A PATINA OF MEDIOCRITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01365R000300210003-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 23, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON POST 5 "r P\
%3 APR 1973 Sc c,
rz ; o
Approved For Release 20 5/01/13 :CIA-RDP88-01365ROE~360~~03-
By Tom Shales
"Scorpio," a new spy
Chase now at Keith's and
the Republic, apparently de-
plores the ruthless violence
It so oblicin;ay depicts.
Well, it isn't the first time.
One hopes it may be the
last time, however, for the
Worn-out theme of amorality
in spy biz. "There is no -,nncl
and no bad," mourns Burt
Lancaster with his next-to-
last breaths. That's the Au-
thor's Message, as Woody
Allen might say-, and it's
been said countless times
before----sometimes better,
sometimes worse.
One or two chases are
nicely done and there's an
attractive explosion in Vi-
enna, bill director :\lic?hael
Winner's patina of medioc-
rity assures that the film
can be at best diverting.
Of at least local interest
are scenes shot in Washing-
ton--about one-third of the
film. Locations include
Dulles and National Air-
Film
ports, the Greyhound Bus
Terminal men's room, the
Library of Congress, the
Watergate hotel (where
character actor Robert Ern-
hardt is wasted as a prop)
and a second-floor gymna-
silun over an auto repair
shop in Northoist.
Georgetown suffers from
overexposed photography,
but you still can recd ,nine
the corner of 0 Street and
Wisconsin Avenue. Urban
sentimentalists can also look
again at a copy of the ]ate
\t-ashineton Daily News and
a room in the half-departed
Willard hotel.
Unfortunately, most of
what goes on at all these
places, and in Vienna, is
just dull, relying heavily on
a fascination with the me-
chanics of espionage that
has sill'- ly faded in recent
years. It's domestic spying,
after all, that's occupying to-
days headlines.
The screenplay, by David
W. Hintels and Gerald Wil-
son, tries to be obliquely
chic and fails. People speak
in portentous pop-poetry,
not only as they chase one
another in ever-convenient
taxicabs (even in
\Cashinglon) but also during
the film's few attempts at
intimacy.
Lancaster strides throunh
the picture with the impe-
rial disdain of someone who
thinks he's too grand for the
role. tie looks mainly too
old. Alain Delon is the hired
assassill who follows him ev-
ervwhere. and he doesn't
seem to care, either.
it's the kind of movie
whore people -rc;- 'tedly
shove guns into each Other's
necks and nobody- can enter
a room without incident. In
Vienna, one of Lancaster's
contacts is a kindly old (.01-
list with little Wound ;classes
who you know, from his very
very first appearance, will
end tip smeared. So he does.
Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88=01365R000300210003-1