Ten years after working together on Luchino Visconti's The
Leopard, Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon find themselves sharing the same studio
once more in this grim spy thriller. Despite top notch performances from both actors,
the film feels flat and formulaic and has certainly not aged as well as some other notable
thrillers of the 1970s. Apart from a few memorable action sequences, Michael Winner's
direction generally lacks imagination, and resorts too often to stereotypical shorthand.
However, the film's main Achilles heel is its bland, cliché-laden script, which
includes some truly awful dialogue. Trivia buffs should note that the film's title
is a reference to the star sign of the film's two lead actors and its director - a hint
perhaps that inspiration really was in dangerously short supply.
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Film Synopsis
Cross is a CIA agent who is looking forward to a peaceful retirement with
his wife Sarah. He doesn't know that his boss McLeod suspects he has
been passing on secrets to the Soviets and intends to liquidate him.
Another agent, Jean Laurier, code-named Scorpio, is sent to kill Cross as
he makes his way across Europe. Cross is meeting up with his Russian
counterpart Zharkov in Vienna when his wife is shot dead by CIA agents.
Bent on revenge, Cross makes a hasty return to America, determined to find
the man responsible for his wife's death and kill him. Concrete evidence
then comes to light confirming that Cross may have been heavily involved in
working for foreign powers in the past. This revelation galvanises the
CIA's determination to have him eliminated, and the only man for the job
is Scorpio, the agency's most efficient executioner...
In the 1920s French cinema was at its most varied and stylish - witness the achievements of Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein and Jacques Feyder.