The Salzburg Connection

1972 film

The Salzburg Connection

Video cover

Directed by| Lee H. Katzin
Written by| Edward Anhalt
Oscar Millard
Based on| The Salzburg Connection
1968 novel
by Helen MacInnes
Produced by| Ingo Preminger
Starring| Barry Newman
Anna Karina
Karen Jensen
Cinematography| Wolfgang Treu
Edited by| John Woodcock
Music by| Bronislau Kaper

Production
company

Twentieth Century Fox

Distributed by| Twentieth Century Fox

Release dates

* May 15, 1972 (1972-05-15) (Los Angeles-Premiere)
* August 30, 1972 (1972-08-30) (New York City)

Running time

| 93 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $1.95 million[1]

The Salzburg Connection is a 1972 American thriller film directed by Lee H. Katzin, starring Barry Newman and Anna Karina .[2] It is based on the 1968 novel of the same title by Helen MacInnes. It was filmed in DeLuxe Color and Panavision. The sets were designed by the art director Hertha Hareiter. Extensive location shooting took place around Salzburg and at Lake Toplitz.

## Plot

[edit]

After a chest is brought up from the bottom of an Austrian lake, the diver, Richard Bryant (Patrick Jordan), is found murdered. Bill Mathison (Barry Newman) is an American lawyer on vacation in Austria. He stops by a photography shop to meet with a man who is compiling a book of photographs of Austrian Lakes, as a favor to the publisher, and meets the photographer's wife Anna (Anna Karina). The photographer has disappeared. Mathison gets caught up in trying to find the chest recovered by Bryant. It is revealed to contain a list of former members of the Nazi Party who could be embarrassingly connected to current United States politics.

An American woman, Elissa Lang (Karen Jensen), pretending to be a recent college graduate on a European tour, is also after the chest, on behalf of an underground group of surviving Nazis. They all end up fighting for their lives as well as for possession of the chest with a group of CIA agents.

## Cast

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* Barry Newman as Bill Mathison
* Anna Karina as Anna Bryant
* Klaus Maria Brandauer as Johann Kronsteiner
* Karen Jensen as Elissa Lang
* Joe Maross as Chuck
* Wolfgang Preiss as Felix Zauner
* Helmut Schmid as Grell
* Udo Kier as Anton
* Mischa Hausserman as Lev Benedescu
* Whit Bissell as Newhart
* Raoul Retzer as Large Man
* Elisabeth Felchner as Trudi Seidl
* Bert Fortell as Rugged Man
* Adolf Beinl as Anton's Companion
* Patrick Jordan as Richard Bryant
* Eduard Linkers as Tour Guide
* Christine Buchegger as Waitress
* Johannes Buzalski as Telephone Technician

## Reception

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Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote "With twice too many characters and three times too much plot, the Oscar Millard screenplay of 'The Salzburg Connection' might have defeated the best of directors. Against Lee H. Katzin ('Le Mans,' 'Heaven With a Gun') it isn't even a contest."[3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety described the film as "erratically limp" as "[t]he action plods through some beautiful scenery," adding, "The score sounds like a mish-mash of badly-selected transcription library stock themes."[4] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four, calling it "a lethargic and completely confusing spy story" that amounted to little more than "90 minutes of 'box, box, what's in the box?' This, of course, isn't revealed until the final minutes, at which point there is nothing that could be in the box which would save the movie."[5] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "the worst motion picture I've seen all year...The least comprehensible, the least involving, the least interesting, the least entertaining, the least well-conceived, the least successful at bringing off what it set out to bring off."[6] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared it "one of the least exciting espionage thrillers I've ever laid eyes on," adding "As the movie wends its unsuspenseful, uncharismatic, confusing-to-boring way, you hear the audience squirm and feel its spirits sag."[7] Clyde Jeavons of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "Full advantage is taken of the picturesque Salzburg locations...But nothing can redeem the indecipherable storyline and ham-handed direction (which includes gross misuse of slow-motion and freeze); and even the most indulgent aficionado of the spy genre will find this example hard to take."[8]

## References

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1. ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p257
2. ^ Greenspun, Roger (2012). "NY Times.com: The Salzburg Connection". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
3. ^ Greenspun, Roger (August 31, 1972). "Screen: 'Salzburg Connection' Opens". The New York Times. 29.
4. ^ Murphy, Arthur D. (August 2, 1972). "Film Reviews: The Salzburg Connection". Variety. 18.
5. ^ Siskel, Gene (August 29, 1972). "Salzburg & Piper". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 4.
6. ^ Champlin, Charles (September 27, 1972). "Prize of Sorts for 'Salzburg'". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 16.
7. ^ Arnold, Gary (August 14, 1972). "The Wrong 'Connection'". The Washington Post. B7.
8. ^ Jeavons, Clyde (February 1973). "The Salzburg Connection". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 40 (469): 34.

## External links

[edit]

* The Salzburg Connection at IMDb
* The Salzburg Connection at the TCM Movie Database
* The Salzburg Connection at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Lee H. Katzin

* Heaven with a Gun (1969)
* What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)
* The Phynx (1970)
* Le Mans (1971)
* The Salzburg Connection (1972)
* The Stranger (1973)
* Savages (1974)
* The Captive: The Longest Drive 2 (1976)
* The Bastard (1978)
* Zuma Beach (1978)
* Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop (1980)
* The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987)
* The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988)
* World Gone Wild (1988)
* Jake Spanner, Private Eye (1989)
* The Break (1995)
* Restraining Order (1999)

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