The Kremlin Letter

Plot synopsis:
Late in 1969, a brilliant young United States Navy intelligence officer named Charles Rone (Patrick O'Neal) finds his commission revoked so that he can be recruited into an espionage mission. Rone is told that the mission is being undertaken independently of governmental intelligence agencies, as was commonplace prior to World War II, when espionage operations were handled by a small community of agents operating on a freelance basis.
Rone is told that the primary operator in that community, a "brutal, sadistic, conscienceless assassin" named Robert Stuydevant, did not adapt to the post-war shift to government intelligence agencies, along with the disbanding of the independent network of spies, with Stuydevant disappearing and reportedly later committing suicide. Now, the government has suffered a significant failure in an important intelligence operation and has turned back to the independent agents for help.
This time, "The Highwayman" (Dean Jagger), another member of the old group of independent spies is the man leading the effort to reassemble the network to take on this mission. Another member of the group has recently died, and Rone has been tabbed as his replacement, due to Rone's exceptional analytical skills, eidetic memory and ability to speak eight languages with a native accent.
Rone meets with The Highwayman and another group member named Ward (Richard Boone), the latter of whom takes on the role of Rone's primary tutor. They first task Rone with rounding up three other members of the group: Janis (Nigel Green), a drug dealer and panderer, "The Warlock" (George Sanders), a culturally sophisticated homosexual, and "The Erector Set" (Niall MacGinnis), a highly skilled thief and burglar.
Janis begs off of the mission, saying that he won't work for The Highwayman, but only for Stuydevant, whom he believes would never have killed himself. Rone finally bribes him into agreeing to participate. The Warlock joins the operation without hesitation, but The Erector Set's hands have become too arthritic to be of use. Instead, he sends his beautiful daughter B.A. (Barbara Parkins) in his place, as he has trained her to be as capable as is he.
The group's mission is the retrieval of a letter, written without proper authorization, that promises United States aid to the Soviet Union in destroying Chinese atomic weapons plants. The letter had been solicited on behalf of an unknown high-level Soviet official by Dmitri Polyakov, who had previously been selling Soviet secrets to the United States that he had obtained from that same Soviet official. Upon finding out about the letter, which was a de facto "declaration of war against China", U.S. and British authorities had contacted Polyakov and arranged to buy it back from him. However, Polyakov then committed suicide after being apprehended by Soviet counter-intelligence, under the direction of Colonel Yakov Kosnov (Max von Sydow).
The group blackmails Captain Potkin (Ronald Radd), the Soviet head of counter-intelligence in the U.S., threatening his family to force him to allow them the use of his usually-vacant apartment in Moscow. Once they arrive in the Soviet Union, the terminally ill Highwayman sacrifices his life, attempting to divert the attention of Soviet counter-intelligence away from the remainder of the team. Rone is assigned to remain at the apartment with Ward and accept reports verbally from other team members, Rone's memory allowing them to avoid the use of written records. Janis, The Warlock and B.A. then set out to establish themselves in various parts of Russian society as they try to ascertain the identity of Polyakov's contact.
Janis enters a partnership with a local brothel operator, who points him to a Chinese man known as "The Kitai" as a possible source for names of officials and others to whom he can sell heroin, with which Janis already plans to keep the prostitutes addicted. Janis later discerns that the Kitai is also a spy and further happens to spot Kosnov leaving a local night club with a woman whom he discovers was Polyakov's devoted wife, Erika Beck (Bibi Andersson). She is now married to Kosnov, so B.A. plants a listening device in their bedroom. After that, B.A. takes up with a local small-time thief and black market operator, though she finds herself terribly unhappy and wishes only to return home to her father. In the meantime, the Warlock integrates himself into the local community of intellectual homosexuals, starting an affair with a university professor. He then meets one of the professor's students who was Polyakov's former lover and who informs him that Polyakov had had a relationship with Vladimir Bresnavitch (Orson Welles) of the Soviet Central Committee.
Bresnavitch turns out to have an adversarial relationship with Kosnov, whose activities Bresnavitch oversees on behalf of the Committee. According to Kosnov, the animosity between the two men went back many years to when Bresnavitch sought to oust Kosnov from his job, in favor of Stuydevant. Prior to that time, Kosnov and Stuydevant had been friendly, with each one trusting the other to allow his agents to operate in the other's territory. However, with the pressure from Bresnavitch, Kosnov decided he had to do "something spectacular" to keep his job, so he betrayed Stuydevant's trust and captured his agents, employing a great deal of brutality and earning the lasting enmity of Stuydevant himself.
Upon deducing that Bresnavitch had used Polyakov to fence stolen art works in Paris, Ward decides to go there in search of any possible leads. On the day of his return, the group's mission is destroyed when Potkin returns to the Soviet Union and informs Bresnavitch about the operation. Janis, B.A. and Ward are apprehended, while The Warlock commits suicide just before capture and Rone narrowly escapes. Rone tries visiting the Kitai to arrange re-purchase of the letter, but the Kitai responds by trying to kill him and Rone determines that the Chinese have possession of the letter.
Rone then turns to Erika, with whom he has been having an affair while posing as a Russian gigolo named Yorgi. He hopes to get her to inquire with her husband about the condition of those captured. She informs him that Kosnov participated in no such capture, and Rone realizes that Bresnavitch quietly orchestrated the raid without the knowledge of Soviet counter-intelligence, a clear indicator that he was Polyakov's traitorous high-level Soviet official contact. Rone's questions reveal to Erika his true identity and he promises to help her escape to the West. She tells him she will try to ascertain the fates of the captured agents and later reports back that B.A. has taken poison and is expected to die, while one of the men is dead and the other has survived and is being held captive.
Rone threatens to expose Bresnavitch unless Ward, the surviving agent, is released. Bresnavitch agrees, and Rone and Ward then arrange to leave the next day. Disapproving of Rone's plans to aid Erika, Ward lures her into a trap and kills her. Kosnov believes that her lover Yorgi killed her and tracks down Rone, though unaware of Rone's true identity, in search of revenge. But Ward enters, leading Kosnov to observe that "I seem to know you." Ward says that the two men have "a lot of old corpses to dig up and talk about." He begins listing the names of the agents betrayed by Kosnov and says that the time has come for retribution, as he shoots Kosnov in the kneecap. Kosnov stares at Ward in disbelief, saying "No, it isn't. It can't be." Ward then closes on him off-camera and Kosnov begins screaming in torment.
As they head for a plane to leave the country, Rone shares with Ward his conclusions that Ward is in fact Stuydevant and intends to stay, having made a deal with Bresnavitch to take over as the head of Soviet counter-intelligence. Ward denies it, but only coyly, and then reveals that B.A. is not dead. He says that she will be held to ensure that Rone does not reveal the truth about him. Rone, very much in love with B.A., vows that he'll get her back somehow. Ward offers to release B.A. if Rone does "one last little thing", handing Rone an envelope as Rone boards the plane. After seating himself, Rone opens the envelope to find a note which reads, "Kill Potkin's wife and daughters or I kill the girl."

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, violence

Review:
It might not be a first but I haven't seen it in any film since.Finally I must add that there is not one likeable character in this movie...
It seems to me that this one point raised by almost all of the movie anthologies indicates that none have seen the film but only copied one person's comment.
The Kremlin Letter is the most intense spy drama, with the tightest script and the very best characterizations ever to appear in this peculiarly appealing genre.John Huston (who plays one scene himself, masterfully) somehow assembled the incredible cast, which reads like a who's who of its time.
This ain't James Bond Spoofs A Bad Guy!If you like a good story filled with intrigue, double-crossing, revenge, sudden deadly action, plot twists and just plain evil bad guys, watch The Kremlin Letter..
"The Kremlin Letter" is a Cold War spy film from director John Huston.
It focuses on the story of a young American agent and a team of spies that infiltrate the Soviet Union in an attempt to recover a letter compromising to the United States.Patrick O'Neal is effective as Charles Rone, who is accepted as a spy due to his photographic memory.
Also notable are Richard Boone as the genial mentor to Rone, Bibi Andersson as the desperate wife of a Soviet spy chief Kosnov and Barbara Parkins as an enchanting fellow agent.
Veteran actor Max von Sydow has a good turn as Colonel Kosnov, a determined man with a brutal record, who organizes a "third section" of Soviet agents.This is the seediest spy story I have seen to date.
The pace is slow, so this film is not recommend for those looking for a James Bond style spy thriller, but rather those looking for a John le Carré type spy story in the vein of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold"..
I had been wanting to see it for some time out of curiosity: George Sanders appears in drag as a San Francisco gay bar pianist, and Barbara Parkins has a role, three years after "Valley of the Dolls." (I love Parkins not just for the "Valley" connection.
There's lots of verbal exposition in the movie, and at one point I think it's even implied that the Orson Welles character is a homosexual.The sexual politics of the film are outdated, perhaps.
She also complains about the look of the film, but I think the verite style was intentional.One tiny thing I thought I noticed, the old lady who is the mother of the Russian thief Barbara Parkins lives with seems to have too nice a manicure!
Average spy film about the Cold War with twists , turns and confused script.
The group is formed by a priest (Dean Jagger) , a beautiful girl (Barbara Parkins) with ability as safe-cracker , an unscrupulous man called ¨the Whore¨ (Nigel Green) , an uncanny and astute spy (Richard Boone) and even an old drag (George Sanders) .
They'll confront a cunning head of Soviet Politburó (Orson Welles) and an evil KGB agent (Max Von Sidow) whose wife (Bibbi Andersson) falls in love with the protagonist Ron .The film has suspense , tension , emotion , mystery and specially in its final a little bit of violence .
A number of characters in this movie are known by code-names , these include "The Highwayman" (Dean Jagger); "The Whore" (Nigel Green); "The Warlock" (George Sanders); "Erector Set" (Niall MacGinnis) ; "The Negress" (Vonetta McGee); "The Priest" (Marc Lawrence); "The Dentist" (Victor Beaumont) and "The Puppet Maker" (Raf Vallone) .
The plot is intricate with many twists which the excellent cast exploit for maximum impact.For those who did not live through the cold war, this film will be a real eye opener of the type of things that went on during this period.I only hope that it will become available on video for those of us who really like this movie..
"The Kremlin Letter" has a cast of Bergman stars (Bibbi Andersson and Max von Sydow) and an international cast of actors who were good elsewhere (Lila Kedrova is the biggest disappointment to me, but she is joined by Dean Jagger, Ralf Vallone, Orson Welles, et al.) but drained of emotion here or given no character with which to work.
Richard Boone makes an impression as the bullying mentor, and George Sanders amidst stereotypical homosexual circles, and von Sydow was a master of coldness, but everyone else seems stranded (as in lacking direction!)The movie has a very complicated plot (or set of plots), an international cast, some kinky sex, lots of brutality, drugs (but no rock'n roll), no visual merits and exceptionally poorly recorded sound for what must have been a big-budget production in the heyday of Cold War spy films.
Fine cast of actors playing their parts incredibly well, particularly Orson Welles and George Sanders as a drag queen/American agent.
However, I watched this film through once, then skim-watched it again a second time trying to ascertain the plot and some of the scenes relevancy, and I just couldn't thread it all together.
What is especially dismaying about The Kremlin Letter is that it features a cast to-die-for, and you come away from the film filled with bitter regret that such a great assembly of talent has amounted to so little.
He tracks down some of his old spy buddies to help him with the mission: the Whore (Nigel Green), the Erector Set (Niall MacGinnis), Warlock (George Sanders), and other imaginatively-named spies and assassins.
This deeply flawed, deeply uninteresting spy film really is one for John Huston completists only.
Director John Huston also co-penned this complicated adaptation of Noel Behn's acclaimed spy novel set in 1969, with a team of crack operatives skilled in counter-intelligence matters and burglary sent to Moscow to retrieve an unauthorized anti-Red Chinese letter promising US aid to Russia via the destruction of China's atomic weapons.
I caught this on one of the cable channels and was blown away by the cast lineup - Max von Sydow, Richard Boone, George Sanders, Dean Jagger, and - mirabile dictu - Orson Welles.
What could go wrong, says I, in a Cold War intrigue drama with such a lineup, and directed by John Huston (who puts in a cameo)?
If you're tired of the James Bond pictures and you want to try a more "adult" and mature spy film, check out "The Ipcress File", or even "The Naked Runner", with Frank Sinatra; they are far superior.
Mainly a TV star ("Have Gun, Will Travel"), and mainly a Western star in his movies, Richard Boone gives one of his rare contemporary film performances in "The Kremlin Letter" and just about saves the picture.
Director John Huston frames the shot to catch Boone's always expressive hand movements as Boone delivers a long speech with delightful vigor and spin.The movie is a disappointing Huston film and really pretty awful in general, but of some historic importance.
Message: spying is a dirty business, with no loyalties, and anything goes:  prostitution, drug pushing, kidnapping of innocents, blackmail, torture, murder.Along with the great, underrated Boone, this was among the last films for the elegant George Sanders and the interesting Nigel Green.
Along with sweet-faced, mean-voiced Dean Jagger ("White Christmas"), these actors demonstrate just how deadly an "over-the-hill-gang" of old secret agents can be.Not a good movie, not a coherent movie, but worth seeing for: Boone, Sanders, Green, Jagger -- and Huston's desperate attempt to get sexually trendy as the New Hollywood of the 70's kicked in.
I can't believe anyone would not think this is a 4 star movie, great performances, complex plot and no "James Bond" gadgetry, this is really good stuff.
Similar in feel and texture to " The Spy Who Came in From The Cold " this movie offers some unique performances from some "big names" in unusual roles.
Directed by John Huston, with a mostly all-star cast, it's offbeat, grim, brutal, sexually frank (if far from PC these days)-- and rather bloody for its time.Patrick O'Neal seems at first glance a bit older than the Rone character should be, but a line of dialog indicates service in Korea.
The talents of all of them are needed for a high level intelligence operation so sensitive that no agency of the U.S. government can take responsibility to carry it out.This movie is brilliantly directed, acted and filmed.
Agents are sent from the west to retrieve "The Kremlin Letter" in this 1970 film directed by John Huston and starring Patrick O'Neal, Richard Boone, George Sanders, Orson Welles, Max von Sydow, Barbara Parkins, Dean Jagger, and Bibi Andersson.
This is an extremely cold and vicious look at the spy game - it's no fun caper film.
The last moment in the film will leave you breathless.With a cast like this, the acting should be uniformly excellent, and it is, with the not-so-talented but beautiful Parkins given a role where she doesn't have to do any scenery chewing.
He was very talented, and here plays the head man to perfection, blond hair, down-home accent and all.Very intriguing, done at a time when spy films were a dime a dozen.
The story begins in the United Staes in L.A. as I remember, they fly to SanFrancisco to pick up some drag queens, George Sanders does a great job, and they several other streams are sent to the U.S.S.R. to retrieve a letter that was supposed to have been sent about some American official who had sold out the USA.
After performing poorly at the box-office in 1970, John Huston's "The Kremlin Letter" had at least one network showing (on ABC in 1974), then disappeared without a trace.I haven't seen this John Huston directed thriller since the year of its release (I saw it at the drive-in where it played second fiddle to another obscure movie, "Barquero" with Lee Van Cleef).
The cast, including Patrick O' Neal in a rare leading role and "Peyton Place" veteran Barbara Parkins, is excellent, but it's the great Richard Boone who steals the show with a commanding performance.Is "The Kremlin Letter" as superb as I remember, or was I too young to recognize it as trash the first time I saw it?
Not terrible, this film has a number of twists, a complex plot and looks good even today.However, it is also burdened with a rather dull narrative of long in the tooth spies, doing things their way, in a free enterprise rootin tootin western in russia.
Just how seriously John Huston took any of this is hard to say but "The Kremlin Letter" is still one of his most entertaining pictures.
An all-star cast play various spies, both Russian and American, and they would all seem to be after the letter of the title; that much is clear...or is it!
The superb cast act with the straightest of faces, (there's a great cameo from Orson Welles while Max Von Sydow and Bibi Andersson as usual walk away with it).
Sold at the time as a serious antidote to the Bond movies the film wasn't a success but is now seen as a cult classic..
On this first showing I found the plot very difficult to follow and, because I lost interest,do not even know what happened to the damn letter which everyone was looking for.Perhaps it will all become clear if I watch it several times.
Also unlike some other spy movies I have seen, this film lacked tension and atmosphere.
This is a typical spy film, and very indicative of the sort of film that makes Orson Welles seem like a stuffed shirt.The plot is impossible to follow.
A letter must be found, but no one really seems to want to find it.The movie is more about actors relishing self indulgent roles.
Yup. I think my first comment is to those who viewed this and give it the tag "best spy film ever" surely need to sit down and watch all of Huston's work and then re-watch it.
To me the one character that epitomizes this film is the one played by Richard Boone.
Folks who like the movie claim it is an accurate portrayal of cold war espionage.
Majestically directed by Huston, stuffed with great performances including Richard Boon, John O'Shea, Nigel Green, and especially Max Von Sydow who is in compelling form.
Bibi Andersson is a revelation, so full of tenderness, anger and despair.Full of engaging characters, unexpected scenes, and plenty of twists this is a neglected classic of the genre.It needs a proper DVD release with plenty of extras, before all those involved pass away (Bibi Andersson and Barbara Parkins are the only principals still with us) Despite being central to the plot Orson Wells has little more than a cameo.
But somehow, Kremlin Letter (KL) started to make more sense, once I saw the spy intrigue as rather an excuse for parading a set of seedy, vicious characters,drifting on a sea of self-serving cynicism.
At least the writer is supposed to have interesting background, having worked for the Army's CIC.Comparing KL with movies like "Spy who came in from the cold" therefor may be somewhat odd.
However, it certainly is not a good sign however, if indeed Huston didn't comment a lot about this child of him...Anyway, if being intriguing, keeping us guessing was the real intention of the movie, it's clear it didn't succeed.
If it is not on video that is a shame given the general interest that any film written and directed by john huston should command..
We are dealing with a few sacred monsters, starting with director John Huston (who casted himself in a small role in the film), then Orson Welles and George Sanders.
Nigel Green, Richard Boone, Patrick O'Neal, are not sacred monsters, but they do their job well, are good actors.
It's extremely convoluted but still worthwhile, THE KREMLIN LETTER is John Huston's take on the cold war spy thriller.
Richard Boone and Patrick O'Neal are the head spooks and their team is an odd bunch including terminally ill Dean Jagger, safe-cracker Barbara Parkins, and Nigel Green (whose role is REALLY odd).
It provides a great surprise ending, and the only movie I know of that uses a double plot in that way.This is a John Huston film that deserves more attention than it has received..
You have to watch every second of this film to know what's going on and use your brain to keep pace of the plot twists and turns.
Richard Boone and Patrick O'Neil, two underrated actors who never gave a bad performance, are riveting and Barbara Parkins never looked more alluring.
And espionage as he finds is a business without ethics.This film could have been another The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, but falls way short of that classic.
The Kremlin Letter is a very intriguing and often overlooked film in the cold war spy thriller category.
Still, never before have I seen such a refreshingly unusual, unglamourized portrayal of international espionage where the spies are all shady characters and the difference in the methods of both US and Russian intelligence organizations as well as the loyalties of their agents are highly questionable.The ending is superbly disturbing and in the end, the plot of the film is one big mcguffin.Rating:7/10Ps.The opening titles are bound to make any Finn smile..
I never knew how you could take John Huston directing, acting, and more and make a forgotten film?
The list goes on and on.It is cold war spy stuff, but this kind of material is written better and acted better in many other films from this period.
because part of me wants desperately to think of John Huston's The Kremlin Letter as something like brilliant.The other part of me suffered through a long, overly-complicated, and tedious chunk of Le Carre-ish dullness that made two hours seem like twenty.I'd like to put the argument to rest.What I did take away from TKL is that spying is beyond nasty, it's downright loathsome.
****SPOILERS**** Confusing mess of as movie that centers around this letter that if its contents become know to the Communist Chinese Government it could very well spark a third world War between China and the US and USSR.
What the letter is all about is a promise from a top member,very probably the head man, of the CIA that the US will join the USSR in an attack on the Chinese Communist nuclear facilities in a joint military operation when the time is right.As the movie slumbers along the letter becomes less and less important to the plot with the guy put in charge of getting the letter US Government Super Secret Agent Charles Rone, Patrick O'Neal, finding better things to do like become a male hustler in Moscow and getting acquainted with the Soviet sadistic counter-intelligence head Col. Kosnov, Max Von Sydow, oversexed wife Erika, Bibi Anderson.
There's so many side plots in the film that at one point I thought that I was watching at least a half dozen different movies at the same time.
A hit job back in New York City that has nothing to do with what he thought he was in the movie for in the first place: "The Kremlin letter"!
Talking about changing horses in the middle or a race!P.S There's also a cameo appearance, like in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, in the film by it's director John Huston playing someone called the Admiral as well as Orson Wells as the guy who's really pulling the strings in the film as Soviet Central Committee honcho Bresnavitch.
This has to rate as one of the worst films ever despite an all-star cast.The plot is extremely muddled.
Given the character that Boone was, did he arrange for the murder of of O'Neal's family.The great John Huston directed this mess.
It's possible that unsophisticated 1970 audiences expecting another Jame Bond flick were unprepared for such a brilliant tour de force.The film is worth watching for the dynamic performance from Richard Boone alone.