According to IMDb, this film is loosely based on a real historical incident--though how much, I have absolutely no idea! When the film begins, Eddie Chapman (Christopher Plummer) is hanging out on the island of Jersey during WWII. Although British, the island (off the French Coast) was seized by the Germans long before this. Any way, Eddie ends up getting arrested by the Germans and instead of acting afraid, he's very smug. He then announces that he's more than willing to work for the Nazis as a spy...provided they pay well! The Germans are a bit skeptical to say the least, but over time he earns their trust. But what is Eddie to do when they actually drop him into Britain and order him to blow up a defense plant?! And, for exactly WHO does Eddie work?

This is a very unusual and interesting espionage film. Much of this is because for so much of the movie, you aren't sure who Eddie works for or what's in store for him. Christopher Plummer is very nice in the lead and it helps that he has the likes of Trevor Howard, Gert Fröbe, Yul Brynner and, especially, Romy Schneider in the film as well. My only complaint, and it's very minor, is that the film might have worked a bit better if the story was tightened up a bit...but it still was interesting and worth seeing.

Triple Cross tells the story of professional thief Eddie Chapman who worked as a double agent for the Germans and the British during World War II. He's charmingly played by Christopher Plummer who was at the height of his career with The Sound of Music on the horizon for him.

Chapman was some piece of work and he was only able to accomplish this whole thing by dint of the fact that he was operating on the Channel islands when World War II broke out. By that time he'd eschewed opening safes by cracking combinations, he was using controlled amounts of gelignite in his work.

Sent to prison on the Isle of Jersey, Plummer is there when the Germans take over those islands and promptly offers his services to the Nazis. After taking him up on the offer despite the stern objections of Gert Frobe, Plummer gets an assignment back in the United Kingdom. Of course upon landing there he promptly offers his services to the British and they take him up on it as well.

I love to watch Christopher Plummer on screen. He's so suave and professional in everything he does whether it's the Duke of Wellington in the film Waterloo, to Baron Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, to even the villainous hypocritical reverend in Dragnet. He's never anything, but at his best for his audience.

His handlers at the British and German ends are Trevor Howard and Yul Brynner. Howard is in the stiff upper lip tradition of his country and Brynner provides an air of melancholia for his part. It ends in tragedy for him as he's part of the bomb plot to kill Hitler in 1944.

By the way it is just that somehow Plummer was conned biggest of all in the end. To see what I'm talking about by all means catch Triple Cross.

TRIPLE CROSS is a slightly unwieldy but generally workable WW2 thriller with a starring role for Christopher Plummer, hot off the success of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. The film is directed by Terence Young and has a bright and breezy feel to it which makes it feel like a Bond imitation, particularly in the early scenes of Plummer's womanising. However, it also happens to be based on a true story and sees Plummer's safebreaker recruited by the Nazis to work as a spy against the British; little do they know he's a double agent informing on them as well. Plummer feels a bit awkward as the lead, but a Euro-centric supporting cast keeps the interest high, with good turns for Jess Hahn (dubbed with a Yorkshire accent!),Howard Vernon, Claudine Auger, Gert Frobe, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, and the great Yul Brynner in an interesting role. The story is all over the place tonally, but interesting and unique enough to see you through until the end.