The Double Man

The Double Man is a 1967 British spy film directed by Franklin Schaffner. Its plot is very loosely based on the critically acclaimed 1958 novel Legacy of a Spy by Henry S. Maxfield. As in the novel, much of the action takes place in the Austrian Alps. The film stars Yul Brynner as a CIA agent investigating his son's fatal "accident": although he learns a few things from others, he slowly is convinced something else is happening and discovers a fiendish Russian plan. Plot During the Cold War a Russian intelligence officer tells an army general he has a plan to infiltrate the upper ranks of the American CIA. He assures the army general it cannot fail. The general approves the plan, but is skeptical and warns the intelligence officer of the fatal consequences should anything go wrong. In Washington, top CIA official Dan Slater (Yul Brynner) receives a cable informing him that his teenage son has been killed while skiing in the Austrian Alps. Befitting his position he is suspicious of the official report that it was an accident, and immediately flies over to investigate. He is mindful that things may have been arranged by his enemies to lure him into the open. In the town at the base of the ski resort where the son died, Slater meets up with Frank Wheatley (Clive Revill), a friend and ex-colleague who years earlier had tired of the paranoid approach to life demanded of intelligence agents. They discuss the case, with Wheatley arguing against Slater’s suspicious instincts. As they move through town they are surreptitiously watched by the Russian intelligence officer, who tells his two burly subordinates that his plan is unfolding perfectly.