After Stalin exiles Trotsky to Mexico in 1940, he sends assassin Frank Jacson to infiltrate Trotsky's circle and assassinate him, posing as a young communist to gain access to Trotsky's home... Read allAfter Stalin exiles Trotsky to Mexico in 1940, he sends assassin Frank Jacson to infiltrate Trotsky's circle and assassinate him, posing as a young communist to gain access to Trotsky's home.After Stalin exiles Trotsky to Mexico in 1940, he sends assassin Frank Jacson to infiltrate Trotsky's circle and assassinate him, posing as a young communist to gain access to Trotsky's home.
- Marguerite Rosmer
- (as Simone Valere)
- Lou
- (as Hunt Powers)
- Jim
- (as Mike Forrest)
- Sam
- (as Gianni Loffredo)
- Director
- Writers
- Masolino D'Amico(uncredited)
- Nicholas Mosley
- Franco Solinas(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJoseph Losey originally offered the part of Leon Trotsky to Dirk Bogarde, with whom he had made five other films. Losey admitted that the script was terrible, but told Bogarde that it would be revised. Bogarde turned the role down, embittering Losey, who felt that Bogarde didn't trust him. Richard Burton, who had worked with Losey on Boom! (1968) did trust Losey enough to take the part, even though he was shown the same script.
- GoofsA character passes a wall with a graffiti-image of Woody Woodpecker. The first appearance of Woody Woodpecker was in the cartoon "Knock Knock" which was released 25th of November 1940, two months after Trotski was assassinated.
- Quotes
Leon Trotsky: It's hard living with an old revolutionary. You should have been with us when we stormed the Winter Palace! With Lenin in Moscow in the early days! What happiness to be alive - to be fighting then!
- Alternate versionsIn Spain it wasn't released until August 1977, two years after Francisco Franco's death. It was released only in English with Spanish subtitles. It wasn't dubbed in Castilian Spanish until 1983, when the film was released on VHS.
- ConnectionsSpoofed in One Historical Mistake (2019)
Servant", Accident", "King & Country", to name but three, his place as a great director, would be assured. However, I do agree that this film, "The
Assassination Of Trotsky", is not one of Losey's better efforts. In fact, on second viewing, it's a total fiasco. It has no redeeming features whatsoever. I know that Hollywood tends to 'distort' history when it suits them, but "The Assassination of Trotsky" is not a product of the Hollywood Factory. In fact, if Hollywood had made a film about Trotsky, it couldn't, surely, be as bad as this one. Richard Burton plays Trotsky. He does have a passing resemblance to Trotsky, but it
ends there. Trotsky, who played a major part in the Bolshevik October
Revolution of 1917, was also an intellectual and led the lefist opposition to Stalin (how history would have been different if that despot had been deposed!). He was expelled from the party and sent into exile, ending up in a villa near Mexico City. There he founded the Fourth International - devoted to what Trotsky described as 'pure communism'. Which is perhaps why, on Stalin's orders, that Trotsky was assassinated. None of this given the importance it deserves.
Without alluding to the crucial role Trotsky played in the founding of
communism, anybody who sees this film (poor blighters), will see this film as just so much histrionics. As Trotsky, Burton has all the believability of Groucho Marx in the role of Napoleon: thinking about it, maybe Groucho would have made a
better fist in the role of Trotsky. As for Alain Delon, as the assassin, he's all nervous twitches, and beetled eyebrows. Joseph Losey's mind must have been
on autopilot when he lensed this celluloid travesty
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Das Mädchen und der Mörder - Die Ermordung Trotzkis
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 43 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1