The Secret Ways [1961] [DVD]

A Cold War drama with the always watchable Richard Widmark as an American soldier of fortune helping a noted Hungarian intellectual and anti-communist escape from behind the Iron Curtain.

The tone of The Secret Ways wavers between realism and satire, the result of a dispute between Widmark and director Phil Karlson, a B-movie specialist who had just turned down Dr No.

“I told Widmark I wanted to do it as a James Bond,” said Karlson, “but he hadn't heard of Bond. I said, 'If we do this tongue-in-cheek we'll be the first ones.' He said, 'No, I don't want to do it that way.' We had a big fight and I never finished the picture.”