I decided to see 'Le Silencieux' especially for Lino Ventura, an actor whom I greatly admired in the 60s and 70s. Specializing in 'rough' characters from one side or the other of the law, Ventura played in feature films. action - detectives and spy - of which few have passed the Iron Curtain, the other side of which we are in those years. So I have quite a lot of his films from that period to be recovered through watching, including this film made in 1973 and directed by Claude Pinoteau, a director whom I know nothing about, who was at the time his first feature film. I have nothing to regret, because 'Le Silencieux' is a well-written film, and Ventura's acting performance lives up to expectations.

Viewers will find themselves immersed in a spy film, but it is not an action movie like the James Bond series (which had already recorded a decade of success at the time) but rather a psychological film. The main hero played by Lino Ventura, a French scientist kidnapped 16 years earlier by the Soviets and recovered by the British intelligence, could very well be mistaken for a hero of John Le Carre's novels, a hero inadvertently involved in the secret wars, who's life is stolen and who finds himself obliged to act in the service of causes in which he does not believe. His attempt to recover his life or even to reconcile himself with his own conscience is similar to the dilemmas of heroes of the spy films of the last part of the career of Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, quoted quite copiously in this film, especially in the natural scenery backgrounds and the use of music.

Today's viewer has plenty of reasons to enjoy this movie, apart from Ventura's excellent acting game. The spectacular scenes are not lacking but the attention is drawn to the hero's fate and turmoil. The 1970s France and Switzerland are as beautiful as today, minus the crowds on the roads at a time when there were probably 1% of today's cars. The spy movie is a genre in which a movie can become very quickly out of date, especially if it focuses on the volatile political issues in contemporary history where enemies and friendships disappear and appear quickly.'Le Silencieux' avoids this trap by focusing on the fate of the main hero, and thus manages to maintain interest despite the passage of time.

Original French title: Le Silencieux. Never released in the U.S.A. or Australia. U.K. release through Variety Film Distributors: floating from May 1974. London opening at Studio-1: 9 May 1974 (ran 3 weeks). Original running time: 118 minutes. English dubbed version: 113 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Murderous KGB agents chase an unwilling Russian defector all over Europe.

COMMENT: The print under review is the English-dubbed version and for once it's pleasing to report that the dubbing has been executed with a great deal of expertise. Of course there are still some infelicities - oddly enough it's Leo Genn who has the greatest trouble matching his own dialogue to his own lip movements - but by and large it's all pretty convincing. Even the minor players are dubbed with care and skill. The movie itself is a top-class chase thriller which will not only please lovers of this genre no end, but should appeal to a more general audience as well, particularly armchair travellers and train buffs. All the standard realistic spy thriller ingredients are here with our harassed hero making lots of hair's breadth escapes from trains, cars, hotels, cafes, apartment blocks, concert halls and hospitals. Lots of tight corners and clever stratagems. Ventura makes both a fascinating yet sympathetic hero. He really looks the part. The other players, particularly Lea Massari in a small but important role, are equally convincing. Aided immeasurably by Collomb's superlative photography, director Pinoteau makes superlative use of his real locations. The scenes in Grenoble and the climactic episode in the Austrian Alps have a pictorial beauty, a wonderfully apposite autumnal richness that lift the film from the highly professional to the stylishly dramatic. Great music score too, and forceful film editing.

OTHER VIEWS: A tense, edge-of-the-seat thriller, appealingly acted, lavishly produced and excitingly photographed. The pace never lets up; but though the action comes thick and fast, Ventura still manages to etch a powerful, vivid study of an innocent amateur caught up in a deadly pursuit with few rules and no mercy. -- JHR writing as George Addison.

Le silencieux can compete as one of the most undervalued movie ever. I saw it when it went out, and many times since. It might not be as things really were (they were probably worse),but it remains a BGS (Bloody Good Story). Ventura, like in most of his films, is impressive. Lea Massari character is not pointless: she is the lost charm, the lost life, the unattainable past (as unattainable as she was in Deville's "La femme en bleu"): she remains a mystery, and it is her function. Without her, the main character would be without nostalgia. Of course, there is the strange dusty colour of French movies of the 70s, not too pleasant. And the set designer of the MI5 office ought to be shot. But apart that, the movie remains tightly knit, in truth one of the best spy thrillers of the 70s.