Shaft vs. The Rifleman in a spy game nobody asked for but everybody needs.
A KGB assassin infiltrates the American embassy in Beirut in an attempt to eliminate a Russian defector being protected by the CIA.
Acting
Roundtree's cool vs. von Sydow's glacial menace.
Production
Beirut-shot location work that feels dangerously authentic.
Direction
Hessler squeezing tension from fluorescent lighting.
Director
Gordon Hessler
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot on location in Beirut mere months before the Lebanese Civil War erupted—those streets were genuinely about to explode.
This was Roundtree's immediate post-Shaft pivot to serious thriller territory, and audiences absolutely did not follow him.
US
GB
