A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
Directed by Anthony Mann, Laurence Harvey

Film Review

A Dandy in Aspic is not a particularly well-regarded film but when one compares it with the James Bond movies of the late 1960s, it is not too difficult to work out which is the superior spy thriller.  Whilst the Bond movies had degenerated into formulaic self-parody, substituting comic book fantasy for realism, A Dandy in Aspic is actually a pretty respectable attempt at a Cold War thriller, its labyrinthine plot, ambiguous characters and sombre location filming easily evoking the murky world of political espionage.

The film is often faulted for its uneven pace and curious mix of styles, which can be attributed to its production difficulties.  During the location shoot in Berlin, director Anthony Mann suffered a fatal heart attack, and Laurence Harvey stepped into the breach to direct the last two weeks of filming.  Harvey, the film's leading actor (who had previously distinguished himself in Jack Clayton's Room at the Top (1959) and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962)), was by no means a novice director - he had previously directed The Ceremony (1963).  However, having to fill Mann's shoes under what must have been extremely distressing circumstances was clearly a challenge.  It's a miracle the film was ever completed and an even bigger miracle that it holds together as well as it does.

The film's fragmented nature seems to be appropriate for its subject, a man with a fractured identity who finds himself trapped in a Kafkaesque reality where no one is quite what he seems.   There is an unsettling dreamlike quality to this film, which flits back and forth between gritty realism and camp playfulness, the demarcation between the two becoming less apparent as the story progresses.  Where there is humour, it is humour with an extremely sinister underbelly.

On the surface, Laurence Harvey's debonair spy is almost a proto-Roger Moore James Bond, but if we look a little closer we see a troubled and weary man whose one wish is to regain his lost identity.  By contrast, the other agents in the film are as two-dimensional as those in an Ian Fleming novel, ranging from the twisted sociopath Gatiss (Tom Courtenay at his most chilling) to the camp totty-obsessed Prentiss (Peter Cook's audition piece for a role in the Carry On films, probably).

The more superficial the supporting characters appear, the more they resemble painted dolls (echoing the puppet motif of the opening credits sequence), dolls who are mindlessly enacting a bizarre game that lacks both rules and a purpose.   A Dandy in Aspic is by no means a run-of-the-mill spy thriller.  It is in fact an intelligent, deeply unsettling existentialist drama which, in a wryly black comedic fashion, shows how important a well-defined sense of identity is to the human psyche.

Film Synopsis

Eberlin, a British intelligence operative, is surprised when his superiors assign him to find and assassinate a troublesome KGB agent named Krasnevin.  The truth is that Eberlin is himself Krasnevin, a double agent who has been in the employ of the Soviets for nearly twenty years.   Partnered with a ruthless British agent named Gatiss, Eberlin is sent to West Berlin, where Krasnevin was apparently last sighted.   Realising that the net is fast closing in on him, Eberlin makes several attempts to cross the border into East Germany, without success.  His Russian paymasters consider him too valuable to allow him to return home, so Eberlin has no choice but to play along with Gatiss.   The latter is contacted by the KGB, who offer to hand over Krasnevin in exchange for a large sum of money.   Eberlin expects he is about to be betrayed and so is unprepared for what happens next.  Another British agent turns up dead, with documents on him that prove he is Krasnevin.  It appears the hunt is over.  But is it...?