Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 19, 2019 9:02:30 GMT -8
The Counterfeit TraitorViewed on Amazon Prime Video (included with basic subscription) • or rentInfo: IMDB • (1962) • 1.85:1 aspect ratio • USA Genre: Spy Thriller Runtime: 140 minutes Quick Rating: An excellent spy thriller set in WWII that goes a little off the rails in the end when Eric Erickson seems to go out of his way to get caught.
Summary: An American oil company executive of Swedish descent, now living in Sweden, is blackmailed into spying for the Allies during World War II. At first resentful, his relationship with a beautiful German Allied agent causes him to realize how vital his work is.
 The dapper William Holden plays an opportunistic expatriate oil industrialist, Eric Erickson. Having lived in Sweden for over a decade, he becomes a citizen and renounces his American citizenship. When WWII breaks out, he is in a fine position to do business with all sides. But in a likely cooperation between the Americans and Brits, Erickson is put on a public black list which is bad for business and for his reputation. The only way off that list is if he will cooperate with British intelligence and do some light spying when on one of his frequent business trips to The Third Reich. What the British want most is information on German oil refineries and such, and that is a business that Erickson has large access to due to his German business connections. Things get complicated, both when his British handlers demand more of him and when he meets the lovely German aristocrat, Frau Marianne Möllendorf. And from there, this spy thriller’s plot definitely thickens. This is a gritty, realistic story that shows the human cost of Nazi ambitions. You can read of a thousand atrocities, but witnessing even one is extremely powerful. Erickson tells Frau Möllendorf, “My conscience has always been like a well trained dog. You could tell it to go sit in a corner and be quiet and it would. Since I've known you it hasn't been quite so obedient. It keeps shouting for me to do the very thing that your conscience won't permit.” This is, more or less, an adult movie without the goofiness of what so often infects modern films. Much of this is filmed on location and adds a sense of realism. That is, until it gets near the end when in a series of acts of carelessness, Erickson seems begging for the Gestapo to catch up with him. These flaws aside, this is a intimate look at the personal impact of that war and some of the brave people who worked against it at great risk. 
|
|
|
|
Post by timothylane on Dec 19, 2019 10:39:00 GMT -8
I remember seeing this as a kid -- and reading an article on the actual history of the case. However, I didn't get the impression that he was ever actually captured. One might note that the movie covers the losses (and moral responsibility for them) on both sides. That's how the female spy gets caught -- confessing to a priest (who turns out to be a Gestapo agent) about her actions and the bombing deaths they have caused.
Whether from Erickson or other sources (e.g., Ultra), the Allies did an excellent job of keeping the major German synthetic fuel plants down in 1944-5. This was especially important after the Soviets seized the oil fields and refineries around Ploesti in August 1944. They also seized the oil shale mines of Estonia and the Polish oil fields of Borislav-Drohobycz around the same time. This left Hitler with only 2 small deposits of natural petroleum, in northeast Austria (Zistersdorf) and southwestern Hungary (Nagykanisza). If you added all those together, they probably produced less than Ploesti, which is why that was so important.
And that's why, 75 years ago, the Germans in the Ardennes were desperately looking for the fuel they needed to capture so that they could reach the Meuse (much less Antwerp, the actual fantasy objective).
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 19, 2019 13:58:23 GMT -8
I don’t believe anywhere it says in the movie credit that this is based on an actual case. But one note from a reviewer led me to believe it is so: That’s kind of a nice postscript if true. Near the end of the movie, I don’t know what they were thinking. Holden is being escorted through the underground from Germany to Denmark to Sweden. Along the way, there is one scene where he is in a major Danish city. I don’t know if it’s Copenhagen. But they're walking down the street and the Dane who is guiding him points across the street and says, “Look…that’s the headquarters of the Gestapo in Denmark.” Oh, geezus. I can’t believe that. Don't point. Don't look. Don't come a mile near the place. And Holden is walking around in a dark businessman’s suit sticking out like a soar thumb. In a scene before this there was a Gestapo officer reading a bulletin that gave a description of Holden’s character including “dressed in a dark suit. That little Nazi Youth reminds of the miscreants on the Left. The little kid is a monster and so are they. Holden recruited the father of this monster into his network. But the father wouldn’t do it unless he had a piece of paper in his hands that acknowledged his cooperation with the Allies. This would obviously be one dangerous piece of paper if the Gestapo got it. The father dies (I forget how) and Holden must return to Hamburg to retrieve this piece of paper. He knows where it is hidden. So he goes into the man’s study, doesn’t lock the door, retrieves the paper, and then the little Democrat Party Advocate walks into the study with a suspicious look on his face. Holden makes some excuse and stuffs the paper into his satchel. He exits the man’s study with the satchel under his arm, turns to close the door, and just then the little AOC in the making grabs the satchel and runs away with it. The moment I had retrieved that piece of paper (from behind a locked door) I would have torn it up and eaten it. I think it’s fair to say that there is some divergence from the real story because the real Erik Erickson would have never made it out alive if he acted like that. There were a couple other incidents like this that escape me at the moment. But I was surprised that I didn’t read of this in any other of the reviews I read. The main complaint seemed to be that William Holden was acting like William Holden. And, yes, indeed he did act like William Holden. In this one he was interacting with Nazis instead of an aging movie star. But it’s the same William Holden. What the hell were people expecting? But is is a good story intersecting on the importance of fuel — to both sides. I just watched Malta Story which has a similar theme. I’d seen it before but just wanted to watch it again. Is it possible to get too much Jack Hawkins? I don’t think so. The same can’t be said for Alec Guinness who never does look comfortable in this role. Maybe it’s time for another viewing of another fuel-oriented movie: Battle of the Bulge. I can just hear Henry Fonda yelling, “Burn it. Burn it all.” And I don’t think he was talking about his attitude toward the American troops in Vietnam. |
|
|
|
Post by timothylane on Dec 19, 2019 14:33:06 GMT -8
There obviously were changes, many of them done to create dramatic tension. For example, the short wikipedia article on Erickson noted that he offered his services to the US when the war started, so that whole section about being pressured into it becomes rather dubious. It provides no details about his work as a spy, nor does the article on the movie say much.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 19, 2019 15:15:50 GMT -8
Yeah, if me yelling at the screen “Don’t point and wave at the Gestapo you flippin’ idiot” then it did indeed create dramatic tension. But the movie got fairly unrealistic and stupid at the end. The Great Escape this was not. But before that, it was an absolutely first-rate spy thriller. I would call this one a hidden gem. I’d certainly never seen it or heard of it.
And Lilli Palmer is a spicy little number:
You can just hear here saying "Bitte, baby."
|
|
|
|
Post by timothylane on Dec 19, 2019 15:27:40 GMT -8
The imdb article gave the woman's real name, but I don't remember what it was. (It was one of those jaw-breaker German names. I remember that much.) It didn't say whether she really looked that hot. I still remember the scene where he calls out to her from his jail cell, she acknowledges it, and then they shoot her even after decades.
Note, by the way, that even if the Gestapo office scene is correct, it wouldn't be his fault. He had no way of knowing where their office in Copenhagen was. It would be that idiot Danish resistance chap who blew it. Now we know why so many resistance groups were taken out by the Gestapo.
Incidentally, until late in the war the Germans called Denmark "the model protectorate" and even allowed it to hold elections. It was one of the countries in which an SD governor applied their "carrot and stick" approach to governance. (This could be very effective, and in fact one of the main reasons the Allies decided to go after Heydrich was because he was successfully using this policy to break up the Czech resistance.)
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Dec 19, 2019 15:43:21 GMT -8
After the war, she was popular in Germany up until her death. I saw her on some live TV programs and she appeared to be an intelligent woman. I liked the way she spoke in German. Educated and proper. A very classy lady. Even though she was Jewish, she seemed quite happy to work in German cinema.
Here is a long interview in German. Fast forward about 4:30 minutes and you will hear her speaking. This is how I remember her. She is 66 or 67 years old in this interview and has not had a facelift. At least that is what she claims.
Her she is in an English interview.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 20, 2019 12:15:25 GMT -8
I’m not sure which interviews you mean because those links take me to a page of videos. But below is at least one interview in English with Lilli Palmer: She was a painter as well, apparently inspired by Picasso.  She also wrote an autobiography: Change LobstersWhether she’s had a facelift or not, she’s an actress and a woman. And, well, I would just say she looks great in this video. She said she escaped Germany as a girl of 18 and then returned in 1955. That must have been quite a time warp. |
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Dec 20, 2019 12:36:00 GMT -8
That is odd. When I click on the link, it takes me to a page of videos, but the bottom half of the page displays one single video which is several times larger than the smaller videos across the top. On the first link, this particular video has German words across the top.
Is this a problem with the way I linked the video?
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 20, 2019 20:51:00 GMT -8
Must be a PC/Mac thing, Mr. Kung. All my browsers just show a grid of videos, not one big one.
|
|
_01.jpg)
