The Kremlin Letter

A veteran spy (Richard Boone) mentors a young intelligence officer (Patrick O’Neal) during a mission to Russia to recover a politically explosive letter.

The Kremlin Letter is an ambitious espionage thriller with a strong cast from director John Huston. Eschewing James Bond techno-thrills in favor of a grittier, more convoluted realism, Huston aims to create the anti-Bond where, instead of one man using ingenious gadgets to triumph over evil, a team of agents extracts their information through blackmail and bribes, leading to, at best, a stalemate.

It’s a refreshing, and daunting, premise and Huston pulls it off.

For the most part.

Aside from the distracting dubbing, the cast is great, especially Richard Boone who steals the film as a veteran spy who hides his ruthlessness behind a veneer of folksy charm. Boone is simultaneously charming and menacing, and effortlessly conveys the feel of a man who, after a life spent doing behind the scenes dirty work, is capable of manipulating anyone and anything for his own ends.

The problem is that the script, for all its labyrinthine plotting, telegraphs the film’s final act midway through. Thus, the finale’s big reveal isn’t a revelation at all and you’re left wondering why O’Neal’s character, who successfully decodes the plot’s murkier points, couldn’t place the final, giant piece. It’s a giant blemish on what is otherwise one of the better espionage film’s ever made, and one not even the perfect ending can quite overcome.