The movie starts with a scene in Russia, (though it was filmed on the main Market Square in Helsinki, FInland), stars Sergei Kuzminsky or Philip Kimberly (Michael Caine) a former head of British secret service, who had defected to the Soviet Union. One day, he receives some surprising instructions; as the double agent is sent back to take a list of Soviet agents which he hid there many years before , as he's to go back surreptitiously to the West. After having plastic surgery to alter his appearance, he is put back on the western side. When he accomplishes his goal, he thinks his handlers won't need him anymore. So, with the documents in his possession, rather than returning to the East, and possible assassination, he instead plays one side off against the other KGB agents and against Mi6 (Laurence Olivier); meantime Philip Kimberley finds his stranged daughter Penelopé (Susan George) who initially does not recognize him.
It is a mediocre film with little action, dealing with a twisted intrigue with thrills, crosses and double-crosses. There is excessive dialogue with not much action and a twisted plot but the final results will be boring and tiring. The cast is great but really wasted, that's because some of the greatest British actors play without much conviction in a bland intrigue. Michael Caine is acceptable playing in his usual style as a MI6 defector has his appearance altered by the K. G. B and is sent back to Britain to retrieve top-secret documents. British defector Philip Kimberley nicely played by Sir Michael Caine was based on the double agent Kim Philby , and there's remarks about Burgess, Philby, and McLean spies. This Jigsaw Man was Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier's fourth, final and worst movie together, affer Battle of Britain, Sleuth, and A Bridge Too Far. They're well accompanied by a good support cast with full of familiar faces, such as: Susan George, Robert Powell, Charles Gray, Michael Medwin, Sabine Sun, Vladek Sheybal, Peter Burton, Anthony Dawson and David Kelly. Based on the same real life events as other films dealing with defector spies and traitors, such as: Another county (1984), Cambridge spies (2003), History in Faces: Cambridge Five (2011), A Question of Attribution (1991), Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002), An Englishman Abroad (1983), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), The Mole (2011), Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy (1979), Blade on the Feather (1980), Blunt (1987), Traitor (1971) and influenced the source novels of The Fourth Protocol (1987), The Innocent (1993). The flick belongs to spies sub-genre developed during ¨Cold war¨ and its maxim representations are John LeCarre's novels rendered to cinema in movies as ¨The spy who came in from cold¨ (by Martin Ritt with Richard Burton) , ¨The Kremlin Letter¨(John Huston with Nigel Green), ¨Russia House¨(Fred Schepisi with Sean Connery), and ¨The Tailor of Panama¨(John Boorman with Pierce Brosnan), these films get similar atmosphere and twisted intrigues about spies among East and West World, but with no relation to spies from James Bond novels by Ian Fleming .
Production was halted while filming in Ireland , as producer Mahmud Sipra was bankruptcy due to lack of funds. The motion picture was middlingly directed by Terence Young, containing a lot of flaws, gaps, shortcomings and predictibility . Terence was an uneven craftsman who realized three of the first four James Bond films , as ¨Dr No¨, ¨From Russia with love¨ and ¨Thunderball¨, such successful blockbusters were hard to continue , though he attempted in search of more box office hits . His biggest film was , beyond doubt , ¨Wait in dark¨ with Audrey Hepburn and Richard Crenna . However , his last period was largely unsuccessful , full of failures and duds as ¨Amazons¨ , ¨Klansman¨ , ¨Blood line¨, ¨ Inchon¨, ¨Jigsaw man¨, ¨Takeover¨ , though some action scenes remained undiluted . Rating: 4.5/10. Average, only for hardcore fans of Sir Michael Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier.
