Though starring Elliott Gould near the peak of his popularity and filmed entirely on location in Germany and in Florida, the movie also looks incredibly cheap and carelessly made at times, made worse by the Blu-ray transfer, which seems to utilize a grainy, color-drained and damaged theatrical print, complete with reel change cues.

Dr. Lucas Martino, a top physicist supervising America's top secret "Neptune Project" (whatever that is; the movie never tells us), is kidnapped by Soviet agents after he's nearly killed in a car accident near the East German border. Under American pressure, the Russians finally return Martino after six months confinement, but the man who comes back is as much metal and plastic as flesh and blood. "Martino's" (Joseph Bova) face is now an unrecognizable, featureless silver skull, while many other organs are likewise artificial.

Sean Rogers (Gould), the FBI agent assigned to debrief Martino, is unconvinced that the man really is Martino, and more likely a plant by Soviet counterpart Col. Azarin (Trevor Howard). The man claiming to be Martino is held like a prisoner, undergoing exhaustive interrogation but for nearly the entire film no definitive proof either way seems possible.

Who? has more than its fair share of problems. Most glaringly is the inadequate partial mask Bova wears, which strongly resembles something one might find on a particularly bad episode of Lost in Space. Perhaps by design, Bova's features are limited to his eyes and lower lip, and Bova only partly overcomes these restrictions.

The film has several flashback scenes, one set during Martino's childhood (the 1930s) and another in 1957, but zero attempts are made to provide these scenes with anything like period verisimilitude. Instead, everyone wears contemporary clothes and hairstyles, and 1970s cars are clearly visible in the 1957 sequence. In the middle of the film is an outrageously superfluous car chase (staged by legendary stunt driver Rémy Julienne), a clumsy attempt to relieve viewers of the mostly static talk between Gould and Bova and, in flashbacks, Gould and Howard. Apparently a last-minute replacement, Howard is out of his element as an ingenious Russian agent, and limited to scenes in cramped, featureless sets with plastic surgeon Dr. Korthu (Alexander Allerson), whose entire performance is plainly dubbed (by busy David de Keyser).

On the plus side, Gould gives an unusually restrained, engaged performance rather than the flippant persona with which he was most identified during this period. The picture admirably keeps its audience guessing about Martino, though Rogers and Martino aren't very intriguing characters themselves until almost the end of the movie, when almost unexpectedly each becomes quite sympathetic and three-dimensional. Their performances are good throughout, but if the writing had been more probing and carefully constructed (especially the psychological arc of Bova's character), the rest of the movie might have been as good as its last 15 minutes.

I could help but wonder why a better known pantomimic or actor with a more distinctive voice wasn't chosen over Bova, a respected stage actor with few film credits. But to his credit Bova's touching, sad performance of the last scenes eventually won over this reviewer.

Video & Audio

Presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, Who? looks awfully grainy throughout, with blotchy color, lab damage, and during the climax on several long takes some very distracting flashing that looks like some sort of camera shutter misalignment probably dating back to the original negative. The 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio (English mono) audio is okay, and optional English subtitles are offered. No Extra Features.

Parting Thoughts

Science fiction films of the 1970s often had primitive special effects but big ideas, where today's genre too often have advanced special effects but no ideas at all. Who? has a lot working against it but its central theme is compelling, even if only during its last act. Marginally Recommended.

* Imaginative film programmers are advised to consider a triple-bill, presented in this order: Who?, Roman Polanski's What?, and Shmuel Imberman's I Don't Give a Damn.



Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian largely absent from reviewing these days while he restores a 200-year-old Japanese farmhouse.