|
By
FRANK BEHRENS
At a time when the James
Bond films were still novel and going strong, as
were their imitators, British television viewers
were watching a 10.5-hour, 12-part miniseries
called "Reilly - Ace of Spies." Based on the
biography by Robin Bruce Lockhart, this intriguing
series is now available in a boxed set of 4 DVDs
by A&E Home Video and makes for some really
gripping viewing.
With Sam Neill in the title role, we follow the
career of the man who taught British intelligence
that if ruthlessness gets the job done, then
ruthless spies are what they need. Sidney Reilly,
an assumed name as is learned later, remains loyal
to friends but not altogether to his employers and
casual acquaintances. And if he treats his wives
questionably when his job gets in the way, he
makes up for it by treating all the other women
with great feeling and tenderness.
Having little patience with incompetence on any
level, he gets a huge contract for battleships for
Russia away from a British firm and to a German
firm for which he works, he gets oil concessions,
he steals plans by posing as a fire expert in
Germany, and he finally tries to make himself head
of a provisional government that will overthrow
the Bolshevik regime. And so on.
Along the way he runs into two great villains:
Basil Zaharov (Leo McKern, who can say more with a
look than most actors can with a page of text),
and the icy head of Soviet Intelligence Felix
Dzerzhinsky (Tom Bell), who has set up a phony
organization that pretends to be against Stalin
and rakes in millions from rich anti-Bolsheviks
all over the world. A frightening moment comes
when Stalin (David Burke) orders all in the group
to be shot, because even following orders to
appear disloyal "is no excuse"! Which is what
happens when personal power is far more important
than human beings.
Other major characters are Reilly's boss Cummings
(Norman Rodway), his fellow agent Hill (Hugh
Fraser), and an astute oriental police officer
(David Suchet).
Like another two series about spies, "Tinker
Tailor" and "Smiley's People," the story is
complex, you never quite know at first who is who
and who is lying more than the others. Except for
some possibly supernatural business towards the
end, you watch with both fascination and a vague
disgust that this is what many people are really
like -- and that, from what we see, it is not the
meek who are doing any inheriting.
It is fascinating and provocative viewing on a
definitely adult level (i.e., lots of violence and
a lot of naked flesh, the latter of which is
pretty gratuitous) and Neill does a marvelous job
of portraying the complex and highly ambiguous
main character.
There is an interesting documentary of the real
Reilly as a bonus feature, which should be seen
after the series, not before. |
