Spy between 2 fronts

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Movie
German title Spy between two fronts
Original title Triple cross
Country of production Great Britain , France
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 140 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Terence Young
script René Hardy
production Jacques Bertrand
music Georges Garvarentz
camera Henri Alekan
cut Roger Dwyre
occupation
synchronization

Spy between 2 Fronts ( German alternative title: In the service of the German army, English original title: Triple Cross) is an agent film from 1966 with Christopher Plummer in the lead role, directed by Terence Young . The plot is based on the life story of Edward Arnold Chapman and his book. The film was shot in the USA , Great Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany . In France , the film was called La Fantastique histoire vraie d'Eddie Chapman (The Fantastic and True Story of Eddie Chapman).

action

The British thief Eddie Chapman, who blasted safes mostly with self-made explosives, camouflaged the bang by faking a misfiring of a nearby car and left a business card (“with delicate compliments from the gelignite gang” - “with sensitive greetings from the Sprenggel gang ”) , is caught after 40 successful missions as a bank robber and safe-hacker due to carelessness on the Channel Island of Jersey , because he was distracted by a beautiful and dangerous lady. Sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, he was in Jersey prison when the German Wehrmacht occupied the Channel Island in 1940. Chapman offers himself to the Germans as an agent in the hope of being released. Since his offers initially received little response, he draws attention to himself by setting a fire in his prison cell.

After he was transferred to a French prison, Colonel Steinhäger, who worked for the defense, and the Swedish "Countess" who were in German service made contact with him. He begins an affair with the French prisoner Paulette and is caught during an unauthorized stay in the women's block. This is followed by a fake execution by the Germans in order to let him live on with the new identity of the German soldier "Franz Graumann". He is brought to the secret "Ast Office" under the direction of Colonel Baron von Grunen. Chapman recognizes his chance and offers himself to him for a high amount of foreign currency as an agent, as he is suitable for an espionage assignment in England due to his knowledge of English and dexterity. Colonel Steinhaeger and the SS - officer cellars are suspicious. Chapman received a relatively short, but intensive and extensive special training in skydiving, radio communications, and explosives manufacture and use. Meanwhile, at the instigation of her superiors, the Countess begins an affair with him, in the course of which the very limited loyalty of both of them to their clients becomes clear. As part of his training, Chapman is used in a raid against the Resistance , in which he meets Paulette again, but covers her with the help of the Countess. At Steinhäger's initiative, Chapman is subjected to a test by allegedly being dropped on British soil on a pretend mission, in the expectation that he would give himself away by contacting British authorities instead of reporting as ordered. This also happens, but Chapman notices from signs in French on a nearby farm that he is still on French soil and sees through the test just in time to report on the radio shortly before an arrest. Chapman hangs his parachute in a tree to explain the delay. Since his loyalty is now beyond question, he is parachuted over England to blow up the energy supply of the Vickers aircraft works.

But Chapman now offers himself to the British defense, MI5 , and reveals the frequencies of German spies in England, which he had previously stolen from the unoccupied radio room of the Ast office at a favorable opportunity, to prove his honesty. With the consent of the British, he finally faked the German aerial reconnaissance into the detonation. The British secret service obliges him to work as a double agent in exchange for money and an amnesty. After thorough training, including simulated Gestapo interrogations, he goes to Lisbon by ship as ordered . There the countess intercepts him and informs him about the events in Germany during his mission in England. So he hears of the unmasking of German agents based on his own information to MI5. In this context, he also learns of the transfer of Colonel von Grunen to the Eastern Front , which was carried out, among other things, because of the agent's exposure. At the German embassy he has to write a detailed report on his stay in England. He manages to convince Keller and others of his successful mission and to dispel suspicions, such as the procurement of the necessary explosives in enemy territory. Despite his fear of a possible Gestapo interrogation, Chapman returns with Colonel Steinhäger and Keller from Portugal to the German headquarters in Paris . There he becomes afraid and is about to swallow a cyanide capsule . It's going extremely well for him. For the "sabotage action" in the Vickers works, which the army command had already classified as successful and documented by the German aerial reconnaissance , he received the Iron Cross personally from Field Marshal von Rundstedt and he intervened in favor of Colonel von Grunen, who had been sentenced to death. Only the head of Ast, Colonel Steinhäger, a former police officer, continues to suspect him of a number of disagreements.

In Paris, with the help of Paulette, Chapman succeeds in informing the Resistance of a veiled conference of high German officers including von Grunens. Keller wants to arrest him, but von Grunen, who was informed by telephone, saved him from arrest.

In the summer of 1944, a decision was made about Chapman's next assignment in England, and the Ast office was disbanded amid the chaos of the German withdrawal after D-Day . The Komtess returns to Sweden in view of the impending German defeat. Steinhäger is not worried about his future, as police officers like him would always be needed, no matter what system. Chapman almost betrays himself by commenting on a classified aerial photograph of the burning Vickers works to Steinhäger, who again doubts Chapman's loyalty. But Steinhäger does not pursue his suspicions, apparently confirmed after a comment by Grunens, about Chapman's relationships in the highest circles.

Before leaving for England, Chapman said goodbye to Grunen, saying that the Germans would have deserved nothing better if the elite of their officers did not manage to blow up a small room at the right time. Immediately after Chapman's take-off, Steinhäger and Keller arrested him at the airfield because he was obviously an accomplice in the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 . With an aristocratic gesture, he informs the two of them that he is resisting his arrest and, as he leaves, calls on them to shoot him “while on the run” according to the orders, which Keller, to Steinhäger's displeasure, does not do without satisfaction.

After Chapman's return to England, in coordination with the Royal Air Force , he managed to steer the German missiles away from London to sparsely populated areas by transmitting manipulated impact coordinates .

While celebrating the end of the war with some of his British military contacts in a pub, Chapman finally receives a pardon from his commanding officer, Commander Braid, in return for his services. He also learns that his file with the entire criminal record was burned as early as 1940, but this has been kept from him. To the burning question of his officer, for whom he actually worked during the war, he replies “How, you don't know?” And turns to his reflection with a wink with a cryptic smile and a raised glass ...

backgrounds

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
  • The British version, at 140 minutes of pure feature length, was longer than the US version at 126 minutes.
  • The English title "Triple Cross" is a play on words with "double cross" (Eng. "Fraud"), "to double-cross someone" (Eng. "Double the game with someone").
  • Romy Schneider was pregnant with her son David Christopher (1966–1981) while filming. She married her son's father, Harry Meyen , around the same time . It was up to the Keller, played by Meyen, of all people, to surprise the protagonists played by Schneider and Plummer red-handed during an air raid in bed.
  • As some newspapers reported in early 2007, the real Chapman offered the British secret service at the time to kill Hitler with a suicide bombing. MI5 refused, presumably because the living Hitler, with his irrational decisions, was seen as a “simpler” opponent of war than his potential successor.
  • Colonel Baron von Grunen portrayed in the film was likely to portray Stephan von Gröning . Von Gröning survived the war and in 1974 Chapman, who by chance only learned the real name of his former commanding officer 29 years after the end of the war, got in touch with von Gröning again. At the wedding of Chapman's daughter in 1979, Groening and his wife Ingeborg were among the guests.

Reviews

  • Prisma Online: “James Bond director Terence Young is not stingy with Bond-like effects here either. But the top-class spy thriller is more interested in superficial entertainment than in an exact historical picture. "

The lexicon of international films complained that the "director pushed back the historical background completely through the great effort and made an entertaining cinema with James Bond effects out of Chapman's life", but praised the "great actors".

The Protestant film observer believes that the plan to tell the true story of Eddie Chapman has just turned into a "colorful piece of cinema "; the strip is not very demanding, but not boring.

synchronization

The Ultra Film Synchron Berlin cast the people as follows:

Also spoke: Jochen Schröder , Curt Ackermann , Paul Wagner , Kurt Mühlhardt , Wilhelm Borchert and Martin Hirthe .

Romy Schneider, Gert Fröbe and Harry Meyen spoke to themselves.

Backdrops

Parts of the film take place in and in front of the forts of Romainville . The English criminal and later double agent Eddie Chapman was imprisoned here (in the film).

literature

  • Frank Owen: The Eddie Chapman Story: The Incredible Story of the London Safecracker Who Worked for Hitler and British Intelligence at the Same Time. J. Messner, Publishers, New York 1954.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spelling in the opening credits.
  2. ↑ Release certificate for spy between 2 fronts . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; approvals from December 2015). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  3. ↑ Spy between two fronts. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Critique No. 91/1967.
  5. ↑ According to synchronized files.