the audience applauded

Good movie but grossly overrated

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Just how seriously John Huston took any of this is hard to say but "The Kremlin Letter" is still one of his most entertaining pictures. A shaggy dog story with a plot that is virtually impossible to follow, it's possibly his daftest picture since "Beat the Devil". An all-star cast play various spies, both Russian and American, and they would all seem to be after the letter of the title; that much is clear...or is it! Huston himself wrote it, together with Gladys Hill, from a novel by Noel Behn though like "Beat the Devil" you feel as if they're making it up as they go along, which is all part of the fairly nasty fun. The superb cast act with the straightest of faces, (there's a great cameo from Orson Welles while Max Von Sydow and Bibi Andersson as usual walk away with it). Sold at the time as a serious antidote to the Bond movies the film wasn't a success but is now seen as a cult classic.

We are dealing with a few sacred monsters, starting with director John Huston (who casted himself in a small role in the film), then Orson Welles and George Sanders. Nigel Green, Richard Boone, Patrick O'Neal, are not sacred monsters, but they do their job well, are good actors. Barbara Parkins (the beauty from "Puppet on a Chain", "Bear Island" and "Valley of the Dolls") is a sexy innocence. Bibi Andersson(a favorite of Ingmar Bergman) makes a great role. Max von Sydow (another favorite of Ingmar Bergman) is brilliant too, as usual. And the great actress Lila Kedrova (Madame Hortense in "Zorba the Greek") has a role too small for her huge talent. A very special film about the sacrifices that spies have to make for their own homelands... or others homelands.

I will take my hat off to anyone who after watching this film for the first time knew what the hell was going on. I had been wanting to see this film for a long time, so I decided to buy the DVD when it became available. The only thing I can say after viewing it is "What was that all about"? On this first showing I found the plot very difficult to follow and, because I lost interest,do not even know what happened to the damn letter which everyone was looking for.Perhaps it will all become clear if I watch it several times. This is a very talky movie,(which I don't mind) but it does help when you know what they are talking about. Also unlike some other spy movies I have seen, this film lacked tension and atmosphere. I was really looking forward to watching this film, but after doing so I can only feel that it was such a let down.

Agents are sent from the west to retrieve "The Kremlin Letter" in this 1970 film directed by John Huston and starring Patrick O'Neal, Richard Boone, George Sanders, Orson Welles, Max von Sydow, Barbara Parkins, Dean Jagger, and Bibi Andersson. O'Neal plays Rone, who is removed from military service and put on the mission because of his photographic memory. Each man and Parkins, who is a safecracker sent in place of her arthritic father, is assigned a group to infiltrate, all with the objective of finding this anti-Chinese letter. Or is that what the assignment is really about? This is an extremely cold and vicious look at the spy game - it's no fun caper film. It's absorbing, moves quickly and is filled with marvelous, if not altogether likable characters. The last moment in the film will leave you breathless.With a cast like this, the acting should be uniformly excellent, and it is, with the not-so-talented but beautiful Parkins given a role where she doesn't have to do any scenery chewing. George Sanders is especially memorable as the spy assigned to the gay contingent. O'Neal underplays, which is ideal for his character. Many people on this board won't remember that Richard Boone was a prominent western TV star who had aspirations of being taken seriously as an actor. In fact, he even started some sort of repetory company, as I recall. He was very talented, and here plays the head man to perfection, blond hair, down-home accent and all.Very intriguing, done at a time when spy films were a dime a dozen. "The Kremlin Letter" stands out for its detachment and lack of sentiment.