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Man on a String

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Man on a String
film poster
Directed byAndré De Toth
(as Andre De Toth)
Screenplay by
  • John Kafka
  • Virginia Shaler
Based onMy Ten Years as a Counterspy
by Boris Morros with Charles Samuels
Produced byLouis de Rochemont
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byAl Clark
Music byGeorge Duning
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
RD-DR Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • May 20, 1960 (1960-05-20)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Man on a String is a 1960 American spy thriller directed by Andre de Toth and starring Ernest Borgnine and Kerwin Mathews.[1] It was the last film that DeToth directed in the United States.

Plot

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A government intelligence agency in Washington, D.C. wants agent Frank Sanford to follow Boris Mitrov, a film producer who appears to also be a Russian spy. Helen and Adrian Benson, a wealthy American couple with a home in Beverly Hills and a film studio, are communist sympathizers as well, in league with Colonel Vadja Kubelov, the top KGB man in the U.S.

Boris's office is bugged by his assistant, Bob Avery, a plant who is working for the Americans. Now that he has been caught red-handed, Boris is willing to turn double agent, going to Berlin under the pretense of making a documentary film there.

Helen is having an affair with Kubelov, but the Bensons' home has been bugged and they try to flee to Mexico. In the meantime, Boris is sent to Moscow to be entrusted with a new assignment, so Avery gives him a code word ("cinerama") to use should he find himself in danger.

Upon learning that Adrian intends to publicly expose Boris and Kubelov, Avery is able to alert Boris to return to Germany as soon as possible. A checkpoint is closed, but Boris shoots a police officer and escapes safely to West Berlin, only to end up in a fight for his life with a Russian assassin.

Cast

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Reception

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Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote: "The dialogue and characterizations in this picture cripple the putative truth of the message it intends to deliver. This Grade C melodrama may exist in life, but that is insufficient excuse for it in art."[2]

Home media

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Man on a String was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on March 4, 2011 via its DVD-on-demand system available through Amazon.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Eleanor Mannikka. "Man on a String (1960) - André De Toth | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  2. ^ "Stanley Kauffmann on films". The New Republic. 1960-05-30.
  3. ^ Toth, Andre De, Man on a String, retrieved 2023-03-19
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