This really is a very superior film of its kind. The director and screenwriter was George Seaton, a highly talented man whose greatest cinematic achievement was to direct and write the screenplay for THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954). In Britain it is only possible to get the DVD of this film in a Spanish edition, where you turn off the Spanish subtitles. Part of the beginning of the film and the end credits are cut from that DVD issue, inexplicably, though that is only a minor irritation. William Holden is well chosen for the lead, for his droll gravitas perfectly fits the need for a first person narration and the role of an unwilling spy into which he is drawn. Lilli Palmer is also perfect for the soul-searching German idealist who wishes to oppose Hitler to the last ounce of her strength but cannot come to terms with the accidental deaths of children in an Allied bombing raid for which she gave the coordinates, in her role as spy. The film is based on a non-fiction book published in 1958 by Alexander Klein (1918-2002), a Hungarian Jew who lived in America from the age of 5. Klein's book recorded the real wartime adventures of a Swedish oil executive, Eric Erickson, who became a crucial spy against the Nazis while posing as a Nazi-sympathiser, and who is played in the film by Holden. The story is thus a true story, and that may explain the film's deeply compelling qualities. There is a great deal of difference between a film based on real events and one based on someone's imaginings. The grisly events portrayed in this film are more convincing than is normal in espionage films because they really happened. Indeed, no one who had not lived through them could have imagined such things, an example being the Jew attempting to flee to Sweden from Denmark who permits himself to choke to death on a handkerchief rather than betray his hiding place to the Gestapo and cost his companion his life. And then there is the bizarre detail that if you are being pursued by border guards with dogs, you can save your life by sprinkling dried blood mixed with cocaine powder on the trail. The dogs stop to sniff it and become immobilized and have fits. (We may have to keep this in mind as we move towards an increasingly totalitarian world. And it is the first sensible use of cocaine that I have ever heard of, that's for sure.) This is a big budget film, as it was shot on location in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, at huge cost. The film runs for 2 hours and 20 minutes and is gripping for the entire time. An excellent performance as an oily British spy controller is given by Hugh Griffith, who for once kept his eyebrows partially under control and did not have a 'Groucho moment'. He must have had great fun being a creep for a change, for no actor likes to be laughed at all the time, especially one of ability. This excellent movie is more than just an entertaining film, it is a document and a record, and it is so well done that it does justice to the seriousness of its subject matter.

This film is based in real facts. Though he doesn't particularly agree with the Nazis Eric Erickson (William Holden) is a successful Swedish oil business man with commercial links with Germany during World War II. His activity allows Erickson to travel constantly between Stockholm and Berlin and he has important friends in Hitler's circle. British Intelligence sees the opportunity to use him as a spy and they blacklist him to force him to take the job. Actual locations in Europe, a very skillfully handled script and a first rate cast make this film one of the best in its genre. The point is that "The Counterfait Traitor" lasts 2 hours and 20 minutes and it doesn't have a single uninteresting sequence. Tension and intrigue are always there and it doesn't lack drama and action either. It has it all.The cast is outstanding. Holden's performance is quite solid and natural. Lilli Palmer is most convincing as Marianne Mollendorf -Holden's contact in Germany- who revolves the man's traditional ideas on war and neutrality as well as on his matrimony. Hugh Griffith, not far away from his Oscar winning performance in "Ben Hur" (1959) renders here a superb work as Collins the intelligence Britsh member that traps Holden.You should see this film if you didn't whether you like espionage films or not. It has something interesting for everyone. It's a 10 out of 10 for me; I still can't find any weaknesses or flaws in it.

Although unappealingly long - 140 minutes to be precise - The Counterfeit Traitor turns out to be an absorbing, disturbing and rather exciting wartime suspense film. It gives William Holden his second-best role of the '60s (surpassed only by his work in The Wild Bunch) and provides good subsidiary roles for Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith and Ernst Schroeder.Holden is terrific as a Swedish citizen born in the USA, named Eric Erickson. Erickson is a businessman trading oil from his Stockholm HQ during WWII. Many of his customers are Germans, and quite often he goes on business trips to war-torn Germany leaving the sanctuary of neutral Sweden behind. The British secret service approach him and plead for him to act as a spy, gathering sensitive information for them during his seemingly legitimate trips. Matters are complicated when Erickson meets fellow spy Marianne Mollendorf (Lilli Palmer), with whom he soon falls in love. His mission is seriously jeopardised when her spying antics are exposed, and she is seized by the Gestapo and taken away to be executed.The film is well-made by ever-reliable director George Seaton. Seaton also wrote the screenplay, basing it on an Alexander Klein book, and he must be given credit for fashioning a thoroughly believable and suspenseful story. The film is shot on actual North European locations, and the use of real backdrops - as opposed to the usual studio lensing favoured by Hollywood in the early '60s - adds to the film's authentic flavour. Nowadays, the appeal of this kind of film is sadly limited, but if you have an affinity for this kind of stuff, then The Counterfeit Traitor is definitely a title worth tracking down.

Born in Brooklyn, Eric Erickson (William Holden) is a naturalized Swedish businessman neutral enough to deal with both the Germans and Allies, until he discovers his name on a published list of Nazi sympathizers...Shocked and angry, he soon discovers that his inclusion on that list is a device to force him to work for British Intelligence whose representative, a sarcastic Collins (Hugh Griffith), he meets at the Stockholm Grand Hotel...Collins not only admits the blackmail, but compounds it by having the conversation taped to enforce Eric's cooperation, since the Swedes strongly value their neutrality... Disarmed as well as astonished by Collins' cynicism, Eric has to agree to become a spy, while the spy master, between courses of his luncheon, admits he would 'deal with thieves, liars, procurers, traitors, and sluts' to get the job done...Not only must Eric supply information on the German oil industry, he also has to act the part of someone on the Allied blacklist... Despite his real sympathies, Eric must make spiteful remarks about the Allies, and more importantly, has to drop sneering remarks about Jews and to insult publicly his Jewish best friend within hearing of the German ambassador... The friendship with the Third Reich's diplomat is needed to secure official sanction for Eric's plan to construct German oil refineries in Sweden—the means by which he is to secure the information the Allies want... Eric not only humors the optimal negotiator, he also promises him a share in the company he is forming and charmingly pays him the money lost in weekly bridge games... Eric begins his frequent business trips to Germany with a gala reception during which he makes contact with another agent, an irresistible woman with whom he is to pretend to have an affair, Mariana (Lilli Palmer).Mariana, wife of a high-ranking German officer, is both an idealist and an efficient spy... She would embrace and kiss Eric for the sake of any Gestapo man trailing them and then shake hands before getting down to the business of encoding messages... Her shock at Eric's selfish reasons for being a spy contrasted with her own, a firmly loyal belief in the Catholic religion to fight the Anti-Christ, Hitler... In perhaps the film's most moving scene, she tells Eric that 'one must not think of the war simply in terms of hundreds of tanks and thousand of planes and units of men, like some sort of wrestling match on a gigantic scale... but in terms of a single truck on its way to a concentration camp and what's shivering inside in.'Unlike many other spy films set during the war, 'The Counterfeit Traitor' stressed the personal and emotional cost of espionage: Eric, the spy-against-his-will, had not only to forsake his wife and friends who were upset by his apparent Nazi sympathies, he had also to witness Nazi atrocities... George Seaton's 'The Counterfeit Traitor' is sobering to a remarkable degree, mostly when Marianne discovers she has given her confession not to a priest; the questioning of Eric in Berlin's basement cell; Hitler Youth member Hans Holtz stealing Eric's briefcase with incriminating letter; and Eric's confrontation with Gestapo man Jaeger...