Newly discovered love of American leftists, liberals and progressives towards CIA and other US intelligence agencies means that all of their actions should be justified and that nobody should doubt any of their claims. This also means that any of their agents who decides to become whistle blower and expose various dark secrets, scandals, lies and manipulations is more likely to be seen as traitor than a hero, and very unlikely to be portrayed in sympathetic light by Hollywood films. A long time ago this wasn’t the case, at least judging by *Hopscotch*, 1980 spy comedy directed by Ronald Neame.
The plot is based on the novel by Brian Garfield, who also co-wrote screenplay with Bryan Forbes. Protagonist, played by Walter Matthau, is Miles Kendig, veteran CIA agent who has just eliminated Soviet spy ring in West Germany, but refused to have KGB main operative Yaskov (played by Herbert Lom) arrested under pragmatic reasoning that Yaskov’s replacement would be someone unknown, and, therefore, more difficult to defeat. This, however, infuriates Kendig’s arrogant and politically-connected boss Myerson (played by Ned Beatty) who demotes Kendig to humiliating desk job. Kendig decides to leave office and go to Salzburg where he would meet his girlfriend, rich Austrian widow and former agent Isobel von Schonenberg (played by Glenda Jackson). There he gets an idea to write book of memoirs in which he would expose dirty secrets of CIA. To make things even more interesting, he mails the first chapter of the book to various intelligence services in the world, including CIA, so Myerson launches massive manhunt in order to prevent Kendig’s book from being finished. Kendig, however, has gained a lot experience as a field operative and developed skills that would help him always stay one step ahead from its pursuers.
The original novel, published in 1975, was inspired by the series of embarrassing revelations about CIA and its role in some of the darkest chapters of recent history, including some they were made by former CIA agents in tell-all books. The tone of the novel was dark, but the film was made a comedy, mostly due to the casting of Walter Matthau whose presence and acting style made the plot look irreverent. Film has couple of mildly funny scenes and Matthau is very good in his role, helped in many ways by diverse and talented cast, especially young Sam Waterston in the role of Kendig’s former protege forced to pursue his mentor. On the other hand, Glenda Jackson is underused and has little chemistry with Matthau, while Beatty overacts as pathetic villain. Another problem of the film is pacing, partially due to some unnecessary scenes, probably made with sole purpose of giving roles to Matthau’s son David (who plays another young CIA agent) and daughter-in-law Lucy Saroyan (who plays a lady pilot). This is, to a degree, compensated with the use of various locations in different countries and the script that gives Kendig some ingenious and realistic ways in which he would escape his pursuers. However, the ending is somewhat confusing, but this strange combination of realistic spy drama and irreverent comedy is entertaining enough to deserve recommendation.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/32030-hopscotch
Critic: AA