Meurtres en cascade

A very decent effort from director Jonathan Demme before he went on to better things,LAST EMBRACE is inevitably compared to the works of Alfred Hitchcock,with many scenes derivative from many of the master's most famous works(VERTIGO,THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH,STRANGERS ON A TRAIN,etc.),but this is actually an effective suspenser in it's own right,with an intriguing plot,good performances and an exciting finale.Roy Scheider plays a Secret Agent just released from care after suffering a breakdown after his wife was killed in a shootout in a restaurant.After finding a woman(Janet Margolin)who has moved into his flat,he begins to suspect someone is trying to kill him after sinister messages in Amharic keep turning up.

The film would've been more superior with more humour and better pacing,but nevertheless this isn't at all a bad Hitch imitation,with the bird imagery(a motif Hitchcock used frequently in his films)and a fine musical score by Miklos Rozsa(who had himself worked with Hitchcock on SPELLBOUND)adding to the atmosphere.The performances are fine,especially Ms Margolin,an undervalued and lovely actress who never quite made it to the top,making her character quite pitiable despite her actions.Her early death at the age of 50 in 1993 was indeed a sad loss for a film performer who deserved better.

LAST EMBRACE was made shortly before Hitchcock's death in 1980;one wonders did he ever see this film? If so,I think he would have quite enjoyed the homage on view,not great,but fairly respectful and entertaining.

This small pic was a preview of great things to come from Jonathan Demme, who went onto MELVIN & HOWARD, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, STOP MAKING SENSE, to name a few other notable works. This was a decent 100 minute time waster that you either got or you didn't, liked or hated. Roy Scheider turned in his always good performance and I didn't mind looking at Janet Margolin in the bathtub.

I watched "Last Embrace" for the first time late last night, having recorded it off BBC1 over three (!) years ago.

It was worth the wait. Roy Scheider's character is a simmering, paranoid wreck who is haunted by guilt over his wife's recent and violent death. He feels that he is surplus to requirements in his job (a hitman)and begins to see his wife's brother (Charles Napier) as a deadly enemy. He is half right. A belltower scene blatantly stolen from "Vertigo" helps solve this particular problem but now Scheider has to face up to dark threats posed by a Hebraic note sent to him. And to complicate matters he falls in love with a young woman (the sexy, late Janet Margolin) with whom he is temporarily sharing his apartment.

Two strong and gutsy performances from the two leading characters maintain the suspense levels right to the dramatic climax.

Demme's best '70s effort (slightly shading it over "Fighting Mad" and "Citizen's Band" but miles better than his overrated debut, "Caged Heat")

8/10

Many directors have tried their hand at a "Hitchcock" - that unique blend of romance, glamour and suspense combined with great stars, and shaped by a distinctive directorial style. Of all the efforts, I have always liked Jonathan Demme's "Last Embrace" best. Did he get the mix right? Well not exactly, and critics at the time were quick to point out where he had missed the mark. However, instead of just being a flawed Hitchcock homage, I think "Last Embrace" stands up well as an enjoyable movie in its own right.

Harry Hannan, a secret service agent, has fallen foul of both the government agency he works for, and a mysterious killer who leaves notes for intended victims written in ancient Aramaic. He receives help from a woman, Ellie Fabian, who he initially finds annoying and intrusive, but later, his feelings for her change. The plot is complex and contains many layers. It features an ending at Niagara Falls that has strong echoes of Hitchcock's classic "North By Northwest".

It seems Demme had doubts about the finished film. He felt he had tried so hard to get the Hitchcock style that he had neglected content. But surely he is too hard on himself as he made up for any shortcomings by delivering a film of considerable style and mood. Based on a novel, "The 13th Man" by Murray Teigh Bloom, Demme and his team created a new story around the basic plot with the result that the film, in my opinion, emerged as the superior work.

Demme called on the services of Miklos Rozsa for the music. Rozsa scored only one movie for Hitchcock - "Spellbound" - but his style was distinctive and the score for "Last Embrace" brings to mind that famous romantic thriller.

Where "Last Embrace" lost out in comparison to the great Hitchcock films such as "Spellbound", "Notorious", "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo" was not only in the absence of a little more humour but also in the weight of its stars.

Hitchcock's best films featured stars that were already Hollywood icons - James Stewart, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly. Although Roy Scheider, was a fine actor he was never an icon. On the other hand, Janet Margolin is so little known that comparisons with Bergman, Kelly or even Kim Novak are superfluous, she also projected a more neurotic edge than Hitchcock's cool blondes. But she was beautiful and talented. I still remember in 1993 being shocked to see her name on Premiere's list of actors who had died that year - she was only 50. I think she brought a lot to this movie especially when it is seen simply as an intriguing and well-made thriller.

Demme has not repeated the Hitchcock homage, but has gone on to hone his own distinctive directorial style - "Silence of the Lambs" gained him an Academy Award - one prize Hitchcock never received. "Last Embrace" is not easy to find these days but let's hope that right now, somewhere in a studio warehouse, the masters are being dusted off ready for a belated, but well-deserved DVD release.

Although Jonathan Demme's 1992 Oscar-winner THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was his first major suspense thriller, it wasn't the first film he'd ever made in that genre. That honor goes to Demme's 1979 thriller LAST EMBRACE (LE), which I first saw and loved during its original theatrical run. At the time, LE was touted as a romantic Hitchcockian thriller. While LE definitely has strong elements of VERTIGO and other Hitchcock classics, I've always considered it to be more of a paranoia thriller with film noir touches, which I guess makes LE what might be called "film shachor." :-) Cool, craggy yet suave Roy Scheider had long been one of our family's favorite tough-guy actors; to many fans. At first glance, he might not seem vulnerable enough to be convincing as a beleaguered paranoia film hero. However, Scheider proved to be perfect casting as Harry Hannan, a government agent with more baggage than Louis Vuitton. Harry is still heartbroken and guilt-ridden about his beloved wife getting killed while she accompanied him as cover on one of his assignments. After he spends time in a Connecticut sanitarium recovering from his nervous breakdown, Harry has barely had a chance to lose his institutional pallor when he's almost shoved in front of an express train. When he returns to his spy agency in New York City, his slippery spymaster Eckart (Christopher Walken) keeps him at arm's length; maybe Eckart thinks Harry's sharp cream-colored suit makes him too conspicuous for undercover work. Worst of all, Harry discovers he's one of several Jewish men getting death threats written in Biblical Hebrew from an unknown "Avenger of Blood"…and so far, he's the only one still alive.

Everyone scoffs at poor Harry's jitters. Who can he trust? Certainly not his brother-in-law (Charles Napier), a fellow spook who blames Harry for his sister's violent death ("You're careless with people, Harry"). Our hero eventually joins forces with Ellie Fabian (Janet Margolin), a pretty New York graduate student who sublet his apartment while he was in the sanitarium. But the vulnerable Ellie seems to have her own issues and secrets. Will that spell doom for both Ellie and Harry? And how does a turn-of-the-20th-century Jewish brothel figure in the sinister fix Harry has found himself in? Scheider and Margolin had fine chemistry together; their characters' sensitivity and wariness made me feel for them, and they even had playful moments along the way. Ms. Margolin was at her loveliest, too. (Sadly, she died of ovarian cancer in 1993 at the age of 50. Janet, we hardly knew ye.) Scheider, Margolin, and Walken are aided and abetted by a rogues' gallery of stellar New York character actors, including John Glover as Ellie's insecure professor boyfriend; Marcia Rodd as Harry's nervous agency contact; David Margulies as a rabbi with connections; Joe Spinell and Jim McBride as thugs; Captain Arthur Haggerty as a bouncer waiting to use the phone; Mandy Patinkin and Max Wright in bit parts as commuters who may or may not have some 'splainin' to do; scene-stealer Sam Levene as the crotchety but likable head of a secret Jewish society; and director Demme himself cameo-ing as a stranger on a train.

Some critics complained that despite Demme's obvious affection for the Hitchcockian material, LE could have used more of The Master of Suspense's zest and verve. I won't deny that the pace slows down at times, but with Roy Scheider at his peak and Janet Margolin's touching, multifaceted performance, I was willing to be patient. Demme and screenwriter David Shaber (adapting Murray Teigh Bloom's novel The 13th Man) make up for the film's flaws with plenty of appealingly quirky Demme-style characterization. Judaism's key role in LE's plot was fresh and intriguing, as well as making excellent use of an elaborate, well-crafted red herring. The settings contribute to the film's Demme-ness; his ace Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto really makes the New York City and Princeton, NJ locations integral to the plot and its Hitchcockian motifs, especially the bell tower sequence and an exciting climax at Niagara Falls (I can hear you making lewd jokes :-)). The film brims with only-in-New-York characters and situations; for instance, the competition for living space in Manhattan provides amusing undertones to Harry's first awkward encounters with Ellie. Miklos Rozsa's swooningly romantic yet foreboding score pulls together the film's emotional undercurrents beautifully. Between LAST EMBRACE and STILL OF THE NIGHT, if I'd been Roy Scheider, I'd have stayed out of Central Park and environs for fear of elusive assailants! LAST EMBRACE is also available on DVD: http://www.mgm.com/view/movie/1084/Last-Embrace/