Der Mann aus Metall (1974)
56KDer Mann aus Metall: Directed by Jack Gold. With Elliott Gould, Trevor Howard, Joseph Bova, Edward Grover. After an American scientist is severely injured and scarred in a car crash along the border with East Germany, he is captured by East German military. The scientists use metal implants to save him. Once he’s back in the States, no one can tell if it’s really him, so an intelligence specialist must determine who is under the “mask”.
“This is pretty strange. An eminent US scientist has been seized by the Russians and after an element of brainwashing seek to return him to act on their behalf. Unfortunately, perhaps, for them he has had a serious accident out there and has been given considerable surgical reconstruction. The upshot is that the guy looks like a tin man and it is hard to know if her really is who everyone thinks he is. It is a slight story with insufficient set-up for us to care one way or the other but as questions arise as to whether he even wants to be who he might be things get interesting and certainly no less weird as he strolls about trying to find himself. A film I had never heard of or seen stills from is certainly worth a look. For me, Trevor Howard just about holds it together but Elliott Gould is brilliant and makes it all much better than it might have been.”
