It's extremely convoluted but still worthwhile, THE KREMLIN LETTER is John Huston's take on the cold war spy thriller. A group of semi-governmental agents sneak into Russia to expose a corrupt politician and retrieve a letter that may expose one of them as a traitor. They manage to cross and double-cross each other along the way. Richard Boone and Patrick O'Neal are the head spooks and their team is an odd bunch including terminally ill Dean Jagger, safe-cracker Barbara Parkins, and Nigel Green (whose role is REALLY odd). Also in there is George Sanders as a drag queen/spy. It's a bit slow and rather turgid for its own good, but Huston is a master so the film is also extremely well made. Orson Welles is on hand as the chief Russian villain(?) as are Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson as a kinky KGB couple. Lila Kedrova plays a duplicitious madam.
Review of The Kremlin Letter
