Adapted from an unfilmable novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The book is narrated from the point of view of a bourgeois snob who plots a perfect murder and insurance swindle around a wandering tramp whom he perceives as his mirror image, but who (we realize very late in the game) in fact does not resemble him in the least. The filmmaker has two obvious ways to go with this. He can have one and the same actor play both the protagonist and the "double," thereby lying to the audience. Or he can cast two different actors and thereby play his trump card early. Rainer Werner Fassbinder chooses the second course. The early playing of the trump may account for much of the slowness and suspenselessness of the movie. The heavy Camp acting, the overrich color, the turbid staging, and the extraneous political luggage contribute their share, too. With Dirk Bogarde and Andrea Ferreol; screenplay by Tom Stoppard. (1978) — Duncan Shepherd
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