THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (1973). Director: Fred Zinnemann. Based on the novel by Frederick Forsythe.

In 1962 French President DeGaulle has been targeted for assassination by the terrorist group OAS because of the issue of Algerian independence, which he supports. Since DeGaulle is heavily guarded and many of the members of the OAS are well-known to the government, the group decides it would be safer to bring in an outsider and foreigner, and hire a contract killer who becomes known as the Jackal (Edward Fox of The Mirror Crack'd). The film details this sociopath's meticulous planning even as French officials convene under the direction of the Minister (Alan Badel of Salome) and assign Commissioner Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) to track him down. Using his quick wits and ruthless nature, the Jackal manages to stay one step ahead of the police, until they figure just when the man is going to strike. But will they be able to prevent disaster? Obviously, they do, but the interest in the film is in exactly how the Jackal will be stopped and when. 

     

Michael Lonsdale

The Day of the Jackal proceeds almost like a documentary. It has no real musical score (until the closing credits) and hasn't much style. There is one memorable sequence in which the Jackal murders a man whom he meets in a Turkish bath. This is handled in a low-key, matter-of-fact fashion that makes it all the more chilling. (The assassin is shown having sex with a woman he picks up, but whether or not he gets it on with the guy is left to the imagination, although he does apparently spend the night.) Edward Fox really isn't given a lot to sink his teeth into as his character is virtually unemotional and is given no real background or identity, but he manages to make a positive impression in spite of it. The other actors, mostly unknown, are all professional and adept. Jackal is one of those movies that keeps you perfectly absorbed even as you think afterward that it wasn't all that great. There's no real nail-biting suspense to the film. The only familiar faces in this, besides Lonsdale (who was later the villain in Moonraker), are Derek Jacobi [Breaking the Code] as his assistant, Caron, Jean Sorel [Sandra] as Bastien-Thiry, an OAS man who is executed at the opening of the film, and perhaps Delphine Seyrig, as Collette, a wealthy married woman who dallies with the Jackal and comes to regret it. 

Verdict: It entertains, but it sure could have used a musical score. **3/4. 

SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS

Barbara Bach and Jean Sorel

SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (aka La corta notte delle bambole di vetro/1971). Director: Aldo Lado.

In Prague  journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) discovers that his fiancee, Mira (Barbara Bach of The Spy Who Loved Me), has gone missing. He enlists the aid of his boss, Jessica (Ingrid Thulin), who also has a yen for the handsome reporter. The police seem to think Mira has simply gone off on her own despite the fact that her clothing and possessions are still in her apartment. Most of the story is told in flashback from the bizarre pov of Moore, who is supposedly found dead and put in a morgue, where we can hear his thoughts but he is unable to communicate that he is still alive. (This is reminiscent of a famous Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode with Joseph Cotten.) That is really the only interesting element of this dull and confusing movie that features an inexplicable scene when Moore's friends come to witness his ... well, that would be telling. Sorel [Sandra] and Thulin [Cries and Whispers] both deserved much better assignments than crap like this. Ennio Morricone's eerie musical score is much better than the picture deserves. You have to see the orgy of elderly nudists to believe it! This could have used some gruesome murder scenes. An Italian-West German-Yugoslavian co-production, which tells you something.

Verdict: A real stink bomb. *1/2.

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER/ PERVERSION STORY

Jean Sorel

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (aka Una sull'altra/Perversion Story/1969). Writer/director: Lucio Fulci.

Dr. George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) runs a clinic, and is looking after his ill and neurotic wife, Susan (Marisa Mell). After her death, George and his mistress, Jane (Elsa Martinelli), arrive at a nightclub to see a performer named Monica (also Marisa Mell), who could be the twin of the late Susan. George and Jane. through various subterfuges, try to find out if Monica and the supposedly deceased Susan are indeed one and the same. But the police are certain that Susan is really dead -- and that George murdered her. One On Top of the Other is a twisty, far-fetched suspense tale that has an interesting idea (the type of thing that British screenwriter Jimmy Sangster might have come up with) but mediocre execution. The movie features interesting performers but it needs a different musical score and much more tightness in both the direction and editing. Still, there is some tension at the very end. Handsome Sorel [A View from the Bridge] is a good actor who deserved much better assignments than this. Alberto de Mendoza also gives a good performance as George's brother, Henry. John  Ireland [Raw Deal] shows up now and then as a San Francisco police inspector, and a (deliberately) haggard-looking Faith Domergue is cast -- and appears even more briefly -- as George's grieving sister-in-law. Domergue and Ireland both appeared in The House of Seven Corpses five years later, in which Domerque was allowed to look much more attractive than in this.

Verdict: The plot and Sorel keep this going. **1/2.

SANDRA

Michael Craig and Claudia Cardinale

SANDRA (aka Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa/1965). Director: Luchino Visconti.

"Your book could be a weapon in the hands of our enemies." -- Sandra to Gianni.

Jean Sorel

Sandra (Claudia Cardinale of The Pink Panther) and her husband, Andrew (Michael Craig of Doctor in Love), travel to her hometown and rundown palatial estate where they encounter her brother, the budding novelist Gianni (Jean Sorel of A View From the Bridge), from whom she has been separated for some years. Their father was a Jew who was executed by the Nazis, and their mother is a now-demented concert pianist who has remarried Mr. Gilardini (Renzo Ricci), who does not get along with his stepchildren. Everything comes to a boil as the day approaches for a ceremony to honor  their father, and Gianni reveals the controversial storyline of his novel. He can no longer control his romantic and sexual obsession for his own sister. Obviously, things aren't going to end well. Sandra has all the elements that might add up to a penetrating and outre erotic drama, but somehow it never quite gets off the ground despite the emotionalism of the last ten minutes or so. This is a well-done English-dubbed version (Cardinale did her own dubbing), but the performances, while hard to judge because of the dubbing, seem more than adequate, with Sorel especially passionate if not quite as pitiable as he might have been. The soundtrack is heavy with classical music that only adds to the general lugubriousness, and the occasional pop tune is grating.

Verdict: Intriguing but insufficient. **1/2.

THE QUEENS

Raquel Welch and Jean Sorel

THE QUEENS (aka Le fate/1966.) Various directors.

This Italian anthology film dealing with comedic relationships between men and women has a large cast and different directors and features such weak screenplays it's a wonder it was even made. The first story is a silly concoction in which a man saves a strange woman (Monica Vitti of Modesty Blaise) from assault. The second is a weird, confusing trifle with a police officer dealing with an even stranger woman (Claudia Cardinale), who has an adorable baby, and lives in a very odd apartment overhanging a gallery thronging with people -- only there doesn't appear to be any wall, just a big open space over the gallery. The third story stars Jean Sorel [A View from the Bridge] and Raquel Welch [One Million Years B.C.] as neighbors who are married to others. Sorel wonders if his wife is carrying on with another man the way he is carrying on with Welch. This segment is the shortest and leads to nowhere, completely wasting the two sexy leads. The fourth story, which had possibilities, deals with a waiter, Giovanni (Alberto Sordi), who is importuned to sleep with a guest, a countess (Capucine), during a party. When he is hired as a chauffeur, his new employer's wife turns out to be ... the countess. She only recognizes and lusts after him when she's drunk. This segment has an especially flat ending. Vitti and Sordi give the most memorable performances.

Verdict: An intriguing idea betrayed by very poor and ill-conceived screenplays. *1/2.

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

Confused triangle: Vallone, Sorel and Lawrence

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (aka Vu du pont/1962). Director: Sidney Lumet.

NOTE: This review discusses important plot points. Eddie Carbone (Raf Vallone of The Other Side of Midnight), his wife Beatrice (Maureen Stapleton of Interiors), and their niece Catherine (Carol Lawrence) live together near the shipyards in Brooklyn. They take into their home two illegal immigrants, Marco (Raymond Pellegrin), who is older and married, and handsome young Rodolpho (Jean Sorel), who is immediately attracted to Catherine and vice versa. This doesn't sit well with Eddie, who has not slept with his wife in months, and who seems to be obsessed with his pretty niece. Eddie never misses an opportunity to cast doubt on Rodolpho's sexuality because he sings, has blond hair, and other ludicrous reasons, but primarily because he sees him as his rival -- or perhaps is attracted to him and must belittle him in classic closet case fashion. It all culminates in a scene when Eddie first kisses Catherine full on the lips, and then does the same to Rodolpho in a supposed attempt to expose his homosexuality [talk about doing things backwards!] And things become even more melodramatic after that... The main strength of this adaptation of Arthur Miller's play is the acting, which is excellent across the board, especially the performances of a passionate Vallone, sympathetic Stapleton, and lovely, confused Lawrence. Unfortunately, it's all a trifle over-baked and coy at the same time, a combination that doesn't work. The double-kiss probably played on the stage, but it's much more of a dramatic device than anything you can take seriously, almost the stuff of soap opera. Since it's hard to believe that this "macho" guy would want to give a hard smack to Rodolpho's lips if he were really straight, critics ever since have speculated on the possibility that Eddie is a repressed homosexual [and indeed with his homophobia and other acts one can see how it could be interpreted that way]. Was Miller afraid to tackle the subject head on when he wrote the play in the fifties, leaving that sort of thing to Tennessee Williams (who probably would have made a better play out of View) and using Catherine as a "beard?" The ambiguity gives the whole movie a dated air, although it does have some powerful moments.

Verdict: Interesting, with a wonderful lead performance, but just misses being really special. ***.