Main Cast: Martin Sheen, Brigitte Fossey, Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, Michel Lonsdale
Release Year: 1982
Country: FR/UK
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
Directed by TV-anthology veteran Jeannot Szwarc, Enigma has a certain small-screen "feel" to it. Adopting a musical-comedy foreign accent, Martin Sheen plays Alex Holbeck, an Iron Curtain defector who returns to East Germany at the behest of the CIA. His mission is to save five political "undesirables" from the communists. Holbeck runs up against some formidable opposition, namely ambitious KGB agent Dimitri Vasilkov (Sam Neill) and a quintet of highly trained Soviet assassins. Brigitte Fossey co-stars as Holbeck's former love, whom he involves in his escape plans by asking her to romance the susceptible Vasilkov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Frank Finlay - Canarsky; David Baxt - Molton; Kevin McNally - Bruno; Michael Williams - Hirsch; Warren Clarke - Konstantin; Féodor Atkine; Michel Auclair; Patrick Bauchau; Yves Beneyton; Bernard Bloch; Gerard Buhr; Geoffrey Carey; Corinne Dacla; Madeleine Damien; Vernon Dobtcheff; Jacques Famery; Don Fellows; Yves Gabrielli; Lucienne Hamon; Jeffrey Kime; Gabrielle Lazure; Maxence Mailfort; Jacques Maury; Liliane Rovere; Gilles Segal; Sandy Whitelaw; Bernard Woringer; George Bruce; Huguette Faget; Murray Gronwall; Diane Niederman; Philippe Caroit; François Caron; Francois Clavier; Dominique Frot
Credit
Marc Frederix - Art Director, Francois Comtet - Art Director, Jeannot Szwarc - Director, Peter Weatherly - Editor, Peter Culverwell - Editor, Douglas Gamley - Composer (Music Score), Marc Wilkinson - Composer (Music Score), Jean-Louis Picavet - Cinematographer, Ben Arbeid - Producer, André Pergament - Producer, Peter Shaw - Producer, Jean-Louis Ducarme - Sound/Sound Designer, John Briley - Screenwriter, Michael Barak - Book Author
Alex Holbeck (Martin Sheen) is recruited as a CIA agent. He is sent to East Berlin on a mission to steal an Enigma code scrambler. This is part of an attempt to stop the Russian assassination of five Soviet dissidents which is planned for Christmas Day. What Alex doesn't know is that the CIA already have a code scrambler. By stealing the scrambler in Berlin, they are trying to convince the Russians that they don't have it.
On arrival in Berlin, Alex finds that the KGB know he is there. Alex must use numerous disguises and escape from a number of capture attempts. He seeks shelter with his former lover, Karen (Brigitte Fossey) before moving on as this is too dangerous for her. Karen and a number of Alex's other old friends are taken and assaulted by the police in an attempt to gain information about Alex's whereabouts. As he gets more desperate, Alex enlists Karen's help again: she seduces Dimitri Vasilikov (Sam Neill), the KGB man in charge of the hunt for Alex, in order to obtain information. In the end Dimitri catches Alex and Karen and finds the scrambler hidden in an exhibition artifact. As he is in love with Karen, he lets them go, however, keeping the scrambler which was in fact not needed. On Christmas Day the assassination attempt is successfully thwarted.
