When executive Gary Fenn is questioning his staff about who planted a beautiful picture of an unknown model in his file, you can clearly see the shadow of the boom microphone on his chest.
When Gary and Marla are being chased by the bad guys in the black sedan, Gary manages to turn his car around and go in the opposite direction, yet additional long shots show they are going in their same original direction.
After learning that Tarquin (Alexis Kanner) is, in fact, an earl Gary Fenn (Roger Moore) addresses him as 'Your Grace'.
That would be correct only if Tarquin were a duke.
While this has been likened to a James Bond adventure (which star Roger Moore was still four years away from first tackling), it actually plays more like a tenth-rate copy of an Alfred Hitchcock suspenser and, specifically, NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)-meets-THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956).In fact, Moore is an advertising executive who unwittingly runs into a person involved in deadly political games model Claudie Lange (who, amusingly, is depicted as being constantly famished!
Crossplot is certainly a product of it's time, a movie that grabs onto the coat tails of Swinging London, just before London threw that colourful coat in the bin. It's also a movie of many faces.
Roger Moore hits the swinging 60s as Gary Fenn, an advertising executive, a Lothario and a charmer.A promotion for a major client backfires as the photo of his model gets switched.
A boyish pre-James-Bond Roger Moore plays advertising executive Gary Fenn in this preposterous tale about uncovering a sinister plot in London. "Crossplot," directed by Alvin Rakoff, is more 60s nostalgia than exciting movie-making.
This story of a suave ad exec (Roger Moore) getting caught up in an assassination plot never reaches great heights. As well, the film is blighted by cheap special effects, especially the regular use of obvious rear projection that makes scenes like the death of the chief villain in the action finale laughable instead of captivating.
This movie came on right after The Saint one morning so I left it on, Sir Rogers foray into his six-year long audition for James Bond continues. This movie is fun because of him.
Set in 1960's London and full of girls in miniskirts and hip young gunslingers who work in advertising - quicker than you can say 'Hey Swinging London!' this lighthearted romp through the world of Espionage and babes sees Roger Moore's womanising character pursuing a Hungarian model across London not realising that he isn't the only person who wants to find her.
Crossplot is an energetic yet disjointed blend of Hitchcockian romantic thriller, slapstick caper and spy thriller action gimmickry which must have looked pretty hackneyed by 1969 but now just about holds up on period charm value. For fans of the genre there is fun to be had in ticking off the 60s tropes as they come: cheesy crooning theme tune?
