The Falcon and the Snowman

Seminary drop-out Hutton fetches up in a job deep in the heart of the CIA telex circuit; sick with his country, he persuades his ex-altar boy buddy and current dope dealer, Penn, to peddle secrets to the Russians in Mexico City. Much is made of the mechanics of the business, and in this area the movie belongs to Penn, his eyebrow-pencil moustache dissolving in cocaine as he keeps up a front of jittery bravado. Hutton succumbs firstly to a thin role, and secondly to the film's lack of any strong viewpoint about its leading men. As usual Schlesinger is more than half in love with what he might be satirising. CPea.