Double Feature Time: Topaz/Bridge of Spies

Here are 2 Cold War thrillers that I always thought could be a double feature.

Both Alfred Hitchcock & Steven Spielberg are certainly 2 of the most commercially successful directors ever! This is one reason I thought Hitchcock's Topaz, released in 1969, and Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, released in 2015, could be an interesting double feature. Hitchcock's film centers on a French agent (Frederick Stafford) who becomes entangled in a Soviet spy ring just before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Spielberg's film focuses on an American attorney (Tom Hanks) who succeeds in avoiding the death penalty for the accused Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) he's defending, just before being sent to East Germany to negotiate for the release of Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) who was shot down while flying over the U.S.S.R. in 1960. Of the two films, Spielberg's has a tighter pace (Rylance deservedly won an Oscar for his performance), while Hitchcock's actually slows down in its final act. In fairness, studio heads were unsatisfied with certain aspects of Topaz, which led to Hitchcock filming an alternate ending. Topaz, like Hitchcock's previous film Torn Curtain (1966), may have also suffered from comparison to the James Bond series, which was in full swing by 1969 (Topaz was released the same year as the 6th Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service).