The Salzburg Connection is a 1972 American thriller film directed by Lee H. Katzin, starring Barry Newman and Anna Karina .
In 1971, the British photographer Richard Bryant (Patrick Jordan) dives into a deep mountain lake, the "Finstersee", and retrieves a heavy box.
The US lawyer William "Bill" Mathison (Barry Newman) is on holiday in Europe and visits Bryant's photo shop in Salzburg to ask about a book of photographs of Austrian mountain lakes.
During the visit, Anna's brother Johann Kronsteiner (Klaus Maria Brandauer) receives a call from Felix Zauner (Wolfgang Preiss), a family friend, who tells him that Bryant has been the victim of a fatal accident.
At Finstersee, where Johann is looking for the missing chest, he is followed by two neo-Nazis, one of whom is Anton (Udo Kier) – Richard Bryant's killer.
Bill takes the distraught Anna to his hotel and rents a room for her there, because she would probably no longer be safe at home in the shop.
On the way to their meeting, Mathison is again followed the moustachioed man, who Chuck arranges to be shot on a chair lift by an assassin (Bert Fortell).
It gradually emerges that the mysterious box contains documents listing former Nazis who are still active, and who have infiltrated the West or are being used by Western intelligence services.
Bill cannot understand why the CIA is so desperate to acquire the documents, and Chuck explains that several Germans named in these lists are working in important scientific positions for the USA.
He is able to get in front of the kidnapper's vehicle, slowing it down and causing enough traffic chaos to ensure that the Austrian police become involved.
Zauner knows that Elissa is responsible for the death of his colleague Dietrich and makes it clear to her that the Austrian secret service knows about her double agent activity.
Elissa goes to the inn where she meets a group of neo-Nazis, led by Grell, and makes it clear to them that she is also desperate to get her hands on Johann in order to find out the location of the chest.
Elissa pretends to be Anna on the phone and tries to convince Johann, who is already worn down, to hand over the chest, otherwise Trudi's life will be in serious danger.
Zauner and Mathison interrogate Grell, whose henchmen have mysteriously disappeared, while Elissa attaches her bomb to the chest unnoticed.
He had once served as a Nazi informant to save his wife from deportation to a concentration camp during the Second World War, and the KGB had been blackmailing him.
Arriving at the hiding place, Zauner tries to negotiate a deal to take Johann without bloodshed, but Anton shoots him dead.
"[3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety described the film as "erratically limp" as "[t]he action plods through some beautiful scenery," adding, "The score sounds like a mish-mash of badly-selected transcription library stock themes.
"[6] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared it "one of the least exciting espionage thrillers I've ever laid eyes on," adding "As the movie wends its unsuspenseful, uncharismatic, confusing-to-boring way, you hear the audience squirm and feel its spirits sag.
"[7] Clyde Jeavons of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "Full advantage is taken of the picturesque Salzburg locations...But nothing can redeem the indecipherable storyline and ham-handed direction (which includes gross misuse of slow-motion and freeze); and even the most indulgent aficionado of the spy genre will find this example hard to take.