This really wasn't a good movie.Roger Moore in his pre-James Bond days, one can easily see him taking on Bond here. It is reminiscent of Pierce Brosnan waiting his turn for the role.I've always enjoyed Moore's other roles. He was always charming. He is here too. Unfortunately, the script is weak.There's lots of late-60s hair, fashion, and context here. For that, it is an interesting look back.But if one is seeking high drama, a good caper, or anything particularly intelligent, this is not your movie.

While this has been likened to a James Bond adventure (which star Roger Moore was still four years away from first tackling), it actually plays more like a tenth-rate copy of an Alfred Hitchcock suspenser – and, specifically, NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)-meets-THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956).In fact, Moore is an advertising executive who unwittingly runs into a person involved in deadly political games – model Claudie Lange (who, amusingly, is depicted as being constantly famished!). Incidentally, her equally attractive aunt (Martha Hyer) is revealed to be the chief villainess of the piece (along with Bond-Moore's future superior 'M' himself, Bernard Lee!) intent on assassinating a visiting South African leader – as always in the most public of places (in this case, Hyde Park) and synchronized to take place during the customary 21-gun salute. Two other very obvious borrowings from NORTH BY NORTHWEST are a helicopter chase (imitating the legendary crop-dusting sequence) and the rather funny disruption of a church wedding recalling the auction scene in the Hitchcock classic where Cary Grant was similarly drawing attention to himself in order to stall his pursuers! Also in the cast are Alexis Kanner as a would-be decadent lord who actually advocates peace and ultimately emerges to be on the side of the good guys, as well as Hammer regular Francis Matthews playing a hit-man for Hyer {sic}. Moore having just come off "The Saint" (a series in which director Rakoff was also involved), this still has that bland TV look to it – despite the rather incongruous Swinging London backdrop. The film includes mild dollops of style, wit, sexiness, action and suspense – all of which were prime features of NORTH BY NORTHWEST in particular, but which were also part and parcel of the Bond saga. In the long run, taken on its own merits, CROSSPLOT is a harmless time-waster but one that has added value if seen as a transition between Moore's trademark personae i.e. Simon Templar aka "The Saint" and James Bond aka 007.

Crossplot is an energetic yet disjointed blend of Hitchcockian romantic thriller, slapstick caper and spy thriller action gimmickry which must have looked pretty hackneyed by 1969 but now just about holds up on period charm value. For fans of the genre there is fun to be had in ticking off the 60s tropes as they come: cheesy crooning theme tune? Yep. Psychedelic op art graphics? Yep. Characters dressing up in Victorian/Edwardian costumes? Yep. Military marching bands, unconvincing hippies, minis driven over cliffs and exploding? Yep, yep and thrice yep.Made in 1968, the film manages to refract, despite its general frothiness, some of the darker events of the era – the Grosvenor Square riot, troubles in post-colonial Africa, political assassinations – but never takes itself seriously for a moment. Which is just as well given the general absurdity of the storyline. Moore plays a dashing advertising executive (shades of Cary Grant in North by Northwest) caught up in the plotting of a sinister international organisation bent on creating disorder and chaos so as to sweep aside 'decadent democracy'. Martha Hyer is the Hitchcock blonde (and obligatory token American) whilst Claudie Lange, an Italian who made few English language films, is the feisty (and hungry) Hungarian model who the sinister types are pursuing.It was the first project Moore worked on after completing his last series of The Saint and many of the personnel involved were veterans of that long running show. Unfortunately, it's quite apparent that the budget wasn't much in excess of an average Saint episode and the film is generally compromised by a lack of adequate location filming. A notable exception being the helicopter chase sequence which is well choreographed and distinguished by some great stunt flying.After 6 years as The Saint, Moore could play suave, wry and debonair in his sleep but here he moderates his unflappable Templar persona with a bit of 'confused everyman' and some comedy pratfalls. At the end, the spectre of his ironic 70s Bond (still some 4 years away) looms as he beds the girl, frowns at the camera and coyly pulls the sheets up. Incidentally, for a truly revelatory demonstration of Moore's range as an actor from the gap years between Templar and Bond check out 'The Man Who Haunted Himself'.For some, however, this film will be chiefly of interest for the appearance of Alexis Kanner as the aristocratic leader of the protest movement Marchers for Peace. Kanner was cast off the back of his memorable appearances in the last episodes of Patrick McGoohan's uber 60s TV meisterwerk The Prisoner. Here he plays a variant of his rebellious youth, No. 48 but, besides a spirited fight with our man Rog, and a bit of trademark methody eccentricity he isn't really given much to do and exits the picture before the final reel. Other appearances of note: Gabrielle Drake, sister of the tragic folk bard and soon to be Lieutenant Gay Ellis of UFO, as one of Moore's staff. Francis – voice of Captain Scarlet – Matthews is one of the leading baddies (and suffers death by unconvincing back projection). Bernard 'M' Lee is wheeled out to lend a bit of James Bond class to the proceedings. Dudley Sutton uses his psycho-baby features to unsettle Claudie Lange and the forever hangdog David Battley plays a confused groom whose wedding is disrupted by Moore and co. with, you guessed it, hilarious consequences.If, like me, you enjoy this kind of thing, Crossplot is now available on DVD in the UK (an undistinguished but generally acceptable transfer) for around a fiver. There are probably more productive ways you could spend 90 minutes of your life but, as one hippy character memorably utters, "what's time, man?"

'Crossplot' was Roger Moore's first attempt to return to the big screen after seven years in television as Simon Templar. Unfortunately, it all went wrong. The budget of the film proved to be much too small as for an action picture. It was also too old-fashioned and in a way too much television-like since entire crew consisted of 'The Saint' personnel. The result is a movie which today can be only suggested for Roger Moore fans. I'm one of them and so I enjoyed watching the film really much. The acting is pretty good. Moore is doing good job, trying to eliminate as many elements for which he was recognizable as the Saint as it's possible, but still it feels a lot like another 'saintly' adventure. The script is very predictable and its only great moments are when Moore is let to show his light sense of humour and prove that he does really great in such genres as for instance the 'romantic comedy'. The opening sequence (my favourite) is very much like if it was taken from all those 'lovely' Cary Grant movies from the 50s, with Moore at his best, having fun while playing a sort of a less distinguished Brett Sinclair. The film's weakness seems to be that it's not sure if it's a serious thriller, action picture or maybe a comedy. There are too many 'romantic' and 'funny' moments in it as for a true action film but on the other hand 'Crossplot's' script seems to be seriously dramatized since at least three people are to die during the film. Hm, not the best thing, but still worth seeing for Roger Moore fans.