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It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This story of a suave ad exec (Roger Moore) getting caught up in an assassination plot never reaches great heights. As well, the film is blighted by cheap special effects, especially the regular use of obvious rear projection that makes scenes like the death of the chief villain in the action finale laughable instead of captivating.Despite all that, the film is a fun timewaster. This is partly because the film's plot is fast-paced and inventive enough to keep one interested and the location footage of London (when they're not using rear projection) right at the end of the Swinging Sixties is fascinating to see.But the film's main asset is Moore. While he was never perceived as a great actor, he always had plenty of charisma and charm and he utilises that to be a likable roguish hero who helps keep one interested throughout.While no classic, 'Crossplot' is a pleasant diversion and especially interesting to see why the producers of James Bond thought Moore would be a good fit for the role.

Crossplot is an energetic yet disjointed blend of Hitchcockian romantic thriller, slapstick caper and spy thriller action gimmickry which must have looked pretty hackneyed by 1969 but now just about holds up on period charm value. For fans of the genre there is fun to be had in ticking off the 60s tropes as they come: cheesy crooning theme tune? Yep. Psychedelic op art graphics? Yep. Characters dressing up in Victorian/Edwardian costumes? Yep. Military marching bands, unconvincing hippies, minis driven over cliffs and exploding? Yep, yep and thrice yep.Made in 1968, the film manages to refract, despite its general frothiness, some of the darker events of the era – the Grosvenor Square riot, troubles in post-colonial Africa, political assassinations – but never takes itself seriously for a moment. Which is just as well given the general absurdity of the storyline. Moore plays a dashing advertising executive (shades of Cary Grant in North by Northwest) caught up in the plotting of a sinister international organisation bent on creating disorder and chaos so as to sweep aside 'decadent democracy'. Martha Hyer is the Hitchcock blonde (and obligatory token American) whilst Claudie Lange, an Italian who made few English language films, is the feisty (and hungry) Hungarian model who the sinister types are pursuing.It was the first project Moore worked on after completing his last series of The Saint and many of the personnel involved were veterans of that long running show. Unfortunately, it's quite apparent that the budget wasn't much in excess of an average Saint episode and the film is generally compromised by a lack of adequate location filming. A notable exception being the helicopter chase sequence which is well choreographed and distinguished by some great stunt flying.After 6 years as The Saint, Moore could play suave, wry and debonair in his sleep but here he moderates his unflappable Templar persona with a bit of 'confused everyman' and some comedy pratfalls. At the end, the spectre of his ironic 70s Bond (still some 4 years away) looms as he beds the girl, frowns at the camera and coyly pulls the sheets up. Incidentally, for a truly revelatory demonstration of Moore's range as an actor from the gap years between Templar and Bond check out 'The Man Who Haunted Himself'.For some, however, this film will be chiefly of interest for the appearance of Alexis Kanner as the aristocratic leader of the protest movement Marchers for Peace. Kanner was cast off the back of his memorable appearances in the last episodes of Patrick McGoohan's uber 60s TV meisterwerk The Prisoner. Here he plays a variant of his rebellious youth, No. 48 but, besides a spirited fight with our man Rog, and a bit of trademark methody eccentricity he isn't really given much to do and exits the picture before the final reel. Other appearances of note: Gabrielle Drake, sister of the tragic folk bard and soon to be Lieutenant Gay Ellis of UFO, as one of Moore's staff. Francis – voice of Captain Scarlet – Matthews is one of the leading baddies (and suffers death by unconvincing back projection). Bernard 'M' Lee is wheeled out to lend a bit of James Bond class to the proceedings. Dudley Sutton uses his psycho-baby features to unsettle Claudie Lange and the forever hangdog David Battley plays a confused groom whose wedding is disrupted by Moore and co. with, you guessed it, hilarious consequences.If, like me, you enjoy this kind of thing, Crossplot is now available on DVD in the UK (an undistinguished but generally acceptable transfer) for around a fiver. There are probably more productive ways you could spend 90 minutes of your life but, as one hippy character memorably utters, "what's time, man?"

A boyish pre-James-Bond Roger Moore plays advertising executive Gary Fenn in this preposterous tale about uncovering a sinister plot in London. "Crossplot," directed by Alvin Rakoff, is more 60s nostalgia than exciting movie-making. The dated costumes and hairstyles, the period dancing and songs, and the misfire mix of comedy and espionage seem like an early Bond film gone haywire. The presence of Bernard Lee, who distinguished himself as "M" in the Bond series, adds to the faux-Bond look, but adds little to the proceedings. The flimsy plot gets underway when a photograph is substituted in an advertising proposal, and Moore pursues an elusive model for his campaign. The writers were likely inhaling something stronger than Lucky Strike when they came up with this idea. Claudie Lange plays the exotic model as though she had studied under a drag queen doing Gina Lollabrigida, and she gives new meaning to wooden. Only her ample bosoms show any charisma. The scenes between her and Moore lack any chemistry, and the photo shoot destroys her supposed appeal for the advertising as she poses and grins embarrassingly for the camera. While Martha Hyer looks lovely, well coiffed, and classy as Claudie's aunt, she has little to do but make eyes at Moore and keep her hair in place.The story wanders over London and the English countryside, but the sights offer little distraction from the nonsense. "Crossplot" does offer a pastiche of scenes culled from other, better movies. A sequence that takes place in an antique car and period costumes seems like it was lifted from "The Great Chase," but without the talent involved in that film. Like the Bond films, the villains all have lousy aim, and the mechanics of the plot when it unravels make no sense whatsoever. A helicopter chase has been included to remind viewers that "From Russia with Love" was a far better film and starred a far better actor. The scene in which Moore disrupts a wedding is more than an echo of Cary Grant's antics in the auction scene in "North by Northwest." Only die-hard fans of Roger Moore will relish this movie, although he was admittedly more appealing here than in much of his later work. Either "Crossplot" was made as an audition for Moore to play James Bond or as a tax write-off for its investors. Either way the audience suffers.

It was great to see Roger Moore in his post-Simon Templar pre-Bond role. He wasn't fighting off the guys in his usual spy-guy image. It was rather refreshing also to see him get into situations like this. Plus, the charm and beauty of Martha Hyer was always a pleasure to watch. There is a scene where he falls in the water trying to save her. Simon Templar would not put himself in such a way like that. Also when he fights off the bad guys you'll notice the sequences seem not so much as a spy-guy karate-chop image but he still ends up being the hero. There was a vulnerable side of him I enjoyed. I would also like to see this movie on video. It was on cable a couple of days ago.