The Defector

The Defector (1966)

L'espion

An American scientist is sent by the CIA to East Germany to retrieve a secret microfilm from a Soviet scientist interested in defecting to the West but the Stasi secret police's surveillance complicates matters.

Date of release
1966-10-19
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 40m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Raoul Lévy

Casting

Interesting facts

The Defector is a 1966 thriller film starring Montgomery Clift, Hardy Krüger, Roddy McDowall and Macha Méril. It was directed and co-written by Belgian director/producer Raoul Lévy and based on the 1965 novel L'espion by Paul Thomas.

Production

Plans for the film, based on the novel The Spy, were announced in January 1966. It was Montgomery Clift's first film appearance in four years. The original stars announced were Clift, Monica Vitti and Hardy Krüger. Filming was to begin on January 29, 1966 in Munich at the Regina Hotel and at the Bavaria Atellier Gestellschaft Studio on a budget of $1.5 million. Levy had previously made Hail Mafia with Seven Arts.

Filming was pushed back until March, meaning that Vitti had to drop out, and she was replaced by Leslie Caron. Then Caron gave up her role shortly before filming began in Munich in March 1966. Nicole Courcel also left the cast and was replaced by Macha Méril. Filming proceeded relatively smoothly in sharp contrast to other later-period Clift films.

Filming was completed in June 1966. Clift returned to New York, where he died the following month.

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