What was the significance of the absinthe drink? Col. Van Dyke added to the absinthe what he referred to as "male hormone." This was a cover name for strychnine. Why poison the double agent - so she wouldn't talk? Imagine the bad faith repercussions of the Ruskies getting a dead agent in place of the general and his wife. Any other explanation of this part of the movie?
shareYeas, I was also confused about these issues.
shareThe real agent (remember they said she was not the original spy and had inflicted the knife wound to herself so she would have the same scar as the Hoffy---woman whose place she usurped) loved absinthe. This was a final test to see if she was being truthful. They had to provide a body, so she was the most likely one. The Americans couldn't work with her anymore, as she was a Russian agent. She had also been responsible for Colonel's good friend's death, and his family...
shareThe "Goofy Dust" that Van Dyke mentions is Cocaine.
They needed a comatose female to hand over - and it wasn't going to be the english woman.
With her otherwise thorough cover in impersonating the original agent, wouldn't she also have mastered the absinthe drinking? Or did she just suspect it was spiked?
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan