Thirty years before Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman were Red, Walter Matthau played Hopscotch with the CIA in an amusing 1980 flick. Just like his 2010 counterparts, Matthau’s Miles Kendig is also Retired Extremely Dangerous but without all the big guns and explosions. He proves the pen truly can be mightier than the sword in this fun comic adventure now appearing on Roanoke Cox Cable On DEMAND. Tune into channel 1’s Free Zone Free Movies and find it at your convenience under TCM through February 24th.
Feeling forced into retirement, Kendig shreds his CIA file and leaves the country to hook up with his old flame Isobel (Glenda Jackson in a role much like Helen Mirren’s in Red). He then decides to write his memoir and air out all the dirty little secrets of the spy agency. He mails it chapter by chapter to spy agencies around the globe and finds himself a marked man.
This is classic Matthau at his slouchy lighthearted crotchety best. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance and seems to have as much fun as Kendig delivering playful payback to his former boss Meyerson. Ned Beatty, the guy everyone loves to hate, plays Meyerson with perfect befuddled outrage and self-righteousness and leaves us anxiously awaiting what Kendig will do next.
Fans of television’s Law & Order may also enjoy seeing a younger Sam Waterston as Kendig’s replacement, Cutter. Herbert Lom, best known as Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies, does a nice turn as Yaskov, head of Russian Intelligence and adversarial friend of Kendig’s. Also notable is Matthau’s son David as Agent Ross.
Hopscotch offers international locales, espionage, pranks, and some nice twists, turns, and surprises in the vein of 1978’s Foul Play. It’s everything you could ask for in a light comedy adventure and a treat for Walter Matthau fans.
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