Who's Got the Black Box?

Starring:Michel Bouquet, Steve Eckhardt, Romain Gary, Paolo Giusti, Christian Marquand, Antonio Passalia, Maurice Ronet, Jean Seberg, Saro UrzÃ¬
Studio: Pathfinder Home Ent.
Product Type: DVD

Description

This spy adventure drama is an early film in the career of French director Claude Chabrol. Legendary screen icon Jean Seberg (BREATHLESS) stars as the widow of a murdered undercover NATO security man who is killed in Greece over sneaky dealings at a US radar installation. She is implicated as a suspect and, as a result, must go to great lengths to clear her name. Through her many trials, all set against the exotic Greek backdrops, Seberg must deal with fake priests, a pornographically obsessed millionaire, various secret agents, and Chabrol himself in a slight role as an informer.

Customer Reviews:

The Road to Ridicule.......2007-02-05

The Road to Corinth aka Who's Got the Black Box is an unashamedly ridiculous film that just happened to catch me in exactly the right frame of mind. This French spy spoof from 1967 sees Claude Chabrol in surprisingly playful mood and Jean Seberg once again demonstrating her ability to speak French without a trace of a French accent as a spy's widow out to uncover a plot by `the enemy' that no-one seems overeager to discover and prove her innocence. Maurice Ronet plays straight man, Michel Bouquet smirks a lot while eating Turkish Delight, Brando's, ahem, close personal friend Christian Marquand pops up as a motorbike riding, sardine-loving truck driver and Chabrol himself cameos as an informer disguised as a Greek Orthodox priest. The camerawork is much more visually imaginative and ambitious than usual for Chabrol and a world away from his subsequently more refined and unostentatious approach, and any spy film that begins with a magician being interrogated after they find one of a series of radar jamming black boxes among the doves and rabbits in his car can't be all bad. Did I mention the assassin in a white straw hat with a taste for reading women's magazines while waiting for his victims or the bouzouki-dancing henchman? It's a very minor addition to Chabrol's oeuvre, but it's a lot more engaging than some of his more serious efforts.

Pathfinder's DVD is not a great transfer by any means, offering a somewhat grainy standards conversion with less than perfect subtitles, and is extras free unless you count a couple of brief pages of biography and a few frame grabs masquerading as a stills gallery, but it's just about acceptable for a Chabrol completist who isn't expecting too much.

Chabrol's weak attempt at a Hollywood Spy Thriller.......2006-06-20

Of all the Claude Chabrol films I have seen (and I have seen about 30) this one is by far the least satisfying.

It is obvious that this film was made in order to capitalize on the then very hot international spy genre, but there is not much action, and the sex appeal on display is rather lukewarm.

Jean Seberg (Breathless) and Maurice Ronet (Purple Noon) are both stars of the first order but their presence is not worth the time and effort. Neither actor is required to do anything but go through the motions of this clumsy low-budget thriller.

The highlights of the film would be the locations but even those are not really used to full advantage except in the opening and the closing scenes. The main weaknesses of the film would be too many to mention but the cast should give you some clue: a lame villain whose most sinister attribute is the devouring of chicken and pork, a dapper assassin who enjoys women's fashion magazines, a millionaire who wants to buy Jean Seberg for the night, and a potential informant disguised as a Priest. The film attempts to be a parody of the spy genre but its just not clever enough to pull that off. Instead it just seems like a very unthrilling thriller. Despite those gorgeous locations most of the scenes take place in hotel rooms.

I watched the whole movie only because I am a fan of Chabrol. But this film has none of those qualities that we associate with Chabrol (suspense, mystery, plot twists, psychological depth).

Does not really feel like a Chabrol film at all.

Du Chabrol solide.......2006-02-20

Une bonne histoire policiere confirmant que Chabrol est bien notre Hitchcock francais. Maitre de sa camera, Chabrol nous donne un film intéressant et bien construit. Certes il a fait mieux (surtout quand il s'attaque a la bourgeoisie francaise-son sujet de predilection!) Mais pour les amateurs de Chabrol ce film est un "must".

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