![]() It was made by talented cameraman-director Ronald Neame, of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Gambit, Tunes of Glory and The Horse’s Mouth. It’s graces are those of a movie that makes us smile - a clever lightweight story, charming actors, and a few surprises along the way. Hopscotch is a movie your mother will love, a lightweight spy film more in tune with The Rockford Files than The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. This is indeed an interesting choice for a low-number Criterion release (163): it is neither famous, nor foreign, trendy, hip, camp, a genre oddity, or the work of a trendy director. ![]() Sane CIA operative Sam Waterston wears this pleased smile on his face all through the show, watching Matthau make Ned Beatty’s incompetent boss look like a fool. And the movie is funny too, in a ‘Dilbert’ sort of way. There ought to be an award for that, even though the author is also responsible for Death Wish. As author Brian Garfield happily says, he’s proud that it’s a spy movie with dangerous enemies, weapons and death threats, and not a single person gets shot. That’s not exactly the Worship-the-Uniform vibe of TV’s N.C.I.S. Renegade agent Walter Matthau makes monkeys out of his employers, flaunting Federal law and all but asking to be murdered, and we’re with him all the way. It’s also anti- age-ism and anti- corporate. It must be the1970s – even this mid-range ‘old folks’ comedy is engagingly anti-authoritarian. Written by Bryan Forbes from a novel by Brian Garfield Starring: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom, David Matthau, George Baker, Ivor Roberts, Lucy Saroyan, Severn Darden, George Pravda.Ĭinematography: Arthur Ibbetson, Brian W. available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date Aug/ 39.95 Matthau’s sloppy, slouchy master agent is a comic delight Ronald Neame’s stylishly assured direction makes a deadly spy chase into a wholly pleasant romp.ġ980 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 105 min. ![]() Matthau’s CIA spook hooks up with old flame Glenda Jackson to retaliate against his insufferable CIA boss (Ned Beatty) with a humiliating tell-all book about the agency’s dirty tricks history. A generic spy story becomes an inspired light comedy with the application of great talent led by the star-power of Walter Matthau.
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