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IMDb > The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)

The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   930 votes
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Up 21% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
George Seaton
Writers:
Charles Grenzbach (story)
Alexander Klein (novel)
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Counterfeit Traitor on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
2 July 1962 (Sweden) more
Genre:
Drama | Thriller more
Plot:
Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Good, old-fashioned spy film, with impressive performances and plenty of real suspense. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

William Holden ... Eric Erickson
Lilli Palmer ... Frau Marianne Möllendorf
Hugh Griffith ... Collins
Carl Raddatz ... Otto Holtz
Ernst Schröder ... Baron Gerhard von Oldenburg
Charles Régnier ... Wilhelm Kortner
Ingrid van Bergen ... Hulda Windler
Helo Gutschwager ... Hans Holtz
Wolfgang Preiss ... Colonel Nordoff
Werner Peters ... Bruno Ulrich
Erica Beer ... Klara Holtz

Stefan Schnabel ... Gestapo agent at funeral

Klaus Kinski ... Kindler
Jochen Blume ... Dr. Jacob Karp
Erik Schumann ... Nazi Gunboat Officer
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Additional Details

Runtime:
140 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Danish | German
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono | Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15
Filming Locations:
Copenhagen, Denmark more

Fun Stuff

Quotes:
Baron Gerhard von Oldenburg: Strange... You can read about a hundred atrocities, hear about a thousand, but you only have to see *one*! more

FAQ

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11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful:-
Good, old-fashioned spy film, with impressive performances and plenty of real suspense., 9 September 2004
8/10
Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England

Although unappealingly long - 140 minutes to be precise - The Counterfeit Traitor turns out to be an absorbing, disturbing and rather exciting wartime suspense film. It gives William Holden his second-best role of the '60s (surpassed only by his work in The Wild Bunch) and provides good subsidiary roles for Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith and Ernst Schroeder.

Holden is terrific as a Swedish citizen born in the USA, named Eric Erickson. Erickson is a businessman trading oil from his Stockholm HQ during WWII. Many of his customers are Germans, and quite often he goes on business trips to war-torn Germany leaving the sanctuary of neutral Sweden behind. The British secret service approach him and plead for him to act as a spy, gathering sensitive information for them during his seemingly legitimate trips. Matters are complicated when Erickson meets fellow spy Marianne Mollendorf (Lilli Palmer), with whom he soon falls in love. His mission is seriously jeopardised when her spying antics are exposed, and she is seized by the Gestapo and taken away to be executed.

The film is well-made by ever-reliable director George Seaton. Seaton also wrote the screenplay, basing it on an Alexander Klein book, and he must be given credit for fashioning a thoroughly believable and suspenseful story. The film is shot on actual North European locations, and the use of real backdrops - as opposed to the usual studio lensing favoured by Hollywood in the early '60s - adds to the film's authentic flavour. Nowadays, the appeal of this kind of film is sadly limited, but if you have an affinity for this kind of stuff, then The Counterfeit Traitor is definitely a title worth tracking down.

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