The Assassination of Trotsky

The Assassination of Trotsky is a 1972 British historical drama film, directed by Joseph Losey with a screenplay by Nicholas Mosley. It stars Richard Burton as Leon Trotsky, as well as Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.

Plot
Exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, Leon Trotsky travels from Turkey to France to Norway, before arriving in Mexico in January 1937. The film begins in Mexico City in 1940, during a May Day celebration. Trotsky has not escaped the attention of the Soviet dictator of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, who sends out an assassin named Frank Jacson. The killer decides to infiltrate Trotsky's house by befriending one of the young communists in Trotsky's circle.

Cast

 * Richard Burton as Leon Trotsky
 * Alain Delon as Frank Jacson
 * Romy Schneider as Gita Samuels
 * Valentina Cortese as Natalia Sedova Trotsky
 * Luigi Vannucchi as Ruiz
 * Jean Desailly as Alfred Rosmer
 * Simone Valère as Marguerite Rosmer
 * Duilio Del Prete as Felipe
 * Jack Betts as Lou (as Hunt Powers)
 * Michael Forest as Jim
 * Claudio Brook as Roberto
 * Joshua Sinclair as Sam
 * Giorgio Albertazzi as Commissioner

Production
In 1965, Josef Shaftel optioned the novel The Great Prince Died by Bernard Wolfe. The film was a co-production between the French Valoria Company and Dino De Laurentiis. It was originally to be shot in England, but was eventually filmed in Rome. The movie used Isaac Don Levine's book The Mind of an Assassin as a source.

According to author Melvin Bragg, the director Joseph Losey was so drunk and tired that he relied on long monologues by Burton to carry the film, in some cases even forgetting what was in the script. Burton himself wrote that he, or the continuity girl, would have to remind Losey of things that would have caused continuity gaffes.

Reception
The Assassination of Trotsky was included as one of the choices in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.