DAVID SPAULDING
AS SEEN IN:
"The Rhinemann Exchange"
(Part of 'NBC Best Sellers')
AS PLAYED BY:
Stephen Collins
CREATED BY:
Robert Ludlum
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
"The Rhinemann Exchange" is a novel of suspense by Robert Ludlum, set in the
middle of the Second World War. In 1977, it was made into a television
miniseries starring Stephen Collins.
On the eve of the Second World War,
David Spaulding, a radio voice actor, is recruited by Colonel Ed Pace to run a
secret network in Lisbon.
The plot advances to 1943. Both the Allies and the
Axis find themselves facing key shortages that impede their ability to win the
war. The Allies lack gyroscopes capable of operating at high altitudes; thus
they are losing an unacceptably high number of bombers. If they do not procure
gyroscopes soon, the D-Day invasion of Normandy will need to be postponed. The
Germans find themselves without high quality diamonds, which are necessary for
the rocket development program at Peenemünde.
Ironically, each side has what
the other needs: the Allies control access to high quality diamonds from the
Belgian Congo; the Germans have a design for a gyroscope able to operate at high
altitudes. The German intelligence agency, the Nachrichtendienst, discovers that
the Allies are in need of gyroscopes, and proposes an exchange, to take place in
neutral territory: Buenos Aires, Argentina.
David Spaulding has, in the
meantime, become an invaluable spy for the Allies. His Lisbon network ferries
agents and defectors back and forth from German occupied territory. He is
selected, however, to oversee the receipt of the gyroscopes - critically, he
does not know that diamonds are being exchanged for the gyroscopes.
The
Germans select the exiled industrialist Erich Rhinemann to supervise the
exchange at their end. He is a clever choice because, although he is Jewish, he
is committed to German victory and believes that he will be welcomed back after
a German victory. Rhinemann is immensely influential and powerful in Buenos
Aires.
If you really need to know the rest of the plot, click here.
From Stephen Collins' website:
With Lauren Hutton in the ABC miniseries of Robert Ludlam's "The Rhinemann
Exchange," 1976. This was the first film version of a Robert Ludlam novel and
one of TV's earliest miniseries, shot soon after 'Rich Man, Poor Man.' It was
directed by Burt Kennedy, a well-known director of westerns, on location in
Mexico.
"I got to work with Lauren Hutton, John Huston, Claude Akins, René
Auberjonois, Larry Hagman, José Ferrer, and Roddy McDowall (who took the home
page photo for this site as well as the jacket shot for 'Double Exposure'). Burt
Kennedy did his best to make me look and sound tough, and even succeeded once or
twice."
When an interviewer for TV Guide asked Kennedy what he thought of
young Collins, fresh off of 'All The President's Men,' Kennedy replied, "He's
either well on his way, or he'll never work again."
I've added the DVD of this adaptation to the top of my Netflix queue. You can't beat a cast like that (with Vince Edwards as well)!
BCnU!
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