When I saw the cast of this movie and the Director, I kind of expected to see a tale of intrigue and action. That is not achieved here. Still the film has it's moments. I think the problem here is the adaption of the real life story. It could have been adapted better for the screen than it is.Still, it is watchable though I think Christopher Plummer is the biggest weakness in the cast. He never seems to get totally into this effort. He seems too smug to really play this role properly. There are major connections here with the film Goldfinger as Gert Frobe played the Bond nemesis.This if the script had been done better has enough star power to be another "Great Escape" but misses making that level. Still, Yul Brenner playing a Nazi is one of the most interesting twist of role for him. The film opens with safes being blown up. It fails in the beginning to stimulate the viewer with an interesting story.Sometimes, the structure of a film loses the interest of the viewer. This film is a prime example of that.

Quite right, it is definitely not a German plane. The aircraft is a 1946 French SNCAC Martinet.This was enjoyable to watch on a quiet evening at home. It was particularly interesting for me because I knew nothing of Edward Chapman's charmed life and wartime exploits so now I would like to know more about him and I'll be tempted to read up a bit and do some research about him.The film was well made with good production values and direction. My complaint is with the editing which was off kilter at times. The story line was abrupt and frequently resulted in too many fast changes. For instance we needed to see how Edward Chapman got passage on the vessel to Lisbon.

I enjoyed this movie. It's got all the right moves. Humor, drama, action scenes, unexpected twists, charming actors. There probably are holes in the story, but it's such a fun, fast-acting movie that I was too busy enjoying it to care. Christopher Plummer is the lead in this film, and he gets a chance to be more than charming. He's downright sexy. And then there's Yul Brynner in breeches and jack boots. Yowwwww! I had a good time watching this film. I have no idea if the uniforms, the planes, the story, or any of it, is accurate to the period. And I don't care. Christopher Plummer with his shirt undone. Demolition experts demonstrating how to detonate things with a mixture of sugar and saltpeter. The great Trevor Howard wearing the world's worst beard. Yul Brynner in jackboots. Just what a war movie ought to be. Triple Cross is available in a Region 2 DVD, but not, as of 1/21/12, in a Region 1. If it were available in Region 1 format, I would snap up a copy so I could watch it often. I hope Christopher Plummer's recent Golden Globe and possible Oscar nomination for "Beginners" might stimulate folks to put out more of his films on DVDs, especially on Region 1 DVDs.

First of all, this is an entertaining movie, with the requisite suspense and action well done, interesting characters and good acting. Frankly, I don't see what all the griping is about. Some of the comments downplay the historical accuracy of the movie, but from what I can learn online, the basic elements are astonishingly correct. The impact Eddie Chapman, an otherwise obscure criminal languishing in a remote jail, had on the course of World War II is, if anything, underplayed in the movie. We've all seen the newsreel footage of V1 and V2 bombs falling on London. What they fail to mention is that they were not landing where the Germans thought they were aiming for. And we have Chapman to thank for that. He was sending back skewed information about the locations of impact, which led the Germans to correct their aim away from central London. That's a pretty sweet trick to play on the Germans. And that part of the story is absolutely true, though you have to listen closely to documentaries of WWII to catch any mention of it. What the movie focuses on, instead, is Chapman, the audacious con man. Without reading his autobiography, it is hard to be sure of the details, but anyone who pulled off what he did must have been worthy of this portrayal. What we also see is the fallibility of decision making by German leaders, contrary to the near omniscience they are sometimes credited with. Hinted at also is that some of those German military leaders were not totally loyal Nazis. There was a loose underground among the upper levels of the old military guard, people like Baron Von Grunen. You can read about the German underground, such as it was, on Wikipedia. It's good to see a movie that doesn't portray Nazis in simplistic stereotypes. And it should be noted that Gert Fröbe, who was an actual member of the Nazi Party during the war, only used this as a cover to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, like a minor Oscar Schindler. BTW, I wonder if we hear Fröbe's actual voice here, unlike in Goldfinger? Looking at the photo of the real Eddie Chapman, you wonder how he was such a ladies man, yet he was. The Christopher Plummer portrayal makes him look more glamorous than he probably was, as a sophisticated jewel thief, much like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, rather than a crook who burglarized movie theaters. But the basic story is correct, and effectively portrayed. How would you feel being inside the Nazi Reich being trained as a spy to be sent to England, who might be uncovered with the slightest slip, by either side, and executed? The tension is well portrayed in the film.However, and here is the spoiler, the movie's title is misleading: I can't find a triple cross, though he did cross enemy lines several times. He was a Brit who offered to work for the Germans, but when he got to England he never delivered; he went straight to British authorities and told them the truth. This was a very wise decision, because the British already knew something about his mission from their decoded German Enigma messages. So the British then have him send back false intelligence to the Germans. That's a pretty good double cross, but then Chapman goes back to Germany, convinces them he is still working for them, and is eventually sent back to England again, where he sends back more false information. Truly amazing! But still only a double cross. There is some brief mention of plans for the D Day invasion of France. It is well known that the Allies used General Patton in England to set up a ruse that we were planning to invade at Calais, which Hitler firmly believed. This deception was perpetrated on many levels, including a fictional corpse created with the help of Ian Flemming. Chapman may have sent back information confirming the presence of real troops around Patton, instead of the plywood tanks they actually had, though this is not stated in the movie.So, while there is almost inevitably some fictional elements in a movie based on history, the fundamentals are accurate enough in Triple Cross for it to be a valuable supplement to factual information found in the countless documentaries about World War II. And the story is amazing enough that someone should make a genuine documentary about Eddie Chapman's exploits. Eddie Chapman was a brave man, doubly so because when he conned the Germans, he had no way of knowing if England would win the war. I highly recommend this movie.