"Montgomery Cliff (in his last role) plays James Bower, an American physicist visiting West Germany who's recruited by a shady CIA agent, named Adam, to help them with the defection of a Russian scientist." - write Anonymous on IMDb. But it's not correct, Bower's mission is just to take over the important message of the Russian scientist, the character played by Roddy McDowall, Agent Adams, is very precise about that. The defection of the russian it's out of the question, all that the americans want are the precious informations.
There will be a defection, the one performed by Peter Heinzmann, the character played by Hardy Krüger, the actor who is the best in the whole film. The other actors are honorable too, Montgomery Clift, Macha Méril, David Opatoshu, Roddy McDowall. Hannes Messemer, in the role of Dr. Saltzer is also good, but I do not understand why the character is shot so easily and stupidly in the street, in the eyes of all, for absolutely no reason, just because he was running. And the end is not clear, does Hardy Krüger's character die in a real car accident, or was the "accident" premeditated?
Review of The Defector
