cult film freak: FINAL CINEMA TURN FOR MONTGOMERY CLIFT IN 'THE DEFECTOR'

THE DEFECTOR Year: 1967

By the Sixties, the Cold War genre, which began in the Forties, was in full swing, sometimes with bullets flying, and usually taking place in Europe... Yet THE DEFECTOR is extremely low-key, low budget, very subtle, taking its time and may require several viewings to pick up every nuance..

And for the sake of cinematic history, there is an importance in this otherwise forgotten vehicle, mostly known as the legendary Montgomery Clift's final role, which isn't a surprise when you see that, very sadly and extremely noticable, he resembles a man very near death and ironically, less than a decade prior, he was equal with (and was around before) James Dean and Marlon Brando, and this was his first step back in action...

THE DEFECTOR with Montgomery Clift

And he does a good enough job despite the fact it seems as if his character, Professor James Bower, in East Germany to visit a Russian friend for whom he translated several novels, hadn't eaten or slept in a very long while. Perhaps it should have been written into the script; his character riddled by some mysterious illness might have actually worked in this already strange and tight, extremely contained, atmospheric movie where prison-like surroundings of dull brown buildings exist in a locale that's cold and desolate...

He could have been equally as hopeless and desperate, especially since he may have to stick around permanently. But his pallid and gaunt, sickly appearance isn't mentioned yet should have been because, whether he was handsome in previous films or not, it's not only tragic but downright distracting...

THE DEFECTOR with Macha Méril and Montgomery Clift

Especially in the extremely contrived and awkward romantic angle involving several encounters, and a solid port in the impending storm with the young and gorgeous German actress Macha Méril, her shared "commune" apartment the only comfortably safe harbor around (she even has a comic book of Smurfs, and it's political!).

At this point, the spy genre had turned into a jovial carnival ride with the James Bond franchise, and the fact much of the story plays out in long scenes of important dialogue rather than non-stop action. Yet the Thriller genre (in any film) does tend to move (or not move) in this fashion, tickling the brain over driving testosterone and in that, THE DEFECTOR is a success though beyond subtle and ambiguous in its page-turning approach as the plot and/or purpose is handled right up front: so the mystery relies on how and when things will pan out, and in what direction.

Montgomery Clift in THE DEFECTOR with Hardy Kruger

Interior scenes mostly involving intentionally stuffy offices used for "polite" interrogations occur between the characters in a steady course, and of all the cast, including Roddy McDowell... as a CIA man spouting all the exposition for his reluctant inside man... is German actor Hardy Krüger as Counselor Peter Heinzmann, given an almost impossible task of trying to persuade the American scientist to defect after the Russian he had traveled to see in East Germany was killed (unseen), and who had this genre's most coveted McGuffin – microfilm...

So Krüger provides the only real conflict, making him the actor to watch for his expressions and reactions alone; that is, if you don't count Clift having to survive a slowburn nightmare of being stuck in this purgatory, softly batted about as a pawn (although he's hard to really feel sorry for since he hooks up so easily with the moon-faced German beauty)...

THE DEFECTOR with Christine Delaroche and Mache Meril

In a sparse study of existential anti-espionage, one particular mind-trip scene (much like Dick Powell's trip in MURDER MY SWEET) stands out as Bower half-sleep hallucinates inside his barred-widowed hotel room and giving this pointed, grounded vehicle a bit of foreign film surrealism...

But the entire DEFECTOR is, in a literal sense despite the Germans speaking perfect English, a Foreign Film without subtitles while maintaining an even-keel through strategic wordplay over gunplay, and a palpable sense of doom without a single bomb ticking. Winding up with 11th hour action that, though quite rushed and begging for the film to close, is more like suspenseful-movement as our subtle if bland yet determined and intriguing hero tries to get out of the country, the hard way: on foot, and all alone.