Sir Roger Moore plays Gary Fenn, an ad man persuaded to hire a Hungarian model (sexy Belgian actress Claudie Lange) for an ad campaign. Unfortunately, he does not know that by bringing her into his life he's bought himself a whole lot of trouble. Nefarious types are tracking her, and Gary gets in over his head as he takes it on the lam with the woman.
Given the healthy amount of comedy in this intrigue-laden thriller, this could easily be seen as a dry-run for Sir Rogers' tenure as super-spy James Bond in the 007 franchise. That does mean, though, that people who always thought that most of Sir Rogers' Bond outings were overly silly will likely be fairly unimpressed with this one.
Just speaking personally, I found this to be a lot of fun. Sir Roger is not quite an unflappable type here, as he plays a guy out of his depth who has to keep thinking (and running) in order to stay a step ahead of the bad guys. Lange is a good match for him, and towards the end she figures in a running gag where her character is always hungry. Among other things, they will steal a vintage automobile (with activist Tarquin (Alexis Kanner) in tow), and crash a wedding.
Fast-moving and blissfully nonsensical, "Crossplot" is an enjoyable ride, complete with a jaunty score by Stanley Black, and appearances by such familiar faces as Martha Hyer, Bernard Lee (who, of course, was M in the 007 series up to and including "Moonraker"), Francis Matthews, Veronica Carlson, Norman Eshley, Michael Culver, Anthony Sharp, and David Prowse.
This doesn't appear to be that well known, but if the prospective viewer is looking for a fairly light-hearted chase thriller, then they can have a good time with this one.
Seven out of 10.
