#163: NEAME, Ronald: Hopscotch (1980)
NEAME, Ronald (United States)
Miles Kendig (Walter Matthau) is not a happy camper.
Commentary
None.
Video introduction
Hopscotch [1980]
Spine #163
DVD
DVD
Miles Kendig knows too much. One of the CIA's top international operatives, he suddenly finds himself relegated to a desk job in an agency power play. Unwilling to go quietly, Kendig, with the aid of a chic Viennese widow, puts himself back in the game by writing a memoir exposing the innermost secrets of every major intelligence agency in the world. The CIA wants Kendig dead, but he refuses to cooperate — he's having too much fun! Based on Brian Garfield's best-selling novel, and starring the inimitable comic team of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, Ronald Neame's Hopscotch is a smart and stylish tale of international intrigue and a cat-and-mouse comedy.
105 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2002
Director/Writers
Ronald Neame was 69 when he directed Hopscotch.
Screenplay by Brian Garfield and Bryan Forbes.
Based on the novel by Garfield.
Screenplay by Brian Garfield and Bryan Forbes.
Based on the novel by Garfield.
Miles Kendig (Walter Matthau) is not a happy camper.
His CIA boss, Myerson (a perfectly put-upon Ned Beatty), is pissed because Kendig let his Russian counterpart agent (Yaskov, Herbert Lom) escape from a sting at a Munich beer hall, to live another day.
"I've known the man for 20 years; I know how he thinks, I know how he acts. We take him out, they put another man in — it takes us six months to find out who, it takes us another year and a half to learn his style."
Myerson demotes him and Kendig begins to formulate a revenge plan.
We next find him in Salzburg, meeting cute with an old fellow agent and lover, Isobel von Schöenberg (a riveting Glenda Jackson). Salzburg, of course, is the perfect location for a little Mozart on the soundtrack (Matthau was a huge Mozart fanatic, all his life). Matthau hums along and the music couldn't be more perfect for this madcap dramatic comedy.
- KOMZÁK: Erzherzog Albrecht March (opening beer hall sequence)
- Rondo in D Major, K. 382
- Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331
- Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525 (Romance movement)
- Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro
- Non più andrai from Le Nozze di Figaro
- Posthorn Serenade, K. 320
- Symphony No. 40 (briefly whistled by Kendig)
- ROSSINI: Largo al factototum from The Barber of Seville
- PUCCINI: Un bel di vedremeo from Madama Butterfly
**
Garfield's script is magnificent (he also worked on the screenplay, having been burned in previous adaptations). The movie was filmed entirely on locations and they are so wonderfully stitched together as only an assured director like Neame can accomplish.
If you're looking for a feel-good 100-minutes, you couldn't do better than this mini-masterpiece.
The Extras
"Neame's Hopscotch has the distinction of being the only 'feel good' realistic spy film ever made. As the movie walks a fine line between serious drama and satirical comedy, and between topicality and escapism, it beguiles the viewer with its sophistication and complexity. The most surprising aspect of Hopscotch, however, may not be how well it walks that tightrope, but that its makers accomplished this balancing act in an era that saw the spy movie genre reduced to tales of relentless despair."
Commentary
None.
Video introduction
Featuring interviews with director Neame and writer Garfield.
Great anecdotes from Neame about how he convinced Matthau to do the beer hall scene.
Matthau — who lost family in the Holocaust — was firm about not drinking beer with those Krauts. Neame was going to have to do the reverses on him in a studio.
Clever Neame.
Matthau was touting his son, David, for a role in the film. Sure, let me meet him ... the role of Leonard Ross; yes, he's perfect.
Oh, Walter — do you think you could do the beer hall scene now? Well, maybe.
Then another role was available for the right relative — the lovely seaplane pilot, Carla. My stepdaughter, Lucy Saroyan, would be perfect!
By this time, he was putty in Neame's hands. He did the beer hall scene.
Optional
Optional
Broadcast television audio track for family viewing.
Oh c'mon. Ned Beatty's four-letter words were integral to his character!
Original theatrical trailer and teaser
Oh c'mon. Ned Beatty's four-letter words were integral to his character!
Original theatrical trailer and teaser
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