COMING IN FROM THE COLD WAR, PART II

While THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER was a hit, THE RUSSIA HOUSE, which also starred Connery, was, sadly, not. Like OCTOBER, it was also based on a best-selling novel, this time by John Le Carre (The Spy who Came In from the Cold, Smiley's People). But unlike Clancy, Le Carre's novels have always been more cerebral, and THE RUSSIA HOUSE was in that tradition. And since director Fred Schepisi and writer Tom Stoppard were fairly faithful to Le Carre's novel, it was bound to be tough going. Added to that a crowded Christmas season (THE GODFATHER PART III and AWAKENINGS were both released around that same period, among others), and you have a film where even the drawing power of Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer couldn't do anything.

This is a shame, for not only is is a good film, it contains one of Connery's best performances. He plays Barley Blair, a writer and publisher who sort of lives haphazardly. He travels around, mostly to Russia, loves jazz (he plays saxophone), and having conversations and getting drunk with others like him. At one gathering in Russia, he happens to say, "You have to think like a hero to behave merely like a decent human being." At this gathering is Dante (Klaus Maria Brandauer), and afterwards, he asks Barley to promise that if he, Dante, ever thinks like a hero, that Barley will behave like a decent human being.

Though Barley writes this off as another drunken encounter, Dante turns out to be serious. It turns out he's a missile scientist in Russia, and a friend of his, Katya (Pfeiffer), brings writings of Dante's over to a book fair in Russia Barley is supposed to be at, hoping he'll publish them. Barley is not their, however; his assistant takes them, but turns them over to British intelligence, led by Ned (James Fox). They, and the Americans, led by Russell (Roy Scheider), are rather alarmed by Dante's news - the Russians are farther behind on missiles, technology, and so on, than anyone suspects, can't afford to keep up the arms race, and want peace. They're alarmed, because, to paraphrase Russell, how do you justify continuing an arms race when you're only racing yourself.

Since Katya asked for Barley personally, the British bring him in. He of course doesn't know Katya, and writes the whole thing off as a drunken whim. However, he does agree to spy for the British, and go to Katya and back to Dante to see if they're serious. If they are, and they're right, the British and Americans will pay Dante for his material. However, what no one counts on is Barley falls in love with Katya.

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