19

FRIDAY

Assassinations, double-crosses, reverse double-crosses—really, in the cutthroat world of international espionage, the only way to know for sure who’s pulling the trigger on the pistol aimed at the back of your head is to do it your own damn self. At the very least, it certainly would have made a less confusing end for poor old Agent Cross (Burt Lancaster), the prototypical CIA lifer who knows too much—but not enough to know that he knows too much—in Michael Winner’s 1972 spy thriller, Scorpio. Ready to hang up his hat and spend a little more time with the missus after a life of service, the dinosaur in a young man’s game finds himself ungraciously targeted for elimination by his former boss—with his own young protégé, Agent Scorpio, charged with doing the dirty deed. With a retirement package like that, you know the CIA’s 401(k) plan has got to be a real kicker. The film screens at 7 p.m. in the Library of Congress’ Mary Pickford Theater, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free. (202) 707-5677. (Matthew Borlik)