Master Spy | |
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Directed by | Montgomery Tully |
Screenplay by | Maurice J. Wilson Montgomery Tully |
Based on | They Also Serve by Gerald Anstruther and Paul White |
Produced by | Maurice J. Wilson |
Starring | Stephen Murray June Thorburn Alan Wheatley John Carson |
Cinematography | Geoffrey Faithfull |
Edited by | Eric Boyd-Perkins |
Music by | Ken Thorne |
Production company | Eternal Films |
Distributed by | Grand National Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Master Spy (also known as Checkmate)[2][3] is a 1963 British spy film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Stephen Murray, June Thorburn and Alan Wheatley.[4] The film was based on the short story "They Also Serve" by Gerald Anstruther and Paul White.
The US release film poster identifies the Master Spy as Agent 909.
A Russian nuclear scientist, Dr Boris Turganev, defects from an unnamed country to the West. He is employed by the UK Government at a top secret scientific establishment to continue his work on neutron rays. He is introduced to a wealthy local man, Paul Skelton, and they identify themselves to each other as spies. Turganev's colleagues start to suspect he is stealing secrets for the communists; Turganev passes information to Skelton under the cover of their private games of chess. British Intelligence arrests them, and they are tried and sentenced to long prison terms.
Turganev's colleague is puzzled that the secret document which Turganev was passing to Skelton had been altered and would not work. In a plot twist, it is revealed that Turganev was working for British Intelligence, who suspected Skelton and wanted to catch his spy ring. A prison escape is engineered for Turganev so that he can return to his own country and continue his activities for the British with his cover intact.