are now. He also tells Edith that his affair with Janet (which Edith knew about all along) was necessary because it provided him with both a pipeline into Cuthbertson's office and chances to mislead Cuthbertson (since Charlie knew Janet was informing on him), but that he never loved Janet. He and Edith begin to make love while lying on the scattered money, and the radio announces a beautiful day in Brighton. The last shot is that of Charlie's old scuffed-up shoes floating in the tide off Brighton Pier and being washed out to sea.
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