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Triple Cross

Triple Cross

Movie · 1966 · 3 people

Terence Young directed Triple Cross, a spy and war film from 1966 shot in Eastman Color, a British-French co-production. In France, where it was shown as La Fantastique Histoire vraie d'Eddie Chapman, it opened in December 1966, and in the rest of Europe and the United States it reached audiences in 1967. It runs 140 minutes. Reviews were mixed.

The subject is a real man: Eddie Chapman, whom the Germans took for their best spy in Britain while he was in fact a double agent for MI5 under the codename Zigzag. The story of this safecracker turned wartime agent is drawn from Chapman's 1953 autobiography, written with Frank Owen. Christopher Plummer takes the lead, with Romy Schneider, Yul Brynner, Gert Fröbe, Trevor Howard and Claudine Auger beside him; Jess Hahn and Charles Millot also appear. The title comes from the XXX signature Chapman sent in Morse code to tell the Germans he was broadcasting freely, and a second meaning of the name is revealed in the final scene.

René Hardy and William Marchant wrote the script. The producer was Jacques-Paul Bertrand and the composer Georges Garvarentz. Filming took place in the United States, Britain and West Germany; in Germany it is known as Spion zwischen 2 Fronten.

DirectorTerence Young

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Cast

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Jess Hahn Jess Hahn Actor · died at 76 Charles Millot Charles Millot Actor · died at 81 Laure Paillette Laure Paillette Film actor · died at 71

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Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

On paper, a true double-agent story is right up my street: safecracker Eddie Chapman is taken by the Germans for their best spy in Britain while he is really working for MI5. That premise alone generates tension. But 140 minutes is long for a spy film, and the slower stretches may test your patience. Seeing Christopher Plummer and Yul Brynner in the same film is still a treat. Save it for a patient evening.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Shot in Eastman Color by Terence Young, this British-French co-production sets out to tell a real double agent's story with a big star line-up. Christopher Plummer at the centre, with Romy Schneider, Yul Brynner, Gert Fröbe and Trevor Howard around him: the ambition of the era's international co-productions is plain to see. The mixed reviews are understandable, though; at 140 minutes, it is hard to give the safecracker-to-wartime-agent material a tight structure. Still, the way the title, taken from the XXX signature, gains a second meaning in the final scene suggests a script that planned its ending from the start. Flaws and all, worth a look for anyone curious about period spy cinema.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Looking at wartime espionage through a real person lifts the film above an ordinary adventure. Eddie Chapman's move from safecracking to spying makes you think about how war pulls in people from society's margins too. It matters that the story comes from the 1953 autobiography Chapman wrote with Frank Owen: the account rests on the telling of the man who lived it. So it is better watched not as a firm historical record but as one life's story reworked for the screen. Even so, the moral ambiguity of double agency brings the wartime questions of trust and loyalty interestingly to the fore.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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