Movie number four in the Sick Day run is one that reminds me of why I miss Walter Matthau. This was obviously built around him; nobody else could be such a wiseass like Walter. I found Hopscotch a bit prescient on how badly the CIA would be politicized by the various political factions in Washington yet by 1980 (when it was released), this was already going on, it’s just a thousand times worse today…Iraq’s alleged WMDs haven’t been found.
It begins with veteran operative Miles Kendig taking photos of West Germans passing a microfilm to the KGB’s regional director Yaskov. Kendig has the spies grabbed by local law enforcement but he lets Yaskov go once he has the microfilm returned, a little gesture of detente. This infuriates his superior in Washington, the inept Director Myerson. Kendig defends his decision by explaining how it’s wiser to keep a well-known, semi-predictable opponent in play because the CIA and its allies wouldn’t have any idea about Yaskov’s successor for at least two years. Letting Yaskov go was a bargain compared to how much damage the Soviets and their allies could do otherwise. Myerson wants to hear none of this so he has Kendig demoted to a desk job at Langley until retirement.
Kendig quickly decides he isn’t going to leave quietly and it’s time the world knows about all the skullduggery the CIA, the KGB and the rest have been up to. First, he makes a visit to the central file center, smuggles out his dossier and shreds all records of his existence. Next, he flies to Austria to hide out with Isobel, an ex-British agent who is the widow of a wealthy aristocrat; hence why she have money, a title and lives in a mansion. Kendig explains why he quit and asks for her assistance on writing his tell-all book. She thinks he’s crazy because both sides will assassinate him but agrees.
The first chapter is written at Isobel’s place, then photocopied and mailed to the embassies of all the major powers. Afterwards, Kendig splits and leads the CIA on a wild-goose chase around Europe, America and the Bahamas, continuously shipping a chapter from every destination he visits. The funniest one is Myerson’s Summer home in the Carolinas which destroyed by a trigger-happy FBI squad. By the time the book is completed, Kendig has a publishing arrangement with a small company in England where the CIA will have difficulty suppressing it; revealing US secrets isn’t a crime in the UK.
Is this funny? Somewhat. Hopscotch is a comedy but it’s a subtle, cerebral one not a gut-busting, fart-laden gross-out fest. Matthau used to cater to adults and often older ones with other fare such as First Monday in October, House Calls and The Front Page. Today these would probably be labelled as Indie flicks. When he branched out into material for wider audiences near the end of his career like Grumpy Old Men, Out to Sea and Dennis the Menace, the seen-it-all/done-it-all wiseass he cultivated from past work was lost on a younger generation. This was sadly demonstrated when he was miscast with Robin Williams in The Survivors. Nowadays Walter is probably best remembered for his (sudden) appearance in Hell on South Park telling the Devil what a swell time he was having.
Other factors which made Hopscotch worth its 106 minutes was the cast. Herbert Lom was Yaskov and it was nice to see him outside of being Clouseau’s nemesis Chief Inspector Dreyfeuss. The next was having Ned Beatty as Myerson because Beatty was the actor to hire for toady roles throughout the Seventies.
I would highly recommend this movie as a nice counter to the hyper-active Borne trilogy, all the over-serious Tom Clancy drivel and the tired, no-longer-funny Austin Powers crap.