Review of Topaz

Wow. A hell of a lot better than I remembered. I’m going to be controversial and say this is the closest Hitchcock got to Bond, as much as I love North By Northwest. Whilst that film was a more light-hearted precourser to From Russia With Love, this is the thinking-man’s Thunderball. Frederick Stafford is Connery, Topaz is SPECTRE, Soviet/Cuban missiles replace stolen atom bombs, John Forsythe is Felix Leiter, Brandy and Scotch, plenty of gadgets, and we even have former Bond girl Karin Dor, who is damn hot in this film. The first hour is superb, love the scenes in Harlem in particular, Roscoe Lee Browne is very cool as Stafford’s ally. Everything in Cuba is spot on, plenty of espionage, torture, the purple dress scene etc. But it’s not a film without flaws, that’s for sure. It should’ve ended once Stafford leaves Cuba and returns to Washington. Then suddenly “oh yeah, we forgot to actually find out who was involved in Topaz” and the film drags on for a further half hour. Not the most thought- provoking comments I’m writing here but what I’m really trying to say is that for the most part, I loved it this time.

4/5