cult film freak: LAURENCE HARVEY VS TOM COURTENAY FOR 'A DANDY IN ASPIC'

Written by James M. Tate / 10/12/2020 / No comments / anthony mann , british neo noir , espionage , laurence harvey , lionel stander , mia farrow , sixties , spy , suspense , thriller , tom courtenay

LAURENCE HARVEY VS TOM COURTENAY FOR 'A DANDY IN ASPIC'

10/12/2020 | No comment

Blu Cover for Dandy Year: 1968 Rates: ***1/2

"I do believe that you two would have got on well together," Tom Courtenay as a stuffy, cautious and paranoid, cold-blooded British agent named Gaitiss tells Mia Farrow's flaky model Caroline after she beds Laurence Harvey, a far more sympathetic agent that we think is named Alexander Eberlin. "You haven't got a past, and he hasn't got a future."

Sadly, either did veteran director Anthony Mann, who started with Film Noir using creative camera angles before turning to traditional Westerns, making A DANDY IN ASPIC a kind of halfway visual comeback as he... before dying on set... is behind everything during the first forty-minutes in England — following the assassination of a top spy— before moving to Germany where Laurence took over direction, sustaining that era's zoom shots and surreal perspectives...

But mainly, Laurence Harvey's Eberlin has the real name of Krasnevin: not only is he a Russian spy but is THE Russian that everyone — during the last half of an uneven yet unique espionage thriller — wants to seek out and destroy...

Especially Courtenay, playing it so unlikable he makes his DR ZHIVAGO communist seem charming and affable. Meanwhile the best scenes don't involve Harvey at all... especially his banal romance with an annoying Farrow, whose dated hippie threads clash against the more timeless grey/gritty Cold War aesthetic: It's the two suspenseful meetings between Courtenay (while sticking to Harvey like glue) and Russian Lionel Stander that really stand out: Reminding both the audience and the secretly hunted anti-hero of an impending fate which, in this case, might have some deserving company.

Poster art serving as other side Blu Ray Cover for A Dandy in Aspic

Tom Courtenay as Gattis in A DANDY IN ASPIC

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Laurence Harvey

Harry Andrews and Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Laurence Harvey

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Laurence Harvey

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with cameo comic relief Peter Cook

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Laurence Harvey

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Calvin Lockhart

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC with Laurence Harvey

Tom Courtenay in A DANDY IN ASPIC

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Tags : anthony mann , british neo noir , espionage , laurence harvey , lionel stander , mia farrow , sixties , spy , suspense , thriller , tom courtenay

James M. Tate

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ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)MARLON BRANDO 4)JACK NICHOLSON 5)ORSON WELLES 6)PETER O'TOOLE 7)TOM COURTENAY 8)CHARLES BRONSON 9)GENE HACKMAN 10)VICTOR MATURE ACTRESSES 1)VIRGINIA MAYO 2)SUE LYON 3)GENE TIERNEY 4)MERRY ANDERS 5)FAYE DUNAWAY DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)STANLEY KUBRICK 4)ORSON WELLES 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)JOHN CARPENTER 7)MAURY DEXTER 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)MICHAEL WINNER 10)SAM PECKINPAH