Il patto segreto

I watched this again today having been let down somewhat on the first viewing. I hoped I'd been little harsh on the TV treatment since I like Jack Higgins stuff and I was willing to give it another go. A second viewing didn't raise my appreciation. They seem to have spent loads on locations, this thing goes all over the world and there are a few decent sets. The story is fine and the woman playing Bernstein is excellent but Rob Lowe and most of the rest of the cast are dreadful. I can see a few well known faces in there but they deliver their lines as though they are drugged. It looks like it was shot on an old camcorder and the music sounds like it came from a 80's digital watch. I guess it depends on the production company and the resources they've got but I've seen many TV movies with good production values, Robin Cooks Formula for Death springs to mind as a good example. I've also seen Thunder Point with Kyle Maclachlan as Sean Dillan, it's just as bad.

OK, there are so many things wrong with this movie, I don't know where to start. I have been reading Jack Higgins for probably a decade and a half, so I am quite familiar with his work and his characters.

First off, Rob Lowe???? Good actor, bad accent. Oh, wait, I forgot, he can't do an Irish accent. Also, Sean Dillon is described as a nondescript figure, as far as his build goes. The only qualities that make him the man we love is his 'Fair, almost white hair and his pale blue eyes'. Lowe, obviously, has neither of them. Well, almost the eyes... MAYBE.

Hannah Bernstein, an intellectual Scotland Yard inspector. They got that right. However, Jack Higgins repeatedly dresses her in trouser suits.

Brigadier Charles Ferguson, always in an unkempt state, dress-wise, except for his Guards tie.

Also, the movie would've been much better had they followed the book a little more closely. The way which Ferguson and Dillon meet was in a different book altogether. And they didn't even get it right! The initial meeting of Asta and Dillon, again, not accurate. The arrangement made for reservations at Loch Dhu???? NOT EVEN CLOSE!

In other words, as a Jack Higgins fan, I was embarrassed by this movie.

This movie was really enjoyable. Although the plot wasn`t extremely interesting at times, the film had other qualities like some of the settings and beautiful women. Dapkunaite and Deborah Moore get a high score for there beauty, especially Dapkunaite was very charming. The music score was also fine and contributed as well.

The movie was 2h 40 min long but it was fine all the way through.

This was the first of Rob Lowes involment in Jack Higgin`s novels to be filmed, he showed in both film he`s a fine actor.

As the book was superb but it isn't quite there almost but not quite. It needed a little more of a jolt in the action/drama department and that is one characteristic that isn't present in most Jack Higgin's book-based movies which is a crying shame if you ask me. Rob Lowe is once again Mr. Sean Dillon, professional IRA terrorist contractor turned British Government assassin whose job this time is to recapture a vital document called the Chungking Convenant which allowed the British to keep Hong Kong for another 100 years. The problem is that the Mafia wants it as well and they dispatch a seemingly legitimate businessman and his beautiful daughter to beat Ferguson to the punch. I like the fact they kept the original cast members in these films to give them some stability and credibility which is unusual for the vast majority of TV movies. It is also amusing that another reviewer couldn't understand that Prochnow's daughter wasn't his real daughter she was his wife's real daughter and yes the Italian bad guy's name is Giovanni what did you think his name should be Ralph or Edward? The poor devil couldn't even figure out that Prochnow's character was HALF Italian not full Italian. Not a film you are going to watch routinely or even twice for that matter the point is to watch it so you can say you have if someone ever asks you. That's it end of story.

This film is extremely unimpressive, sorry Lawrence Gordon Clarke. I was in it too and played a bodyguard and had a fight scene with Robe Lowe, plus another scene.

I really wanted to like it, truly I did, but it is just so painful to watch.

It could have been so much better if the acting had been up to scratch. There were times on set that I thought I was witnessing children in a play ground running about shouting "Bang Bang Your'e dead"!

Very disappointing to say the least, especially as I wanted to show the film off to my friends and family because I was in it.