Here we have s spy-thriller that is not just like any other. First of all the main character is not working for the 'good guys', which already was a surprising move to take for this movie.
Reason why this movie tells this particular story, is because it's all being based on a true story, that was a quite remarkable one. An Albanian born guy, who worked for the British embassy in Turkey, becoming a spy for Nazi Germany during WW II, just simply for the money. It doesn't try to romanticize anything and it doesn't ever want to make you care for its main character but it's simply telling a story, in a rather good and compelling way.
It's not a slick or very exciting spy-thriller. Instead it's more of a talkative one, that is being kept deliberately straightforward and small and simple with all of its settings and characters. No doubt this was all also due to budget reasons but it's something that works out well for the movie eventually, as well as for its overall style and tense atmosphere.
It's a movie that lets its actors do most of the work, to tell its story with. And the movie has plenty of fine actors in it, that carry this movie and have the right required charisma and talent for it. James Mason is really good as a smooth talking and looking spy, who is not necessarily likable but he is a very interesting character, which makes you want to keep watching.
It's also a movie you need to keep on paying attention to, or else you will most likely miss an important aspect about its story. In that regard this is not a movie for just everybody but having said that, it still has plenty of entertainment and excitement to over as well. It just is not what this entire movie was all about and you shouldn't watch this movie expecting a thriller, with plenty of chases or shootouts in it.
An ultimately very rewarding movie.
8/10
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