“The Offence” (1972)
While many of Sidney Lumet’s films centered around the police dealt with corruption, this curious, minimal entry asked what would happen if an officer was compromised by something from within his own mind. Starring Sean Connery as Detective Sergeant Johnson, “The Offence” opens with a slo-mo sequence that would make Zack Snyder proud, with the detective savagely beating and killing a suspect in an interrogation room. The movie then jumps back, and in the first half hour, shows us the events leading up to what we’ve just seen. Johnson and the rest of the department are looknig for a serial child molester preying on local children, and after an exhaustive manhunt, they bring in somebody who Johnson and even his colleagues think may be their man — based not on evidence, but on their gut instinct. Johnson is so determined to get an answer he winds up killing the suspect. From there the film really only has two more long extended scenes. In one, which nearly grinds the film to a halt, Johnson returns home and gets into a domestic squabble with his wife who wants him to share his dark secrets and feelings with her and when he does, she’s horrified to the point of vomiting. The next is an interview back at the police station with an investigator tasked with getting Johnson’s complete version of events. Finally, the film closes by jumping back to the talk Johnson had with the suspect and the dark, disturbing explanation for his overreaction is posited. It’s bold, challenging material but it’s ultimately trumped by the time-jumping narrative which treats the revelation as a twist, cheating the film of greater dramatic heft. And while Connery is in great form, the overly talky two-hour picture drags at times and never quite matches the crackling intensity the actor is bringing to the part. An interesting but not entirely rewarding inversion on Lumet’s continued study of law enforcement. [C]
“Day of the Dolphin” (1973)
One of those premises that make you wonder what everyone was thinking when they signed on, “Day of the Dolphin” is perhaps now most famous for its tagline — “Unwittingly, he trained a dolphin to kill the President of the United States.” This makes it sound like a campy classic, but it’s actually much more interesting than that, and well worth a watch, even if it is wildly uneven. Based on the best-seller by Robert Merle, and originally set to be directed by Roman Polanski (who pulled out after the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate), the film ended up as a reteam of “The Graduate” pair of director Mike Nichols and writer Buck Henry, who underlay some knowing absurdity, even if the film is incredibly earnest on the surface. George C. Scott headlines as Dr. Jake Terrell, a marine biologist who, with his wife Maggie (Trish Van Devere, who married Scott after filming) has managed to teach dolphins to communicate with humans. But their backer (Fritz Weaver) turns out to actually be the head of a sinister conspiracy, and kidnaps two of the creatures, Fa and Bea, in order to train them to the kill the President of the United States by attaching a limpet mine to his yacht. Nichols’ refusal to treat the film as a B-movie is sort of admirable, and when you subtract the far-fetched premise (which isn’t that much sillier than “The Ipcress File“), it’s actually a remarkably effective paranoid thriller to sit alongside something like “The Parallax View,” with shadowy semi-government organizations and corporate conspiracies. Scott is committed and winning in the lead role, and the film, while bonkers, is very rarely boring. If only it had ended the way the novel did, with dolphins towing the central characters out to sea as a nuclear war breaks out… [B-/C+]
“The Day of the Jackal” (1973)
Probably the best known title on this list, it’s relatively underseen status may come as a result of the fact that this crackling procedural doesn’t boast any name-brand stars. Indeed, Fred Zinneman would later wonder if his decision to go with the (at the time) largely unknown Edward Fox in the title role would be one of the reasons for its middling box office reception. And perhaps it was, but artistically the choice was the first of many that led to one of the genre highlights of the decade. Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth and adapted by Kenneth Ross (who also penned “The Odessa File”), the film takes place just after the real-life assassination attempt of Charles De Gaulle in August 1962, and dreams up another coordinated effort by the French Organization of the Secret Army (OAS). Beleaguered by their failures and slowly being undone by leaks from within their own organization, the OAS decide to hire an outsider for one last shot (pun intended) at killing De Gaulle, and the man for the job is The Jackal. As internationally renowned for his reputation as his anonymity, The Jackal accepts and quickly gets to work, and the first half of the film is marvel of intrigue as we see this chameleon put all the pieces together for his job, with a cool, calculating head, combined with a hand that isn’t afraid to quietly kill anyone who gets in his way. But as ‘Jackal’ shifts into the second half, it turns up the heat and becomes a manhunt as the unflappable detective Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) is tasked by the French government to track him down. Even running at two and a half hours, Zinneman’s picture moves at a breathless pace, racheting up the tension right up until De Gaulle gets into the crosshairs. It’s easy to see how this film’s combination of stylistic cool and crime-solving realism influenced contemporary efforts like David Fincher’s “Zodiac” or Anton Corbijn’s “The American.” But none of it works without Fox’s chilling lead perfomance as The Jackal, a charming chameleon, who commands terror by the simple measure of his everyman persona. And Lonsdale is equally strong as the foil, with Zinneman’s movie presenting two analytical minds headed on a collision course. Boasting gorgeous European locations and strong combination of action and tactical problem solving, ‘Jackal’ is a must watch, sitting among the top tier of the ticking clock thrillers. [A-]
