Scorpio was a film Burt Lancaster didn't think too much of according to a recent biography and after viewing it I can certainly see why.
On the plus side Lancaster got to work with former co-stars Alain Delon from The Leopard and with Paul Scofield from The Train, both films considerably better than Scorpio. Too bad he wasn't given something better than a warmed over espionage story.
Lancaster is a CIA agent suspected of being a double agent. Word has come from on high to terminate his existence. Not an easy task by any means. Lancaster hasn't survived in the spy business by being a dummy for thirty years.
From French intelligence the CIA borrows hit-man Alain Delon who has worked and trained with Lancaster. He's got the title role as one nicknamed Scorpio because of the way he strikes.
Lancaster has an ace or two up his sleeve also. An old friend with the KGB, Paul Scofield, is willing to help up to a point.
Here's where there is a real problem. Both Lancaster and Scofield are identified by the script as having served in Loyalist Spain with 'volunteer' groups. Of course in the Soviet case I'm sure volunteering was strongly urged.
In America however that would have been the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. And during the post World War II McCarthy era that was one of a group of organizations past and present that was considered a Communist front.
I'm sorry, but there ain't NO WAY that Lancaster with that in his background would have ever gotten a job with the Central Intelligence Agency. And if he did, he would have been found out and dismissed back then and there. The whole story falls apart knowing this.
There are some nice location shots of Vienna and of Washington, DC in Scorpio and acting honors if any go to Paul Scofield. But the film is one colossal waste of time.
On the plus side Lancaster got to work with former co-stars Alain Delon from The Leopard and with Paul Scofield from The Train, both films considerably better than Scorpio. Too bad he wasn't given something better than a warmed over espionage story.
Lancaster is a CIA agent suspected of being a double agent. Word has come from on high to terminate his existence. Not an easy task by any means. Lancaster hasn't survived in the spy business by being a dummy for thirty years.
From French intelligence the CIA borrows hit-man Alain Delon who has worked and trained with Lancaster. He's got the title role as one nicknamed Scorpio because of the way he strikes.
Lancaster has an ace or two up his sleeve also. An old friend with the KGB, Paul Scofield, is willing to help up to a point.
Here's where there is a real problem. Both Lancaster and Scofield are identified by the script as having served in Loyalist Spain with 'volunteer' groups. Of course in the Soviet case I'm sure volunteering was strongly urged.
In America however that would have been the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. And during the post World War II McCarthy era that was one of a group of organizations past and present that was considered a Communist front.
I'm sorry, but there ain't NO WAY that Lancaster with that in his background would have ever gotten a job with the Central Intelligence Agency. And if he did, he would have been found out and dismissed back then and there. The whole story falls apart knowing this.
There are some nice location shots of Vienna and of Washington, DC in Scorpio and acting honors if any go to Paul Scofield. But the film is one colossal waste of time.