Topaz (1969 Film) - Real-life Influences

Real-life Influences

• The plot is based on the real-life Sapphire Affair of 1962.
• The film begins with a Russian KGB agent defecting along with his wife and daughter. It was based on that of Anatoliy Golitsyn.
• André Devereaux was based on French agent Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli of the SDECE.
• "Juanita de Cordoba" is loosely based on Castro's sister Juanita Castro who defected to the U.S.
• The red haired army captain known as "Hernandez" is based on Manuel Piñeiro.
• Fidel Castro makes an uncredited appearance in the film along with Che Guevara. While in Cuba, Deveraux attends a Castro rally in order to keep up the appearance of his official cover, that of a French trade attaché. The film spliced in actual footage of a real Castro rally of the era to add to the realism.
• The French title is L'Étau (English : ~bench vice, ~stranglehold), to avoid any reference to Topaze, a well known 1951 French opus by Marcel Pagnol starring Fernandel and Yvette Etiévant. In the French script, the topaz gemstone is replaced by "l'opale" (opal).