Dad's Movies: "Hopscotch"

And now I get around to watching, Hopscotch (1980). 

This mid-late career Walter Matthau movie is a lot of fun. Matthau's near-retirement CIA agent character, who has would could be described as a Cold War Spy code of ethics, refuses to eliminate his Soviet counterpart in an operation which draws the ire of his bureaucratic political boss at the agency who decides to put the old goat out to pasture. 

Matthau, rather than wait out his years sitting in an office, decides to burn his bridges on the way to retirement by writing a "memoir" where he reveals the dirty secrets from his years as a spy. This doesn't go over well the boss, played with oily relish by Ned Beatty, who begins a hunt to take our guy out before he can embarrass them all too much. This begins a fun and clever chase around multiple countries where Matthau's spy always keeps one step ahead of his old co-workers with the help of his old lady friend.

Everyone is very good here and the plotting is clever and funny without going to stupid extremes. Some of the things Matthau's classical music-loving character does might be a stretch but it's all played so well that I didn't mind, really. Walter Matthau played in the same range most of the time but he doesn't do this in a cartoonish over-the-top way which prevents this from being, "The Odd Couple with spies". 

The supporting cast does well with Beatty handling the thankless boss role well. Glenda Jackson is great as the very capable friend who also fools the CIA people easily. Sam Waterston is fine though he doesn't get a ton to work with. I also enjoyed seeing Herbert Lom who is always good, no matter how silly the part. 

Dad no doubt enjoyed the use of classical music in this show and it doesn't hurt that this was directed by Ronald Neame, who did "Whisky Galore" which was a favorite of his.