Goodbye Gemini (1970) + The
Internecine Project (1974) + The
Last Grenade (1970) + Power Play
(1978/Scorpion Releasing DVDs)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+/B-/C-/C+ Films: C+ (Internecine: B-)
So many good and interesting films from the 1970s have
been lost in the shuffle that people would likely want to see because there
were so many independent producers at the time, as well as many independent
distributors that hundreds of interesting and ambitious films are not seen as
much as they should be. Some are
resurfacing, but not enough, so it is great when a new company like Scorpion
Releasing show sup and specializes in smart films made for mature adult
audiences in the thriller and action genres.
We start by looking at four of them they have released as part of their
solid slate.
Goodbye Gemini (1970) was handled by Cinerama in
the U.S. and made by the underrated British Lion Films, based on the Jenni Hall
(who also wrote My Lover My Son)
book about a twin brother (Martin Potter from Fellini Satyricon) and sister (the always great Judy Geeson)
relationship that may cross certain lines, but is not as self-contained when
some outsiders try to take advantage of them.
When they retaliate, all hell breaks loose. Director Alan Gibson (whose work ranges from
solid anthology shows to Hammer Horror hits) handles this material (the
screenplay is by the savvy Edmund Ward, who penned key episodes of The Plane Makers, Man In A Suitcase and The
Main Chance, all reviewed elsewhere on this site) as well as can be
expected and though I would not call the film experimental, it was not totally
successful at the time, yet that is how it remains creepy and (with Wilfred
Shingleton’s (Strange Report, Fearless Vampire Killers, The Avengers) Production Design and cinematography
by Geoffrey Unsworth, B.S.C. (2001: A
Space Odyssey, Murder On The Orient Express (1974), Cromwell) is worth seeing just for the visuals and performances,
but this does not always work on a narrative level. Still, it is worth a good look and has great
supporting actors like Peter Jeffrey, Michael Redgrave, Freddie Jones and
Joseph Furst, so check it out for yourself.
The Internecine
Project (1974) is
my favorite of the four films here, all of which I had actually seen many years
ago. James Coburn was on a roll, still
celebrated for his Derek Flint films, he had suddenly become the star of
challenging, witty thrillers starting with Charade
(1963, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and continuing with The President’s Analyst and The Last Of Sheila, Coburn flew to
England to make this clever thriller (he photographed the cover of Paul
McCartney & Wings’ huge hit album Band
On The Run during this time) in which his shady Robert Elliot plans to
commit a great crime by having all the principles kill each other, leaving no
evidence of his involvement or what he got away with. Writer Jonathan Lynn (later the director of My Cousin Vinny) does an ace of a job
laying the plot out and it was directed by the underrated Ken Hughes (Trials Of Oscar Wilde, Cromwell), so I hope it gets
rediscovered by fans of thriller and mystery who will be shocked it has been
unavailable for so long, and Geoffrey Unsworth shot this film too. Then there is the great supporting cast
including Lee Grant, Ian Hendry, Michael Jayston, Harry Andrews, Christiane
Kruger and Julian Glover. What a buried
gem!
The Last Grenade (1970) and Power Play (1978) are the remaining films, two pictures that are
part of a little-discussed cycle of military thrillers that started to surface
in the early 1960s and ended around the late 1970s/early 1980s. They often had large star casts and
interesting mixes of the genres, even if they did not always resolve themselves
well.
Grenade is a twist on the revenge western
and love triangle with Stanley Baker and Alex Cord as one-time friends going at
each other, but Baker’s character also gets involved with the wife (Honor
Blackman of Goldfinger, who steals
every scene she is in) of a fellow solider and friend (Richard
Attenborough). More a drama than action
film, it juggles the storylines well, but not very well. James Mitchell (Callan) and John Sherlock (TV’s Logan’s Run) adapted from Sherlock’s book and Kenneth Ware (Van Der Valk, The Professionals) did the final screenplay. Gordon Flemyng (Dr. Who & The Daleks, The
Baron, The Saint, The Avengers) directed and the result
is a top rate production, but the result does not always work. Still, it is worth seeing once, especially
for the cinematography by the late, great Alan Hume (For Your Eyes Only, Return
Of The Jedi, Space Precinct, The Avengers).
Finally we have Power
Play, about some British military men planning a coup of the British
Government and the cast is great, including David Hemming, Peter O’Toole,
Donald Pleasance, George Touliatos and David Hemming. Based on Edward N. Luttwak’s book Coup
d’Etat, Director Martin Burke co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Cliff
Osmond and it too is not a bad film that
can be brutal and even creepy as well, but it also has not dated well and though
still worth seeing once, is the most dated of the four, not even always serving
as a good time capsule of the period.
Ousama Rawi (Pulp) was
Director of Photography.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image (save 2.35 X 1
on Grenade, shot in real anamorphic
Panavision) on all the DVDs come from good prints, but they are not always
great or as colorful as I would like, but the definition can be good at times
and all are well shot films that even in these older prints, shame most new HD
productions. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
is also just fine for the age of the films, though you can hear some
compression, distortion and sonic limits.
Too bad some of the scores could not be inserted if stereo copies could
be found.
Extras on each include trailers for other Scorpion
releases, Gemini adds a feature
length audio commentary by Geeson and Producer Peter Snell, Internecine adds audio comments by
Coburn’s daughter Lisa Coburn and on-camera interviews with Lynn and Grant and Power adds a feature length audio
commentary by Burke and separate on-camera interviews with Burke and co-star
Touliatos.
- Nicholas Sheffo
