Movie Review: Prince Of Darkness (1987)

Genre: Horror  

Director: John Carpenter  

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker  
Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: In the underground chamber of a semi-abandoned Los Angeles church, a priest (Donald Pleasence) discovers ancient writings and a canister filled with a swirling green liquid. Fearing an impending cataclysmic event, the priest calls upon quantum physicist Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) and his college students, including lovers Brian and Catherine (Jameson Parker and Lisa Blount), to study the canister and decipher the writings. The church is soon surrounded by slimy creatures and violent homeless people, while the green liquid activates to turn the amateur detectives into agents of evil.

What Works Well: Director and writer John Carpenter achieves a reasonable state-of-siege ambience, and the ominous but simple music score (co-composed by Carpenter) adds to the sense of mounting danger. The make-up and special effects are capable, while judicious humour lightens the mood. By far the best idea on display (and unfortunately shortchanged) is a suitably unsettling and spooky dream sequence.

 

What Does Not Work As Well: The student characters are bland to the point of irrelevant irritation, not helped by an underpowered cast. Donald Pleasence and Victor Wong do their best as the elder statesmen, but they are defeated by script full of religious and scientific bafflegab. Given the grandiose return-of-the-devil premise, too much time is spent in stock one-victim-at-a-time slasher territory, while the resolution defeats 7 million years of anticipation with a nudge.

Conclusion: A devil less intimidating than Michael Myers has a real problem.

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Movie Review: The Ambassador (1984)

A politics-and-blackmail drama, The Ambassador strides into the Middle East conflict and makes a messy situation much worse.

Peter Hacker (Robert Mitchum) is the idealistic US Ambassador to Israel, on a personal quest to start peace talks in the region. After a meeting in the desert with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) goes wrong, Hacker and his chief of security Frank Stevenson (Rock Hudson) learn that Hacker's bored and boozy wife Alex (Ellen Burstyn) is having an affair. Her infidelity has been caught on film and Hacker is blackmailed for $1 million.

The blackmail plot gets more convoluted when Stevenson uncovers the identity of Alex's lover as Mustapha Hashimi (Fabio Testi), a souvenir shop owner but also an influential PLO member. With a KGB assassin on the prowl, the Mossad pursuing its own agenda, and Israeli Defense Minister Eretz (Donald Pleasence) trying to keep a lid on the situation, Hacker shrugs off the blackmail and doggedly pursues talks between Palestinian and Israeli students.

A Cannon Group B-movie production filmed in Israel, The Ambassador collects an impressive list of stars eager to claim an easy pay cheque. Director J. Lee Thompson, at this stage churning out schlocky movies for undiscerning action fans, is saddled with an inane script by Max Jack, and the outcome never rises above the level of a cheap flick out of its depth in pretending to tackle a complex geopolitical crisis. 

The ludicrous events start early and never subside. The action starts with the US ambassador personally arranging and attending a meeting outside diplomatic channels in the middle of the desert; continues with Hacker shrugging off a blackmail attempt that could end his career and embarrass his government; and ends with the diplomat engaging in a punch-up with an AK-47 wielding terrorist in the middle of a massacre. The climax is a gore-fest inserted to satisfy blood-thirsty action aficionados doubtlessly bored by the confusing politics.

The cast members spout their lines with no conviction, Mitchum registering a new level of going-through-the-motions. Hudson, in his final big-screen role, represents the beginning and the end of security for the ambassador, and spends most of the movie chasing after a smut reel on the assumption no one is capable of making more copies. Pleasence and Testi take their roles more seriously and must be thankful their screen time is relatively limited. At 51 years old, Burstyn bravely participates in a sex scene, but is otherwise confined to the stock role of unsatisfied wife. 

Commendably, The Ambassador presses a message for peace and dialogue. Unfortunately, good intentions are steamrolled by outstanding incompetence.



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Movie Review: Escape From New York (1981)

An action thriller set in a depressed near-future, Escape From New York carries A-movie ambitions with a B-movie ethos. The story of a lone hero attempting to rescue the President from the wasteland of a Manhattan turned into a prison is delivered on a bare-bones budget but with plenty of flair.

It's 1997, and after a crime rate explosion, all of Manhattan Island is turned into a maximum security prison, protected by a 50 foot perimeter wall and mines. Convicts are deposited into Manhattan and never allowed out, with security controlled from a police headquarters on Liberty Island under the leadership of Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef). Air Force One with the President (Donald Pleasence) on board is hijacked by anti-government revolutionaries and intentionally crashed into Manhattan, but the President survives by sheltering in an evacuation pod. He is captured and held hostage by unknown prisoners.

Hauk recruits newly convicted Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), an ex-Special Forces war hero who has turned to a life of crime, to mount a one-man rescue mission and retrieve a crucial cassette recording carried by the President within 24 hours. Snake lands a glider on top of the World Trade Center, and soon has to fend off crazy killers marauding the streets. He encounters Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), leading him to the self-proclaimed Duke (Isaac Hayes), who commands the largest gang of criminals and is likely holding the President.

Fresh off his unexpected success with Halloween, director John Carpenter was provided enough clout to helm an impressive group of stars in an ambitious story requiring relatively elaborate sets. The clever premise is brought to life through the imaginative use of early simulated computer effects, Carpenter stretching his budget as far as it would go to bring to life a bleak vision of the future. The film clocks in at under 100 minutes and is ultimately a straightforward and fairly routine chase-and-rescue film, but also brimming with panache and attitude.

Thematically, Escape From New York logically extrapolates from all the downbeat 1970s crime-drenched New York-based dramas. Death Wish had the city in the grips of an out-of-control crime wave, while The Warriors saw the gangs effectively taking full control of the streets. Carpenter carries the trend to its conclusion, and now Manhattan is turned into a prison, abandoned to the low lifes who chased away civilization.

While the idea is rich, the execution is constrained by the budget. Once Snake makes it into the city, the action sequences are restricted to basic arm-waving clashes with zombie-like randoms, and then its quickly onto encounters with Cabbie, Brain, and then a standard confrontation with Duke's entourage. A no-rules two-man brawl in the boxing ring with Snake forced to take on the local brute with bats-as-weapons smacks of irrelevant padding. Overall, the city-as-a-prison environment appears limited to a few blocks, a couple of sets, a few overturned cars, and a rather limited population density.

Carpenter does a fine job with nighttime filming, and plays with backlighting, shadows and silhouettes to good effect. But by far the best thing about Escape From New York is the character of Snake Plissken. Kurt Russell oozes pissed-off cool, his long hair and eye patch creating a seminal image. At every turn he is confronted with an "I heard you were dead" greeting, which does not appear to surprise him. Dismissively swatting off attackers with either fists or assorted weapons, he is only strained by the impossible time limit imposed on his mission by Hauk.

The secondary cast brings together a clutch of respected veterans comfortable in schlocky surroundings. Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, and Donald Pleasence add plenty of esteemed heft, and spout their lines with conviction but without enjoying much character evolution.

Escape From New York is a joyride through the urban jungle of a dismal future. The overarching idea may be more interesting than the details, but the taxi trip is lively all the same.

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Movie Review: Fantastic Voyage (1966)

A unique science fiction adventure about a group of miniaturized scientists traveling through a human body, Fantastic Voyage is full of bright ideas brought to life with energetic execution and admirable special effects.

The US is embroiled in a secret race with the Soviet Union to master miniaturization technology for military purposes. Scientist Jan Benes defects to the US, but suffers a brain injury in the process and slips into a coma. Benes has key knowledge that could help in overcoming the 60 minute limit currently hampering miniaturization efforts. At the secret Combined Miniaturized Deterrent Forces facility, General Carter (Edmond O'Brien) recruits agent Grant (Stephen Boyd) to provide security on-board the experimental submarine Proteus, which is about to be miniaturized and injected into Benes' bloodstream to find and remove the damage affecting his brain. The rest of the submarine team consists of Captain Owens (William Redfield), human physiology expert Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence), laser surgeon Dr. Duval (Arthur Kennedy) and his assistant Cora (Raquel Welch).

Carter and Grant suspect that there is a traitor within the group, and once the journey starts inside Benes' body, little goes according to plan. Michaels suffers from claustrophobia, the submarine is buffeted by turbulence and knocked off course. The laser surgery tool is sabotaged, and the sub suffers an air supply leak. A re-route requires a dangerous trip through the heart, forcing Carter to order that Benes' heart be temporarily stopped. With time running out, the crew decide to take a hazardous short-cut through the inner ear to the brain, but again there are problems, as the mission is jeapordized by the unknown traitor and Benes' own body working to defend itself against the foreign objects floating within it.

Combining a 1950s sci-fi mentality with 1960s special effects, Fantastic Voyage is visionary kitsch. With the space race in full swing and the cold war at high heat, there is no denying the inventiveness of turning the exploration theme inwards, and transforming the concept of flying through endless space into navigating the smallest capillaries of the human body. The Harry Kleiner screenplay (with four others sharing story and adaptation credits) efficiently introduces the set-up, and cleverly integrates the not-yet-perfect miniaturization science into the cold war tension, with secret military labs and threats from saboteurs thrown in to create numerous opportunities for drama.

Director Richard Fleischer and cinematographer Ernest Laszlo then weave together the visuals, and create a creditable environment with a succession of stunning backdrops mostly inspired by ocean depths. For the most part, the special effects have held up remarkably well.

The adventures of Proteus within the human body are never dull, the incredible obstacles and dangers of traveling through the human body becoming a thrill ride heightened by the subversive attempts to sabotage the mission. Fleischer constructs the film in the form of an obstacle course with a surprise around every corner. The scientists are forced to rely on their ingenuity to problem solve on the fly, including frequent excursions out of the submarine to circumvent, fix, or innovate their way through the latest crisis.

Slightly less successful are the goings-on back in the secret lab as anxious military and medical types monitor the mission's progress. Some of the buffoonish attempts at tension and humour in the control room do not work, and fully deserve the parodies that they inspired in films like Airplane!.

The performances are generally bland, and this is a good thing, since there is enough stimulation in the premise, backdrops and special effects not to require flashy acting. Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasence, Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and William Redfield maintain an even keel. For the most part Welch remains subdued and is surprisingly convincing as a scientist's assistant. She stays under the wraps of her mundane submariner outfit, although late in the film she starts forgetting to fully zip up her top. Kennedy's Dr. Duval attempts some clunky philosophizing inspired by the journey through the human body, at regular intervals spouting weighty but meaningless musings about humanity, life and the order of things.

Innovative, audacious and sometimes campy, Fantastic Voyage lives up to its name.

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The Movies Of Donald Pleasence

All movies starring Donald Pleasence and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Great Escape (1963)

The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

You Only Live Twice (1967)

THX 1138 (1971)

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Telefon (1977)

Halloween (1978)

Escape From New York (1981)

The Ambassador (1984)

Prince Of Darkness (1987)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Halloween (1978)

The small, independent B-film that became a sensational international success and launched the slasher flick genre, Halloween is a brilliant piece of compact film making. John Carpenter creates a masterpiece of mood, mounting tension and frenzied horror, all embellished with an unsettling killer's point-of-view perspective.

In the small suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, 6 year old Michael Myers stabs his sister Judith to death on October 31 1963. Committed to a high security mental institution, he slips into a seemingly catatonic, non-communicative state. At age 21 Michael (Nick Castle) is deemed to be a low risk and transferred to a hospital, much to the horror of his doctor, the psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Michael soon breaks out and makes his way back to Haddonfield, killing anyone who gets in his way. Once Dr. Loomis realizes that Michael is on the loose, he gives chase.

Back in his hometown, a masked and threatening Michael starts stalking reserved teenager Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), and her more outgoing friends Annie (Nancy Kyes) and Lynda (P.J. Soles). It's Halloween night again, Laurie has babysitting duties while Annie and Lynda want to have fun with their boyfriends. The streets are crawling with trick-or-treating kids, Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) are frantically looking for Michael, but the bodies start to stack up as Michael goes on a murderous rampage.

Halloween was produced on a $350,000 budget, and generated $70 million at the box office. Hollywood was awakened to the profitable potential of easy to make horror films, and Michael Myers became the first serial killer of teens to spawn a franchise of sequels, soon to be followed by Jason (Friday The 13th), Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and a host of lessor imitators.

Halloween popularized the essential building blocks of the slasher genre, including the larger than life killer who is next-to-impossible to kill, a world populated mostly by teens, and the final girl trope. The film also established some essential rules for who lives and who dies. Laurie is polite, modest and avoids boys and sexual adventurism. She also takes her baby-sitting responsibilities seriously. The victims tend to be more outgoing, less responsible, chasing boys, and quicker to enjoy sex. Poor Judith gets next to no screen time: she has sex with her boyfriend and dies within the first few minutes of the genre's birth, the first of countless girls to pay the ultimate price for on-screen carnal pleasure.

Carpenter co-wrote Halloween with Debra Hill, and the script celebrates its simplicity. The first act establishes Michael's background (monster is born); the second act is all about stalking (monster prepares to strike); the third act is a frantic kill-fest, with Michael picking off his victims and closing in on Laurie (monster on the loose). Michael is the impersonation of the bogeyman from every child's nightmare, his mask rendering him faceless and his lumbering, imposing gait seemingly unstoppable. And it's all happening on Halloween, the kids under Laurie's care getting a close-up view of a real demon unleashed on the harrowing night.

Halloween is filled with classic, unforgettable moments. The opening single-take sequence through Michael's first-person view is jarring at many levels, the viewer forced to see the world through a menacing killer's eyes. The reveal that Michael, having just slaughtered his sister with a massive knife, is just a kid, is a shocking moment, Carpenter lingering on parents staring incredulously at their young, murderous son. The stalking scenes ratchet up the tension through Michael's sheer presence, as he starts popping up everywhere that Laurie and her friends want to be, behind the bushes, under the laundry line, across the street, standing, observing, plotting, threatening. Nothing violent happens for much of the middle half of the film; just an exquisite build-up of tension.

Carpenter's simple musical theme demonstrated how 10 notes on the piano can conjure up a mood of creeping cataclysm, and adds a suffocating sense of dread to the unfolding carnage. Donald Pleasence was the one known actor Carpenter was able to afford, and he provides Halloween with an anchor of adult sanity, the one observer who forecasts Michael's evil intentions and swings into action to try and save a community. As the daughter of Janet Leigh, moviedom's most famous victim of a deranged murderer, Jamie Lee Curtis was perhaps fated to play Laurie. This was her film debut, and she went on to reign as the "scream queen" in a series of horror films before transitioning to bigger and better roles.

Simple, effective and creative, Halloween slashes its way to classic status.

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Movie Review: The Great Escape (1963)

An epic World War Two adventure, The Great Escape is based on an actual 1944 mass prison break from a German prisoner of war camp. Director and producer John Sturges goes big with an all-star cast and a running length close to three hours, and succeeds in delivering a stirring spectacle.

Tired of repeated and disruptive escapes by Allied prisoners, the German Luftwaffe build a new, theoretically escape-proof prison to hold captured air men. But by concentrating all the escape artists in one location, the Germans create a dream team of the best breakout men. Dedicated to tying up enemy forces by causing the biggest possible distraction, the prisoners organize themselves under the leadership of master escape plotter Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough), who devises a bold plan to liberate 250 prisoners by digging three tunnels (codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry) under the prison camp's fences and into the forest beyond.

Bartlett does not just want the men to escape, he wants to supply them with civilian uniforms and forged documents to give them the best chance of melding into the landscape and avoiding recapture, thus creating the need for a large German man-hunt that diverts critical resources from the front lines. His key escape team members include scrounger Hendley (James Garner), tunnel king Danny (Charles Bronson), master document forger Blythe (Donald Pleasence), manufacturer Sedgwick (James Coburn) and dispersal expert Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum). They get to work under the noses of the Germans guards, collecting the necessary equipment, digging three mammoth tunnels, and manufacturing, stealing or forging the necessary clothes, identity documents and maps to survive on the outside.

Also at the prison camp is brash American Captain Hilts (Steve McQueen), who independently insists on trying various solo escapes, all of which end in his recapture and incarceration in the solitary confinement "cooler", where he kills time bouncing a baseball off the wall. With the Germans beginning to suspect that something is up and then discovering one of the tunnels, Bartlett finally recruits Hilts to help in the great escape plan, as the men target a moonless night for the mass break-out.

Based on the 1950 book by Paul Brickhill, who lived through the real event at Stalag Luft III, The Great Escape faithfully recreates the escape details while creating composite characters inspired by actual escapees. Sturges dedicates the first two hours to life at the prison camp and the gradual development and implementation of the escape plan. The deliberate pacing provides plenty of time for character development and delving into the breakout details.

From the gallery of superstars, Donald Pleasence as Colin Blythe emerges as the most memorable, a tweedy intelligence officer who chose to board the wrong flight and ended up as a prisoner of war, now entrusted with creating forged documents for 250 escapees. Blythe starts to lose his eyesight, and in one of many examples of poignant human-scale stories triumphing in a grand film, James Garner's Bob Hendley takes Blythe under his wing as the escape approaches its climax.

Hendley himself is a memorably smooth prisoner, able to scrounge up the most difficult of items (including a camera) mostly by getting the psychological upper hand over the prison guards. Charles Bronson gets one of the other leading roles as Danny the tunnel king, a grimly determined expert tunnel digger dedicated to the hard physical labour until confronted by sudden claustrophobia after one too many cave-ins.

Steve McQueen adds undoubted star power and charisma, plus he gets the showy and prolonged motorcycle chase scene and a rightfully famous motorcycle jump courtesy of stuntman Bud Ekins. But there is equally little doubt that McQueen's role as Hilts is almost artificially appended to inject a dose of cool for American audiences. The actual escape was a predominantly British, Canadian and Australian affair, with limited involvement by any Americans.

The final one third of the movie is dedicated to the escape and its aftermath, and while the drama and tension increase to exquisite levels, here Sturges and the screenwriters (James Clavell and W.R. Burnett are credited, but others also contributed) also expand on the liberties. In addition to Hilts' mythical motorcycle chase, another fictional embellishment has Hendley and Blythe taking to the skies in a light aircraft. But the movie does gather up the strands of reality in portraying the number of escapees who actually made it all the way to freedom, as well as the tragedy that befell others.

Adding immeasurably to the impact of the film is the iconic Elmer Bernstein theme music, addictive in its nimble military march simplicity and setting an enduring standard for war movie soundtracks. The Great Escape is great movie-making, Hollywood at its best celebrating history with just a dash of artificial horsepower.

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Movie Review: You Only Live Twice (1967)

James Bond goes to Japan, and You Only Live Twice self-hypnotizes itself with excessive eastern enchantment but awakens in time to deliver a film-saving climax in the heart of a dormant volcano.

The space race between the USSR and the United States is at its peak. When a mysterious rocket ship literally swallows up an American space capsule, the enraged Americans accuse the USSR of space piracy. But the British intelligence services notice that the predatory rocket was launched from an island in the Sea of Japan, and agent James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to investigate, after faking his own death to confuse his enemies. Bond's snooping leads him to Tokyo, where he is assisted by Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), the head of the Japanese secret service, and Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), one of Tanaka's best agents.

The criminal trail leads to the foreboding headquarters of Osato Chemicals, which Bond uncovers to be a front for the evil Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion organization. SPECTRE has been hired to trigger a nuclear war between the USSR and the US, to benefit an unnamed third country (assumed to be China). To hurry the plans along, the SPECTRE rocket ship next swallows up a USSR space capsule, further fracturing relations between the superpowers. While Bond is immersed into Japanese culture, complete with a mock wedding to local girl Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama), the location of the SPECTRE headquarters in the heart of a dormant volcano is finally uncovered. Bond leads a mission to destroy it and prevent yet another act of space piracy which would catapult the world into a war of nuclear destruction.

You Only Live Twice has a straightforward story, preying on the era's obsession with the Cold War spilling into a space race and the threat of creeping militarization in the skies. Relevant as the adventure is, it suffers from long gaps between meaningful events taking place, and the sedentary script descends into travelogue territory.

The second half of the film, with Bond supposedly in training to immerse himself in Japanese culture, slows down and then comes to a full stop. The Roald Dahl script is far too mesmerized by a foreign culture, and mistakes respect for standing and staring. Too much of You Only Live Twice is a slow moving documentary, complete with a sleep-inducing Japanese-variation on the Bond theme. The final insult is that all of Bond's so-called training is for naught -- he never puts any of it to practical use.

Most of the rest of You Only Live Twist is merely adequate. Sean Connery delivers an engaging performance, but he is beginning to show his age and the unmistakeable shadow of role fatigue. Donald Pleasence is terrific as the villain Blofeld, but he appears much too late, the script leaving a hollow space where the bad guy should reside for the most of the duration. And the gadgets are cute but quite rickety. Little Nelly, the highlight gizmo, is a small do-it-yourself helicopter Bond uses to take on a squadron of less-than-convincing enemy choppers.

As for the ladies, they are most unmemorable. Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki clambers over many rocks but does not speak much English, while Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki is only slightly more effective. Karin Dor's Helga Brandt does little to distinguish herself from the token evil woman role. Ironically, Nancy Sinartra singing the transcendent title song is the most memorable female performance.

It is left to the climax to give the film a jolt and lift it out of its slumber. The massive volcano which serves as SPECTRE's headquarters for space operations is a remarkable achievement, and although the shiny technology on display creaks a bit at the edges, the intimidating set complete with retractable roof and hidden rocket launcher is by far the best thing going in You Only Live Twice. This is the first Bond movie with a full-fledged storm-the-fortified-evil-fort finale, directed with bullets flying and ballsy bravado by Lewis Gilbert. The rest of the special effects are only acceptable by 1967 standards, the space scenes of rocket-eating-rocket teetering between spookily impressive and outright laughable.

You Only Live Twice proved to be the end of Connery's initial phase as Bond, a role he would nevertheless return to on two separate occasions in the future. Only Connery determines how many times his Bond lives.

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Movie Review: Telefon (1977)

A cold war thriller, Telefon has many of the necessary elements to deliver a taut experience, but falls somewhat short on overall talent and budget. The result is a clever but vaguely disjointed action movie that lurches forward in fits and starts.

Rogue Soviet KGB officer Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) escapes an internal purge against hard-liners and lands in the United States. With his career in tatters, Dalchimsky sequentially activates Soviet sleeper agents programmed through hypnosis to unleash explosive suicide attacks on US military installations. The agents are awakened by receiving a telephone call and hearing a key passage from Robert Frost's poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Unfortunately for Dalchimsky, the targets were selected in the1950s and are now largely irrelevant, resulting in much embarrassment in Moscow and bemusement at the CIA. Major Grigori Bortsov (Charles Bronson) is selected by the Soviet leadership to travel to the US and put a stop to the mounting carnage. Borstov teams up with American double agent Barbara (Lee Remick) and they attempt to track down and eliminate Dalchimsky, with Barbara also tasked with ensuring that there are no loose ends left at the end of the mission.

Echoing themes from The Manchurian Candidate, Telefon does not lack for creativity. The script is based on Walter Wager's book, and it presents an intriguing premise of deep cold war vestiges coming back to destabilize the world when superpower relations are starting to warm. But everything about the movie is just a bit off. The script flirts too often with plastic dialogue. The relationship between Borstov and Barbara creaks instead of smouldering, neither Bronson nor Remick cut-out for the flirting agent role. And Pleasence is dripping with just a bit too much crazed evil, allowing some of the comic Bond villain Blofeld persona to creep into the role.

Despite the shortcomings, there is plenty of entertainment on offer. Director Don Siegel moves the action along briskly, Telefon never sagging in intensity. When Bronson is not asked to spar with Remick, he does what Bronson does best: smoothly slicing through the mayhem to get to his target, thinking on his feet and executing with efficiency. Tyne Daly, Alan Badel, Patrick Magee, and Sheree North maintain interest in the minor roles. And the scenes of sleeper agents completing their suicide assignments have become more unsettling with the passage of time and the preponderance of suicide bombers as routine weapons in actual global conflicts.

Although it may lack some of the glitz and polish of other thrillers, the action is honest and the execution professional. Telefon may not be the quickest to pick up, but it answers the call.

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Movie Review: THX 1138 (1971)

The first feature film by George Lucas is interesting more for spotting the genesis of ideas that would later emerge in the Star Wars series, and less for the film itself.

Holograms, robotic soldiers (in this case police officers), androids, and fights with long sticks all make their debut in THX 1138. The film itself barely conceals its student project origins, and has strong parallels with 1984. In a seemingly highly repressive futuristic society that generally remains unexplained, the population is controlled into robotic submission by mind-altering drugs, and all actions are centrally observed and controlled.

People have numbers instead of names. THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) is an android builder, and he's not following orders in taking the prescribed pills. He starts to experience emotions and enters into an illicit sexual relationship with his roommate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie), and they are observed by SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasence). Soon THX and LUH are captured but so is SEN. After spending some time as captives, the three must face their destiny.

The film mixes a technology-heavy focus with a sparse, almost theatrical look, dominated by white clothes on plain white canvas. Not much time or effort is invested in providing any kind of background or depth to the proceeding, so THX 1138 becomes solely focused on the characters and their immediate actions with little context. Duvall barely conveys emotion, Pleasence is over-emotive, and McOmie alternates between grim desperation and embracing the fleeting freedom from drugs.

The film's aloofness translates into a cold viewing experience. With little emotional ties to THX 1138 the character or the film, the final, prolonged sequence fails to engage. The directorial debut of George Lucas is more intellectually interesting than triumphant, but it was a likely necessary passageway to one of the greatest science fiction film franchises.

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