The Serpent

A very traditional spy fable based on 'true events' in which a top-ranking KGB colonel (Brynner) defects and delivers a list of traitors who are in positions of great power in each major Western country. There is the usual glib characterisation, and the usual wall of disillusionment descending at the end. In fact, the only thing that sets this film apart is the totally consistent layer of impenetrable gloss with which Verneuil covers it, and his general directorial tricksiness, which runs the gamut from the irrelevant to the pretentious and back. He has a capable starry cast on hand; why he never uses it is a mystery.