Crossplot (1969) - Imprint Films Limited Edition

Roger Moore stars as Gary Fenn, somewhere in between James Bond and Don Draper, an ad executive who gets pulled into a political world of intrigue, assassination, and spy shenanigans. Crossplot begins with a title sequence that feels inspired by the 007 films with a song by John Rowles that sounds like a version of Tom Jones when your mom insists you’ve got Tom Jones at home.

Fenn is looking for model extraordinaire Marla Kogash (Claudie Lange in her largest English-speaking role ever), who is tougher to find than he realizes. She’s in hiding because of something she’s witnessed. After a bit of poking around, he locates her, and with a little bit of convincing, coaxes her out of hiding and whisks her away to a photo shoot. Not long after, there is an attempt on her life in the weakest assassination attempt I’ve ever seen in a movie: She’s on a swing, one of the links of a chain sabotaged and her swing platform comes crashing down about two feet onto some padding. She’s shaken up, but she’s fine.

Shortly after that, Marla is saved by Fenn from a more serious assassination attempt, where she’s dangling from a building, screaming hideous murder, as her would-be murderer is plying her fingers from gripping the edge of the building. After Fenn stops this attempt, Marla—who doesn’t want Fenn to know too much, lest he be dragged into the indecipherable plot—insists that the would-be murderer was simply trying to kiss her, that it just looked real, real bad out of context.

Things go from bad to worse, as Fenn is framed for murder (a plot point that never really amounts to anything), they are chased by a toy helicopter replete with gunman played by plastic G.I. Joe figurine in wide shots and engage in action sequence after action sequence hastily shot on a blue screen. And it wouldn’t be a 1960s film if they didn’t attend at least one Warhol-esque party. In it, Fenn asks a hippie what time it is, who responds with a follow-up question, “What is time, man?”

Crossplot isn’t as serious as its plot makes it out to be. It’s a light, goofy affair, somewhere between a parody and a sincere admiration of spy films. Its problem is that as a comedy, it isn’t very funny and as a thriller, it’s not even remotely thrilling. As a romantic film, you get the most mileage out of the chemistry between your two leads. Moore and Lange have about zero chemistry together. Moore, to his credit, is quite charming in this film and it’s clear why the filmmakers behind the Bond films would later cast him as Agent 007. Claudia Lenge isn’t a great actor, but she has decent comedic timing. Together, though, there’s no spark between them. No oomph. Moore had much more rapport with the villainess of the picture, Jo, played by Martha Hyer (Sabrina and Houseboat), a breezy, flirty relationship rife with contention right at the surface and barely disguised sexuality just beneath it. That’s the chemistry the leads needed but didn’t have.

The end of the film is actually my favorite sequence. Most finales feature a plan that our heroes executed wrongly. The tension wrung out is in seeing the carefully laid plans failing to come together and our heroes scramble to correct everything. Will they do it in time? Will they save they say? In Crossplot, the tension is subverted, and the suspense is in seeing the carefully laid plans from the villains going off without a hitch. Will our heroes discover them in time and stop their wicked plans from coming to fruition? It’s quite effective. Not quite enough to salvage the film, but I applaud the effort.

Much of Crossplot reminds me of better films and series of the era. Alexis Kranner costars who was in the excellent British television series The Prisoner. Had there been more cohesion to the final vision of the film, had it laid more into the humor or more into the seriousness of the plot, it could have been something more. As it stands, though, it's frustratingly uneven, with a direction that never fully commits and relies too heavily on coasting on the charms of its cast.

Crossplot was directed by Alvin Rakoff, whose only other film I saw was Death Ship, a movie about an evil Nazi death boat that crashes into other cruise liners and kills the surviving passengers one by one once they board it. And, like Crossplot, it is surprisingly boring for how exciting that briefest of plot summaries makes it sound. I know it’s not a particular hot take or controversial opinion, but Roger Moore was never my favorite bond. In watching a movie like Crossplot, though, I can see why he was cast as Bond, and it makes me wish I’d seen him in a better film. He has a natural screen presence, a genuine quality to carry a picture. For all of its faults with Crossplot, Moore wasn’t one of them and he was one of few things the movie got right.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Crossplot arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films on a single disc in a standard case with a slipcover, both containing separate pieces of cover artwork. The artwork on the slipcover and the case really lean into its Bond inspiration, with Moore clad in a tuxedo and holding a handgun. Inside the case is a miniature reproduction of the film’s original pressbook and contains plot details, production notes, and stills from filming.

While I may have had my issues with Crossplot as a film, as a Blu-ray I have to commend Imprint Films for its excellent work. The 1080p video transfer, from a new 2K scan of an interpositive from Imprint, looks great. This is a colorful film, embracing a psychedelic color palate in greens reds, yellows, and orange, and they’re all so wonderfully realized. Crossplot is so over-the-top in its production design and cinematography that, at times, it feels less like a Bond homage and more like a predecessor to Austin Powers, particularly in its goofy party/funeral scene with hippie extras trotted out straight from the set of Dragnet.

The cinematography looks incredibly clean. Since the restoration was from an interpositive and not the original camera negative (OCN), it lacks a certain depth and film grain. Still, the end result is quite fantastic. The Blu-ray contains a featurette about the restoration process and goes into detail on the work performed to help Crossplot look as good as possible.

Crossplot has a surprisingly robust 2.0 LPCM mono mix. If there’s one very, very, very minor gripe, it’s that the film is mixed quite low. Just turn up the volume. There’s not a lot of variance in its dynamic range, so if you turn it up a bit louder than you usually have your TV or sound system, you won’t have to worry about the sudden WHAM-BAM of an explosion or machine gun fire to rattle your skull.

Aside from my incredibly minor gripe about having to turn up the volume, the sound mixing is generally quite good. The subwoofer rumbles with the thuds and pows of punches and slams of fight scenes. And complex scenes, like one of a protest, handles a lot of ambient noise with delicate care. You can hear a lot of important information in a sea of chatter, without getting lost in it. Action scenes, with gunfire and explosions, pack an appropriate amount of power behind them without going too over the top.

Crossplot has a number of new special features specific for this release and Imprint has clearly gone all out in assembling them for fans of this film, and for fans of these films in general. There is a featurette about the restoration process of the film, interviews with filmmakers and a look into the film’s colorful production design.

• Audio Commentary by Roger Moore’s biographer / talent agent Gareth Owen and film historian Henry Holland
• Bond Practice (HD 21:42) Interview with director Alvin Rakoff, in which he talks about using the film as a vehicle to test Moore as a possible new James Bond
• Off The Charts (HD 11:35) Interview featurette with actors Norman Eshley, Michael Culver, Prudence Drage and Stephen Garlick 
• A Dressing-Down (1:46) Archival audio recollection by actor Francis Matthews from 2010 
• The New Look Sixties London: Paternoster Square and London Wall (HD 27:20) A personal view by Jonathan Wood 
• Restoring ‘Crossplot’ (HD 4:01) Restoration featurette with film grader Jonathan Wood 
• Theatrical Trailer
• Photo Gallery
• Booklet - Containing a miniature reproduction of the film’s original pressbook

Crossplot is an interesting historical curiosity and time capsule look at 1969 London. While the movie itself is, unfortunately, quite dull, I’m always fascinated by films of this era and their specific contribution to an evolving filmic language. Movies such as Crossplot were fascinating because they were childlike in their storytelling techniques, in a way, wishing nothing more than to create a thrilling time-killer for audiences to enjoy. But they also pushed boundaries in a way, with more frank depictions of sexuality that had been committed to screen before. Imprint Films’ restoration is gorgeous with a sound mix every bit the equal of its visual counterpart, and a great many special features. This release is definitely Worth a Look.