Crossplot (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 11, 2024
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Alvin RakoffRelease Date(s)
1969 (August 28, 2024)Studio(s)
United Artists (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A+
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
Fresh from his role as Simon Templar in The Saint TV series, Roger Moore starred in Crossplot, a fast-paced thriller that displayed the qualities he would employ later as James Bond in seven feature films. Essentially an elaborate chase film, Crossplot relies on action, wry humor, a beautiful leading lady, and a deadly female villain.
Advertising agency staff member Warren (Dudley Sutton, Rotten to the Core) secretly replaces the photo of a model chosen by agency executive Gary Fenn (Moore) for a crucial client presentation with a photo of an unknown young woman. The client likes the replacement photo and will hire the agency only if that model is used. With a hugely lucrative ad campaign on the line, Gary sets out to find the girl in the photo. Through a string of contacts, he learns her name is Marla Kogash (Claudie Lange, The Bible in the Beginning) and she’s a Hungarian fugitive hiding out on a houseboat.
The hunt for Marla gets Gary into some dicey situations involving considerable derring-do on his part and when he finally finds her, she pushes him into the river. But it’s not long before he charms her into agreeing to show up at the studio, meet the client, and pose for a photo shoot.
During a break in the shoot, Warren persuades Marla to go up to the roof with him for some fresh air. Gary catches a glimpse of Warren trying to throw Marla off the roof, saves her and chases him, but the would-be killer is murdered by his boss, Ruddock (Francis Matthews, Dracula: Prince of Darkness) and Gary is implicated in his murder. Eventually, Marla tells Gary why she’s in such peril. She overheard a conversation between her Aunt Jo (Martha Hyer, Some Came Running) and Ruddock that they’re desperate to keep secret, but she couldn’t hear much of what they said and can’t remember what she did hear. So now Gary must try to figure out a dastardly plot.
In many ways, Crossplot is a clone of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. An innocent advertising executive becomes involved in political intrigue, is wanted by the authorities, and must enlist the aid of an attractive woman. Two scenes are essentially lifted from the Hitchcock film—a helicopter chase reminiscent of the crop duster scene and a church wedding that Gary and Marla crash. In the wedding scene, Gary makes loud, outrageous comments in order to disrupt the ceremony and escape in the melee that follows. Remember the auction scene in North by Northwest when Cary Grant makes ridiculous bids and boorish outbursts until the cops are called and he eludes his pursuers? It’s one thing to be inspired by Hitchcock but quite another to lift major scenes. Crossplot also owes much to Stanley Donen’s Charade, with its romantic gamesmanship between two attractive leads.
The politics aspect of Crossplot is only the MacGuffin. The focus is two-fold—the relationship between Gary and Marla and the Gary’s irresistible charm and surprisingly adept exploits. There’s a nice chemistry between Moore and Lange and their repartee is witty and entertaining.
The British supporting cast is strong: Veronica Carlson (Dracula Has Risen From the Grave), Gabrielle Drake (Suburban Wives), Bernard Lee (You Only Live Twice), David Prowse (Star Wars), and Ursula Howells (BBC’s The Forsyte Saga).
Director Alvin Rakoff moves the plot along nicely and wisely includes a great deal of action. Apart from the helicopter scene, there are chases, great use of London locations, fights, and shootings to keeps things quick and exciting. There are several moments of humor to balance the action, such as a toy gun pointed at Gary’s head by a child, Marla’s always being hungry and never able to finish a meal, and a chase in a vintage car, with Gary and Marla dressed in early 20th century garb.
Moore displays the cool charm that he would transfer to James Bond later on. Suave, bright, brave, well tailored, witty, able to handle himself in a fight and good with the ladies, he’s a neat fit for 007, and Crossplot may have been his unofficial audition for the role. Despite being an entertaining picture, Crossplot didn’t fare well at the box office, primarily because of a poor promotional campaign by United Artists. Now largely forgotten, it’s a hidden gem of British cinema.
Crossplot was shot by director of photography Brendan J. Stafford on 35 mm film with spherical lenses and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray features a 2K restoration sourced from an interpositive. Clarity and contrast are very good, with minimal evidence of embedded dirt or white flashes. Details are well delineated in raindrops on car windows, wood grain on a dock, clothing patterns, foliage in a wooded area, strands of Claudie Lange’s hair, foamy bubbles in a bubble bath, and sets in a photo studio. The color palette is varied and most vivid in the scene with vintage cars in many primary colors. Forest greens are deep and lush, and red uniforms on men in a military pageant stand out against the earth tones of the field. London locations are nicely exploited and open up the action considerably. Rear projection is employed in close-ups of characters in a moving car. Aerial photography captures high angles of the vintage car race, the helicopter pursuit, and a London street.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 Dual Mono LPCM. English SDH subtitles are available. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Stanley Black’s score has a definite 60s feel with its light, upbeat vibe. For action sequences, the music sounds like the score from the Bond films. It also gives the action sequences a tongue-in-cheek sense of danger. The song I’ll Find My Love is sung by John Rowles over the opening credits. Sound effects include gun shots, an explosion, helicopter rotors, car engines, traffic noise, and bodies being pummeled.
Bonus materials on the Region-Free Blu-ray release from Imprint Films include the following:
- Audio Commentary by Gareth Owen and Henry Holland
- Bond Practice: Interview with Director Alvin Rakoff (21:42)
- Off the Charts: Interview with Actors Norman Eshley, Michael Culver, Prudence Drage and Stephen Garlick (11:35)
- A Dressing Down: Audio Recollection by Actor Francis Matthews (1:46)
- The New Look Sixties London: Paternoster Square and London Wall (27:20)
- Restoring Crossplot (4:01)
- Textless Titles (2:17)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:36)
- Photo Gallery (8:35)
Audio Commentary – Roger Moore biographer/talent agent Gareth Owen and film historian Henry Holland share this commentary, offering professional and personal insights on Crossplot. They mention that the film had a small audience during its theatrical run because it didn’t have a big release. Many in the film crew were drawn from the crews on the TV series The Saint because they worked quickly and that would keep the budget within reason. The film was shot at Ellstree, the same studio as The Saint. Crossplot was part of a two-picture deal with United Artists, but a second film was never made, and the deal eventually expired. When Crossplot was made, the hippie era was winding down. Roger Moore plays a combination of Cary Grant and Simon Templar. Moore wanted to differentiate himself from his role in The Saint. Various locations in the film are identified. Early scenes establish Fenn as a kind of “renegade.” Martha Hyer was nominated for a Best Supporting Academy Award for Some Came Running and was up for the role of Marion Crane in Psycho. Scenes with rear projection are pointed out. Point-of-view camera work is used extensively in the vintage car race. The commentators amusingly point out what terrible shots the bad guys are. Because of the stringent British tax laws and an actor’s relatively short career, many actors, including Moore, moved out of the country to protect their earnings. Moore wanted to be buried in England but he would have had to pay forty years of back taxes for the privilege.
Bond Practice – Director Alvin Rakoff speaks about Roger Moore’s success in The Saint and discusses the actor’s performance and the film’s photography. He notes that Moore was affable and easy-going and a pleasure to work with. Rakoff was a BBC studio director, and talks about his pre-Crossplot career. Revisiting the film today, he says he would shoot some scenes differently but he’s “not ashamed of it.” Clips from Crossplot are shown as Rakoff reminisces.
Off the Charts – Four actors who appeared in Crossplot offer their recollections of making the film, their impressions of the director and of Roger Moore, and what a day of filming was like back in the late 1960s. Because Roger Moore was also a producer of the film, he was sensitive and protective of his image and insisted that he get the girl by film’s end. The consensus is that Roger Moore was down to earth and likable.
A Dressing Down – This audio clip from 2010 features actor Francis Matthews who tells about another actor on Crossplot refusing to share a Winnebago dressing room with him. When Roger Moore heard about this, he invited Matthews to share his own Winnebago.
The New Look Sixties London – This featurette is a look at 1960s and 1970s TV and movie locations in London. During the London blitz in World War II, there was enormous bombing destruction in a large part of the city. In 1956, a development was planned for a 44-acre area. Details are described. Clips from various TV shows and movies filmed at these locations are shown. Many of the buildings—new then—no longer exist.
Restoring Crossplot – An interpolative film element was supplied for scanning. An interpolative is an intermediate film element copied from the negative, forming a positive image on another piece of film stock. There was a lot of dirt and sparkle which was highlighted and removed digitally. Before and after comparisons show how film damage is made to disappear through laborious effort.
Textless Titles – The title sequence without written credits is shown as the song I’ll Find My Love is sung by John Rowles. Bright pop art colors and kaleidoscopic images with women’s faces offer a stylish opening to the film. The credit sequence is clearly influenced by the elaborate title sequences in the James Bond movies.
Photo Gallery – Color and black & white stills, publicity photos, domestic and foreign posters, archival documents, lobby cards, exhibitors’ campaign book pages, and newspaper layouts are shown in slideshow format.
Booklet – The 5 3/4” X 4 1/2” 8-page black & white Crossplot Exhibitors’ Campaign Book reproduction contains advertising materials, suggestions for movie tie-ins, newspaper layouts, and newspaper articles focusing on the stars.
Crossplot is a mix of espionage and comedy. Very much a derivative film, it nonetheless entertains. Moore is a good fit for the ad man who gets in over his head. His natural panache and smoothness make him an attractive character and enable the viewer to forgive some of the obvious “borrowings” from other films. Lange tries her best but never achieves star luster. Even though the plot is somewhat convoluted, director Rakoff gets some impressive production value from a limited budget.
- Dennis Seuling