Overrated

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Doug McClure was a handsome actor who did a lot of TV and movies in the 1960s and 70s. Here, however, he's in a very unusual role--the sort you wouldn't expect for him. He's a very deeply planted Soviet spy--one of their very best and a guy who looks and acts very much like a native-born American. However, he and the KGB appear to have a bit of a falling out and they want him dead. Or, is this really just an elaborate ruse in order for the agent to pretend to defect?! What's REALLY going on here and is all of this just part of some very, very complicated ruse? Because of this, it's very important you watch the film closely so that you can figure it out yourself.This is a reasonably well made for television movie. In addition to McClure, Darren McGavin and Richard Basehart star in this one--not a bad cast at all. Worth seeing but one that seemed to me could have been just a bit better...though I gotta be honest, it's hard to put this into words.

In 1964. KGB agent McClure lives in a faux American town in Russia to train him to infiltrate seamlessly all masterminded by KGB bigwig Richard Basehart. Meg Foster palsy his wife in the faux town who fell in love with him while "playing house." We next see him 6 years later as Paul Towers, a small-town newspaper publisher idyllically married to luscious Rosemary Forsyth in the all-American dream. After his COO, Vandamme, commits suicide with the Feds closing in on his dealings with a Russian agent, Dana Elcar, Forsyth's brother and a large military contractor, asks McClure to take over as COO while hard-nosed investigator Chalk (Darren McGavin) investigates everyone and trusts no one. Forsyth knows her husband loves her and is faithful but she also senses that there is a part of him that he has closed off from her. She laments, "There's that sign again; No trespassing!" She also characterizes Chalk as a meat grinder she once stuck her finger in. All this sets up a chain of events that changes everything forever. Is McClure still working for the Russians or as he bought into his American life? Has Chalk figured out who he really is? or was? This cold-war thriller has neat twists and turns, terrific acting, indelible characters, good action, and some great repartee with no slow moments. The production values are shoddy, consistent with most TV movies of this vintage -but the rest is exciting and poignant. THe ending will stay with you for a long time!

John Llewelyn Moxey IS the quintessential movie-of-the-week director. Always economical with his dialog and camera work, he knows how to intersperse emotional impact with action and pacing as well as anyone. The Death Of Me Yet is a fascinating Cold-War-Era story.McClure plays a trained Soviet agent who is sent to the US to become a trusted citizen in a small Midwestern community in a town whose main employer is a military contractor. It is basically the "sleeper cell" concept with which we are all-too-familiar today. He plays his role to the hilt as a small town Editor and devoted husband to Rosemary Forsyth with whom he is deeply in love. The trouble, of course, is that he loves his new life. In his mind, heart, and soul, he has become an American. Enter deliciously menacing KGB agent and former mentor Richard Basehart. Then McClure's life really begins to unravel when a gritty, grizzled, and somewhat sadistic FBI agent named Chalk (think Laird Krieger in "I Wake Up Screaming") gets on his tail and begins to suspect who and what McClure really is.The biggest flaw in the movie is that McClure has so much better chemistry with vibrant and vulnerable Soviet girlfriend Meg Foster than with frigid Rosemary Forsyth and Richard Basehart is so much more willing (at least seemingly) to work out a satisfactory compromise for McClure to get on with his wife than the grimly determined Chalk that even the most patriotic American must question his choice a bit. And Forsyth is just awful as an actress. That said, it's still a great deal of clever and fast-moving fun as long as you view the shoddy production values in its context as a movie-of-the week.

This is a Cold War kind of movie. Doug McClure plays an All-American small-town Editor who really loves his wife and his town. He loves them so much he would like to forget that he came over to America as a Russian spy. But a series of events forces him to make tough decisions about where his loyalties are. It really kept me thinking and it is full of surprises. It's not shown a lot, so if you get a chance to see it, even with commercials, I think you should.