For some reason Paul Newman and international intrigue never hit it off. In The Prize (Mark Robson, 1963), a story of skullduggery at the Nobel Prize ceremonies, complete with kidnappings, violence and romance, Newman looks petulant and sounds whiney. The movie's style echoes Charade and To Catch a Thief, but Newman is definitely no Cary Grant. In Torn Curtain (Alfred Hitchcock, 1966), where a killing is brutal and lengthy, betrayal and capture is a real possibility but where tension is lacking, Newman usually looks irritable and uncomfortable. Torn Curtain isn't much of a movie and Newman disliked his experience working with Hitchcock, but Newman's performance is flat and perfunctory.
With the Mackintosh Man, a story of Cold War intrigue, treason and dangerous escapes, Newman doesn't break his pattern. He gives a performance that, for me, seems commonplace. It's not all his fault. The screenplay by Walter Hill, undoubtedly with a lot of input from director John Huston, is unnecessarily complicated and abrupt. Worse, Huston's direction, in my opinion, is careless and sloppy. Relationships in the movie aren't made clear. There's no subtlety. Details get lost. There's a long, pointless car chase. At times Newman looks like he's all by himself, acting in a vacuum. Much of the movie was filmed in Ireland during Huston's long Irish squire period. One assumes this was the primary reason Huston did the film. He could get great tax write-offs; he was where he enjoyed being; the Irish loved having him there...and he evidently didn't want to be bothered by working too hard.
So why watch the movie? Well, if you're a fan of the adventure novels of Desmond Bagley, you'll know The Mackintosh Man is based on Bagley's The Freedom Trap. For some reason I get a little nostalgic, even while I'm either bored or irritated by the movie, knowing this. The book, as nearly all of Bagley's novels are, is a superior read with careful, tricky plotting, good writing and protagonists you can come to like. The second reason is James Mason. He plays a slippery fellow you'd better not trust too far. Mason is a movie in himself, as he usually was in all of his films. It's a delight to observe just how good he was. The third reason is the large number of first-rate British character actors that populate the movie. Some have significant roles, others are on and off quickly. Here are a few, and they're all memorable...Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Michael Hordern, Nigel Patrick, Peter Vaughan, Roland Culver, Percy Herbert, Niall MacGinnis, Noel Purcell, and Leo Genn. The movie may be confusingly written and carelessly directed, Newman may seem out of place, but you can't beat the cast.
Newman plays Joe Reardon, a tough crook tossed into a British high security prison for 20 years. Eventually he hooks up with a gang that runs an escape operation for long-term prisoners. They get you over the wall and to another country. They can get Reardon out if he pays their high price. Others have gone before. He agrees and out he goes, with another prisoner who is a traitor. By gum, we find out Reardon really is working with British counter- intelligence. High-level traitors are being sprung from the prison and winding up in a transit pipeline to the Soviet Union by way of Malta. Could an aristocratic member of parliament, Sir George Wheeler (Mason), be involved? Does the beautiful Mrs. Smith (Dominque Sanda) really care for Joe or is she playing her own game? Can Newman ever show he's tough without sounding sarcastic? Could a dramatic shoot-out at the climax be more self-consciously staged and directed?
Read Bagley's The Freedom Trap, then see the movie. You'll like, I hope, the story in the book, and you'll like the actors in the movie.
With the Mackintosh Man, a story of Cold War intrigue, treason and dangerous escapes, Newman doesn't break his pattern. He gives a performance that, for me, seems commonplace. It's not all his fault. The screenplay by Walter Hill, undoubtedly with a lot of input from director John Huston, is unnecessarily complicated and abrupt. Worse, Huston's direction, in my opinion, is careless and sloppy. Relationships in the movie aren't made clear. There's no subtlety. Details get lost. There's a long, pointless car chase. At times Newman looks like he's all by himself, acting in a vacuum. Much of the movie was filmed in Ireland during Huston's long Irish squire period. One assumes this was the primary reason Huston did the film. He could get great tax write-offs; he was where he enjoyed being; the Irish loved having him there...and he evidently didn't want to be bothered by working too hard.
So why watch the movie? Well, if you're a fan of the adventure novels of Desmond Bagley, you'll know The Mackintosh Man is based on Bagley's The Freedom Trap. For some reason I get a little nostalgic, even while I'm either bored or irritated by the movie, knowing this. The book, as nearly all of Bagley's novels are, is a superior read with careful, tricky plotting, good writing and protagonists you can come to like. The second reason is James Mason. He plays a slippery fellow you'd better not trust too far. Mason is a movie in himself, as he usually was in all of his films. It's a delight to observe just how good he was. The third reason is the large number of first-rate British character actors that populate the movie. Some have significant roles, others are on and off quickly. Here are a few, and they're all memorable...Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Michael Hordern, Nigel Patrick, Peter Vaughan, Roland Culver, Percy Herbert, Niall MacGinnis, Noel Purcell, and Leo Genn. The movie may be confusingly written and carelessly directed, Newman may seem out of place, but you can't beat the cast.
Newman plays Joe Reardon, a tough crook tossed into a British high security prison for 20 years. Eventually he hooks up with a gang that runs an escape operation for long-term prisoners. They get you over the wall and to another country. They can get Reardon out if he pays their high price. Others have gone before. He agrees and out he goes, with another prisoner who is a traitor. By gum, we find out Reardon really is working with British counter- intelligence. High-level traitors are being sprung from the prison and winding up in a transit pipeline to the Soviet Union by way of Malta. Could an aristocratic member of parliament, Sir George Wheeler (Mason), be involved? Does the beautiful Mrs. Smith (Dominque Sanda) really care for Joe or is she playing her own game? Can Newman ever show he's tough without sounding sarcastic? Could a dramatic shoot-out at the climax be more self-consciously staged and directed?
Read Bagley's The Freedom Trap, then see the movie. You'll like, I hope, the story in the book, and you'll like the actors in the movie.