The Catcher was a Spy

original title:
The Catcher was a Spy
country / year of production:
USA / 2017
original length:
94 min , color
premiere:
Sundance Film Festival 2018; 22. Juni 2018 Kinostart
genre:
war movie
based on:
"The Catcher was a Spy- The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg" von Nicholas Dawidoff (1994)
director:
Ben Lewin
film script:
Robert Rodat
producer:
Buddy Patrick , Kevin Scott Frakes
cinematographer:
Andrij Parekh
editor:
Mark Yoshikawa
composer:
Howard Leslie Shore
cast (role):
Pierfrancesco Favino (Martinuzzi) , Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson (Paul Scherrer) , Connie Nielsen (Koranda) , Anna Geislerová (Rathe) , Mark Strong (Werner Heisenberg) , Shea Whigham (Joe Cronin) , Sienna Miller (Estella) , William Hope (John Kieran) , Ben Miles (Jerry Fredricks) , Paul Stephen Rudd (Moe Berg)
more:
plot synopsis:
“The Catcher was a Spy” is based on the true story of major league player Moe Berg, who played for several professional baseball teams in the 1920s and 30s before joining the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II and working as a covert agent.

In 1936, Moe Berg played for the Boston Red Sox on a goodwill baseball exhibition tour of Japan. Berg secretly sneaks onto the roof of a hospital to film the harbor and the shipyards. He shows this film to the head of the OSS. He is impressed by his skills and his willingness to take risks, and thanks to his excellent language skills, he hires Berg. Berg is then smuggled to Italy and from there to Switzerland to find out whether Heisenberg, a famous quantum physicist who was to build an atomic bomb for the Nazis, is close to his goal. If this was the case, Berg's task would be to assassinate Heisenberg.
keywords:
espionage , atomic bomb , special forces , assassination , ambush , colour film , order and obedience , based on a true story , bomb
war:
Second World War (1939-1945)
literature:
remarks:
The film was originally scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017. However, it was discovered that post-production was not completed in time, and therefore the film was first presented at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. IFC Films acquired the film and set June 22, 2018 as the release date.

“The Catcher Was a Spy” grossed $114,771 in 49 theaters on its opening weekend.
availability:
Amazon: DVD 24,70€