The film has suspense , tension , emotion , mystery and specially in its final a little bit of violence . Following the death of his son , in the Austrian Alps , ¨The Key Man¨ , a high ranking officer in the CIA called Dan Slater (Yul Brynner) , has to face off the most daring plot ever concocted by the secret agents of two worlds : East and West , during the Cold War . In Austria he decides to investigate and step by step finds out that the death of his son was no a skiing accident . A retired , prior undercover operative , Frank Wheatley (Clive Revill) , whom he had hoped would watch out for his son helps Dan seeks out the real killers . By the way , Dan meets socialite Gina (Britt Ekland , though Ulla Jacobsson was offered first this role) , the companion of rich and mature Mrs. Carrington (Moira Lister) , who puts him on the alright trails o perhaps fake clues . Eventually , rare inconsistencies begin appearing leading Dan to conclude that Russian secret service led by Col. Berthold (Anton Diffring) attempting a mysterious kidnapping . Suspenseful movie packs thrills , intrigue , frantic action , twists and turns . This complex piece of espionage is notable for its snow-capped scenery and its thrilling intrigue from start to finish . Interesting as well as amusing screenplay from Alfred Hayes and Frank Tarloff based on Henry Maxfield's novel titled "Legacy of a Spy". However , the movie's script was similar to the then recently released Spy with my face (1965) and its TV counter-part The agent of T.I.A. : The Double Affair (1964) . Although the picture has various ingredients for entertainment , the screenplay is also complex , including inexplicable incidents , the plot has gaps , in spite of it results to be pretty fun . Nice acting by Yul Brynner as cold and emotion-less agent , a top-notch performance who steals the show and gorgeous Britt Ekland's first major movie role . Support cast is pretty good such as Lloyd Nolan as Major Edwards who assigns him the dangerous mission , Clive Revill as undercover agent , Moira Lister as wealthy Mistress and Brandon Brady as Russian agent . Special mention for Anton Diffring in his ordinary German face and cool , clipped diction , as he replaced an actor who dropped out ; here Anton plays magnificently a Russian operative who attempts to substitute starring with a double of its own in order to obtain a mole in the highest echelons of the CIA agency . Diffring was a character actor who worked continuously in movies due to his aristocratic style , making him ideal for typecasting in British and later American films as Nazis and other vile , despicable roles , what was ironic about his typecasting as a Nazi is that he fled Nazi Germany in 1939 .Lively and enjoyable musical score by Ernie Freeman , including catching sounds throughout . Colorful cinematography by Dennis Coop , shot on location in wonderful outdoors as the mountain range vista seen in the film is the Tyrolean Alps situated in the state of Tyrol in western Austria . Good aerial scenes and spectacular snowy landscapes carried out by the late aerial cameraman John Jordan who died whilst working on Catch 22 (1970) . It was released before the snow-laden James Bond movie On her Majesty's secret service (1969), Jordan worked on both these spy movies . Lavishly produced by Hal E Chester , he was a juvenile actor , then a producer of low-budget movies in Hollywood, before he moved in 1955 to Britain, where he set up his own production company to take advantage of the lower costs of filming ; over the next 15 years he turned out a wide range of pictures, which often featured American stars such as Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Paul Newman and Yul Brynner . The picture was well directed by Franklin J. Schaffner . He made excellent motion pictures such as "The Planet of the Apes", "Patton, " "Papillon" , ¨"Nicholas and Alexandra" , after the flop of his film titled " Islands in the Stream ", in which went on to coincide with the actor of "Patton" , George C. Scott , he decided to embark on a project more commercial and successful as "The Boys From Brazil" ; however , ¨Sphinx¨ ,¨Lionheart¨, ¨Si Giorgio¨ were other box office failures . Rating : Better than average , worthwhile watching .

***SPOILERS***A stoic and unemotional Yul Brynner as US Government secret Agent Dan Slater is determined to find out the circumstances of his 16 year old son Bobby's, David Scheur, death in a skying accident off the Austrian Alps. Not for a moment believing the official story that Bobby's death was an accident Slater despite being told by his boss in the CIA the wheelchair bound Edwards, Lloyd Noland, to lay off and get the first flight back to the US he goes on his own to find the person or persons he believes are responsible for Bobby's death. And in his own way, without arrest trial or jury, terminate them! Getting his former and now retired partner in the CIA Frank Wheatley, Clive Revill, to help him in finding Bobby's killer doesn't at first seem like a good idea on Slater's part. Wheatley has not only given up both his gun, he refuses to use one, as well as violence becoming a meek and peaceful ski instructor who taught Bobby how to ski! Which in Slater's suspicious mind feels he may well have been the person who gave Bobby the push that shoved him off the mountain that ended up killing him!There's also the beautiful Gina, Britt Ekland, who was the last person to see Bobby alive as well, in Slater's mind, as the person who may also have killed him. Taking off the silk gloves if he was ever wearing them Slater later brutally manhandled Gina at the ski lodge just for fun then for getting information out of her. That in retaliation has her almost ending up scratching his eyes out! That later proves if he's really in fact Slater or***MAJOR SPOILER***the person impersonating him! You see Slater isn't Slater but a Soviet like Manchurian Candidate who's to be planted in the CIA, as Slater, as a major mole for the KGB! With the real Slater being held hostage until his services for the KGB, in staying alive, are no longer needed!***SPOILERS*** Yul Brynner is very effective in both roles as Slater and his KGB impersonator Kalmar and the action scenes in the movie rival or even suppress any of the at that time, in the mid 1960's, James Bonds films that "The Double Man" is copying off. The movie is all action and suspense and lacks the emotionless and mechanical like sex and romance that the then James Bond films with Sean Connery have. Brynner does almost the impossible in playing the bad guy in both his roles as Slater and Kalmer with Slater, who supposed to be the good guy, the far worse of the two! In fact in a scene where Slater, who's really Kalmer, brutally works over Gina it's Slater, who's face wasn't stretched by Gina, who told his shocked and confused partner Wheatley who at the time didn't quite know which one, Slater or Kalamer, to shoot that if he worked her over she not have been alive to scratch him!

I watched this movie in the wee hours of the morning and probably should not have done so as I was not too sure who was the survivor in the end. I do not like to have a movie end that way, but the location scenes were very good and makes me want to return there again.Cannot an American movie be made without the overkill of the "barroom brawl" smash and bang portion that, in my opinion, ruins the whole movie. Someone has to come crashing through plate glass windows, destroy mountains of dishes and glassware and demolish a whole kitchen or other room for "sensationalism". This cheap addition makes me not like whatever else (good story, good acting, beautiful scenery) may be in that movie. Americans are destructive orientated and I guess we thrive on the addition of this junk.

Yul Brynner was an impressive and powerful screen presence, moving like a panther, scowling like one as well from under his intent brow. He really laid it on, and it generally works. But here is the problem: this film is about 'duplicating' him. The Soviets, aided by the East Germans (Anton Diffring not as a Nazi officer this time but as a Stasi officer, same thing), intend to replace Dan Slater, Assistant Deputy Director of the CIA (played by Brynner), with a double. The double (played by Brynner, naturally) has the same accent and the same walk, is the same size, and has had plastic surgery to have the same face. But of all the people in Hollywood who could not be duplicated, Yul Brynner must be the top. So how silly can you get? This kind of story might work with one of those identikit actors, who are especially popular in Hollywood at the moment actually, but somebody as weird as Yul Brynner?! And the story gets sillier. Because there is cute 34 year-old Britt Ekland. I had forgotten what a looker she really was in those days. Naturally there has to be 'the girl' in every such story, so credulity is stretched even further to fit her in, despite the fact that she is not really part of the story and has to be squeezed between the floorboards (that's because the story is set in the Austrian Tyrol, where all the chalets are wooden), so that Anton Diffring and his team can blend in with the locals and also so that some people can combine the film production with a skiing holiday (a joke? or real?). Shades of Leni Riefenstahl and the mountain films of the twenties and thirties such as STORM OVER MONT BLANC! This film is made all the more objectionable because of the terrible music score by Ernie Freeman. In the late sixties it was considered trendy to fill every moment of a thriller when people weren't speaking with blaring trumpets and trombones in a kind of hep ersatz jazz, the theory being that this would heighten the tension while people were walking up staircases (supposed to be ominous, with goodness knows what fate awaiting them at the top) or approaching looming buildings which might contain goodness knows what villains. More likely it made people hold their ears or run screaming from the cinema in search of a doctor. The film was directed by Franklin Schaffner (best known for PLANET OF THE APES the following year, 1968, and his next film, PATTON, two years later in 1971; his film SPHINX of 1981 was no great shakes, see my review), who should have known better, and who at least saved it from being terrible, so that it remained merely bad. Moira Lister has great fun being a spoilt rich hostess who throws parties and tries to seduce toy boys. Clive Revill is good at being a hangdog former British spy who can't take it any more, and cannot even make himself pick up a gun, although finally he regains his courage of course and does pick up one lest he let down a friend. Lloyd Nolan plays the head of the CIA from a wheelchair and whines: 'How could Dan go off somewhere without telling me where?' Some CIA! A cable arrives addressed to Dan Slater, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, we see it on screen but no one at the CIA bothers to read it and it is handed to Brynner as if it were a Christmas card. Sure, that's how it works in Washington. But this is a serious matter: will the dastardly communist Yul Brynner return to America and betray all the secrets of the USA to the sour-faced Russian who has instructed the eager Diffring? Or will the patriotic Yul Brynner save the day by stopping him? As the bad Brynner says to the good Brynner during a gunfight: 'There cannot be two of us.' Is a glass half full or half empty? Is a movie half good or half bad? Five stars will leave you wondering about that.