This is a disappointing film, with two high spots: the fight Cooper has with the Ovra agent, and Lilli Palmer. (Despite the opening credits state "Introducing Lilli Palmer", she had been appearing in films since 1935.)She's great to look at, and is pretty good at negotiating rough ground (such as the four miles to the aeroplane) in high heels.
I don't always rate Cooper as an actor (though he was great in "High Noon"), and he's bit old for such spy capers, but his range of facial expressions when he's told to lie low with Lilli is worth replaying several times. But then the film slows right down for a bit of romance and soul-bearing by Lilli, until the action picks up again.
Incidentally I can just about accept that Cooper might have been allowed to go to neutral Switzerland, though surely with a minder or two. But anyone with knowledge of the Manhattan project (applied in a very basic laboratory, as we see at the beginning) would not not have been permitted to risk himself in Italy, especially after he had been detected by German agents in Switzerland.
It's nice to see the RAF get a look in at the end, when it's one of its planes that lands in Italy. Subsequent American film-makers would probably have made it an USAF plane.
I don't always rate Cooper as an actor (though he was great in "High Noon"), and he's bit old for such spy capers, but his range of facial expressions when he's told to lie low with Lilli is worth replaying several times. But then the film slows right down for a bit of romance and soul-bearing by Lilli, until the action picks up again.
Incidentally I can just about accept that Cooper might have been allowed to go to neutral Switzerland, though surely with a minder or two. But anyone with knowledge of the Manhattan project (applied in a very basic laboratory, as we see at the beginning) would not not have been permitted to risk himself in Italy, especially after he had been detected by German agents in Switzerland.
It's nice to see the RAF get a look in at the end, when it's one of its planes that lands in Italy. Subsequent American film-makers would probably have made it an USAF plane.