Rapimento di un presidente

Latin American terrorists abduct the President of the United States while he is on a state trip in Toronto. The Secret Service have to devise a plan to get him back alive.

This Canadian political thriller features Captain Kirk - I mean William Shatner - in a starring role as the head of the American Secret Service. It's always kind of fun watching him in contemporary roles and in this one he even gets to utter an f-bomb which was a bonus. He's pretty good value here and the main reason I am guessing anyone would actively seek this one out. Starring alongside him is one of those reliable 70's stalwarts, Hal Holbrook, who gets to play the President. The film itself really starts out pretty well and by the half-way point it has set in motion a pretty intriguing scenario. It would only be fair to say though that in the second half it kind of peters out a bit and the varied action and events of the set-up culminate with a situation that can best be described as a man in a van. Still, it ultimately is decent enough fare and the Toronto setting I quite liked. It certainly had the potential to be better though.

I really wanted to hate this movie. William Shatner has played in some real turkeys, 'Big Bad Mama' being a prime example. However, there was something about this film that I really liked. Maybe it was WS looking all natty and noble in his navy blue suit and trench coat. Or the idea of Van Johnson as the vice president, married to Ava Gardner -- oh, what a casting fiasco that was! Or Hal Holbrook being presidential yet once again. Or the fact that this was a Canadian film actually shot on location in Toronto (starring my favorite guy from north-of-the-border). The story wasn't too bad, the acting wasn't too horrible. And did I mention how cute Shatner looked?

...but not as good as it thinks it is. It's an interesting concept, the American president is kidnapped, locked in an armored truck and held for ransom. The script has plot holes you could drive an armored truck through and logical non-sequiturs abound.

The soundtrack is annoying as heck. There's some music mixed in there someplace but it's frequently lost behind a wall of chirpy synthesizer noises.

And the pacing is sluggish. It's like being in grade school and receiving an assignment to write an essay of some arbitrary length, say 500 words, so you just shovel padding words into the essay until you reached the mandated length. That's how the script feels - padded and bloated.

The cast is OK-ish. Hal Holbrook is fine as the presidential hostage but he's not asked to do much more than sit in a truck. It's always a pleasure to see Van Johnson, who starred in some of my favorite childhood movies - Brigadoon and The Pied Piper of Hamlin - and Ava Gardner.

What to say about Shatner that hasn't been written countless times already? I'm not really sure we should call what he does "acting". He just is Shatner just as he is just Kirk and just every other character he's ever portrayed. He's always the same. Like Robert Morley or Jerry Lewis. Unchanging. Constant. The most disconcerting aspect of his participation is most actors sharing a scene with him unconsciously act like him.

There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours but I know there are better ways as well.

My original review written in August 1980 after a press screening in Manhattan: A fine action-suspense film shot last winter in Canada, "The Kidnapping of the President" has good topical prospects in this presidential campaign year. Lack of b.o.-exploitable names in the familiar cast should be a stumbling block, however.

Functional script by Richard Murphy from Charles Templeton's novel has Third World terrorists devising a plot to bring America to its knees by kidnapping the president. Hot issue of whether anyone should accede to terrorists' demands is pic's central theme.

After an unpromising, needlessly bloody opening set in South America, film settles down to gripping tale of terrorists led by chilling psychotic Miguel Fernandes, snatching president Hal Holbrook, who is wading through a crowd in downtown Toronto. Handcuffing himself to Holbrook, Fernandes believably makes off with his hostage by threatening to detonate explosives strapped to his vest. Plausibility of this well-directed staging drives home the fact that any politician routinely risks death in public appearances from some deranged person willing to forfeit his own life in the bargain.

Storing the prexy in a booby-trapped security truck, Fernandes holds up the U. S. government for $100,000,000 ransom. Secret Service head William Shatner, vying with the CIA for jurisdiction authority, is faced with the tough decision. Excellent last-reel pacing leads to suspenseful resolution.

Key subplot involves veep Van Johnson also under pressure. First faced with a "Billygate"-type bribery scandal and secondly ambivalent about saving Holbrook, as wife Ava Gardner eggs him on to take a stand.

After the fiasco of his first feature "Stone Cold Dead", director George Mendeluk has come back with a solid action film, which wisely doesn't hide its Canadian origins. Murphy's script marks a welcome return to features by the screenwriter of "Boomerang", "Panic in the Streets" and "Compulsion". Mike Molloy's budget-stretching photography in the oval office set and on Toronto locations is outstanding.

Shatner and Holbrook are effective in their central roles, but the film's real star is Fernandes, creating a spell-binding anti-hero as the lead terrorist. Elizabeth Shepherd is quite affecting in her small role as the First Lady. Guestars Van Johnson and Ava Gardner form an attractive couple as veep and wife in their first featured teaming in 35 years, since "Three Men in White".

Starring William Shatner as a Secret Service agent, the President is successfully kidnapped and the search for him and the kidnappers is on. A decent film, far better than Vantage Point which had a similar idea behind it, the acting and pacing are decent as is the ending. Worth seeing if it were ever on.