Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

clanciai Evidently inspired by the Kim Philby case, and Dirk Bogarde would have made the perfect Kim Philby - his character and role here immediately makes you think of Philby.In the spy world no one is what he appears to be, everyone is lying as convincingly as possible, and if they are convincing enough they have a chance of getting away with it, but these chances grow inevitably slimmer the longer they stay on as fakers. That is about the sense morale of this film, where everyone acts suspiciously from beginning to end, even Henry Fonda, who thinks he knows everything but is duped nonetheless. Philippe Noiret makes the most honest part, he is under suspicion from the beginning and seems to have accepted from the beginning to be a chronic suspect. Yul Brynner is the most convincing of all and the greatest cheat of all. The ladies are suave enough, especially Virna Lisi representing Italy in this international party, while they have very little to say, except in France - the only tender scene is what makes Philippe Noiret the most sympathetic in the cast.This is not a thriller or any action film but almost callous in its scientific representation of an intricate kettle of spies. It tries to hit a documentary character and almost succeeds, but the story is not very credible. Kim Philby was a true story indeed, and a lot of damage he did, but here the same kind of case is exaggerated into almost absurdity. It gets too technical, and all the international actors can't save its lack of blood and humanity. It's interesting but not more than that, and afterwards you shrug your shoulders and are satisfied with not having to see it again.

lburriss I'm not sure what problem viewers are having with the multiple languages. My DVD player lets me turn on an English-only version. No subtitles needed.I had been looking for this movie since I first saw it in 1973, and finally stumbled across it a couple of years ago. The only things I remembered was that it was a movie about a "mole," the scene where the picture of Mt. Ararat was switched, and the spy exchange at the end.This isn't the most action-packed spy movie around, and certainly isn't in the mold of '60s and '70s James Bond and 007. But in many ways it is the way espionage is really done: slow and meticulous. The pacing sort of reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

ma-cortes Prototypical Cold War thriller deals about an aging soviet spy named Vlassov (here Yul Brynner plays Russian Colonel Alexei Vlassov , as such, Brynner plays a character of his own nationality ; Brynner's full birth name was Yuli Borisovich Bryner) who attempts to defect the East world . The CIA chief named Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) interrogates him, using polygrapher (interrogator played by Robert Alda), computer programming , and other means . Then Davies must decide if he's saying the truth .This complex espionage picture is packed with thrills, suspense, tension and extraordinary performances . This movie was made and released about two years after its source French novel "The Thirteenth Who Committed Suicide" by Pierre Nord was first published in 1971 . Good spy movie , in fact the Spy agencies featured in this film include the CIA, KGB, Mi6 and the West German intelligence service . It's a slow moving spy-movie with emphasis on de-glamorizing espionage . Sensational acting by two big star names, Yul Brynner as spy who defects with a fistful of important documents and Henry Fonda as chief who must discover the truth . Strong secondary cast with Dirk Bogarde, Farley Granger, Philippe Noiret, gorgeous Virna Lisi and several others . Interesting and thrilling screenplay by the same producer and director Henry Verneuil . Atmospheric musical composed by Ennio Morricone and conducted by Bruno Nicolai . Superbyly realistic and adequate cinematography by Claude Renoir .The picture was splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil, a Turkish director working in France from the 40s . Although not a director of great reputation among the critics, his movies have almost all been aimed squarely at the commercial market. Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ with Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, ¨The burglars(1971)¨ with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨ and ¨The 25th hour¨, espionage as ¨ Night flight from Moscow¨ and even directed one Western : ¨Guns of San Sebastian¨ (68). He seemed to have dropped out of the film-making after 1976, but in 1981 unexpectedly reappeared with yet another of his caper film : ¨Thousand millions of dollars¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable, a must see for French cinema lovers and Fonda and Bryner fans

bkoganbing Talk about international cast, this French film Le Serpent boasts players from America, The United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and Russia. It's an espionage story with Yul Brynner as a high ranking KGB colonel defecting to the west and bringing a whole lot of goodies with him.What Brynner is bringing to CIA chief Henry Fonda is a list of fifth columnists who've been operating for years in the west in all the western allied countries. A lot of deaths start occurring in all these countries as problems are dealt with one way or another.Of course this information wreaks havoc with the intelligence services of the west. Which just might have been the desired Soviet intention.In this cast the best performance hands down is that of Dirk Bogarde as a Kim Philby like MI5 man. Somebody's had their eye on him for a long time.Spying can be a dirty business and Le Serpent certainly shows the seamier side of it. If you're looking for James Bond like heroics this isn't your film.Le Serpent is in the tradition of the Richard Burton classic The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Not as good but better than a whole lot of stuff these old timers were appearing in during the Seventies.