Callan

There's alot of things I wish happened on this film adaptation of Callan. The main one is casting. I would have loved to see Ronald Radd or William Squire reprise the role of Hunter and Anthony Valentine return as Toby Myres. Valentine didn't play the character during the original Aemchair Theater teleplay (Peter Boyles did) so this would have been new. The casting is still good as are the performances and if one is not so initiated with the tv series, would not mind these actors at all. Some familiar faces do return like Russell Hunter as Lonely (no one else can bring that role to life), and Clifford Rose as Snell, the Section's doctor with a chillingly indifferent aire about him.

This is a very small budget film but like the show, the strength is in the story and performances. The story which was the initial teleplay that started the serie is expanded to include some action sequences like Callan training to return to the service and a well shot action sequence involving an interesting car chase in the English countryside.

To me, this is about on par with the TV show, the difference is how James Mitchell expanded the story and not too much else. There is a difference with the movie from the TV show that can't be helped and that's how claustrophobic the TV show made everything seem. All these characters caught in this world of intrigue, very few places to hide. That added to the strength of the stories. Here, things are out in the open, it's all shot on film and that gives it some space. The viewer is not so drawn into it all.

If you don't mind limitations (this certainly doesn't have the budget of a Bond film) and like the genre, this film would be something you like. If you are a fan of a show but never got around to this, you might be a little disappointed for the reasons I mentioned but maybe not so much after a second or third viewing.

An acceptable expansion of the pilot episode of the celebrated TV spy series,CALLAN benefits from Edward Woodward's memorable characterisation of an unglamourous,seedy and brutish secret agent David Callan,helped and hindered by his even seedier sidekick,smelly petty crook Lonely,superbly played by Russell Hunter.Although not quite as good as the TV series,this film version is still very watchable and efficiently directed by Don Sharp,with a few interesting frisson's added,most notably Callan's ferocious disposal of a gangster's hit-man(played by Dave Prowse,later to become Darth Vader's physical form.As with Star Wars,Prowse's Bristol accent is dubbed over here as well)and the gangster's subsequent use for virtual human experimentation,which Callan observes to his disgust and horror.The series was always interesting for Callan's frequent clashes with his superiors,made more strident because of his working-class background;his colleagues were invariably upper middle-class,public schoolboys,as typified by the vindictive bully Toby Meres,played here by Peter Egan.Egan is adequate in the role but lacks the extra toughness,wit and humour provided by Anthony Valentine in the TV series(Peter Bowles played Meres in the pilot),and his boss 'Hunter',played in this film version by Eric Porter; the best 'Hunter' of all in the TV series was probably William Squire.

Many UK TV shows had film versions produced in the 1970's,mostly sitcoms like ON THE BUSES,LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR,MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE,etc. These and others were mostly dismal but CALLAN works far better despite having to add more footage from the original TV pilot,and works as a taut,terse and respectable film version of an excellent TV original.

RATING:6 and a half out of 10.

You can never go wrong watching Edward Woodward as the tortured but oh-so-capable assassin - and using a proven TV storyline for expansion was a savvy move as well. The big problem with 1974's Callan appear to come from a shoe-string budget that caused some real problems. The worst is the fifth-rate musical score that frankly steps all over the scenes in which it is used. The inappropriate harmonica is particularly grating and you cheer for the sequences without the ill-fitting music. The sets seem pretty squalid too with a 3rd-rate school gym housing the training ground for England's top assassins. But stick to the acting and story and it's a fairly diverting yarn. The film is tough and diverting as Callan wrestles with his conscience and the demands of his section. Fun to see Peter Egan playing against type as a psycho-bully as well as David Prowse from Clockwork Orange and Star Wars. Finally, the film features a rare chance to see tabletop wargaming on screen - a hobby both for Callan and Woodward.

This 1974 film of "Callan," lets itself down due to a screenplay that is thinly plotted and the sense of intrigue and tension being diluted. The film is on for too long, about 15 minutes should have been edited from the final version. "Callan" is a remake of the play that started it all, "A Magnum For Schneider." Whilst that latter production was filmed entirely in the studio, the suspense and tension never let up. Every scene counted for something. This 1974 movie has a lot of location shooting but so what? It doesn't compensate for a slack narrative. The story is very good at 55 minutes on television but at 100 minutes on film, it becomes tiresome and irritating. There are a few scenes that are OK but that's about all. The scene where Callan deals with Darth Vader himself - Dave Prowse - demonstrates a bit of the tension from the series. It was the right decision to have Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter reprise their respective characters. Who else would we fans want? Eric Porter is effectively cast as Hunter but he's no match for Ronald Radd. Peter Egan is bloody terrible as Meres!

The music is all wrong for the film. That harmonica noise soon grates on my nerves.

A disappointing experience.

While the notion of "franchising" a successful creative work is nothing new today, it was quite novel (sorry for the pun) for author James Mitchell.

His spy novel A Magnum for Schneider was published in 1969. It begat a successful book series; a top-rated British TV drama which ran for years, which Mitchell also wrote for; a bona fide international star (Woodward) who was so successfully identified with the role of Callan that he actually crossed the pond and starred in a TV show there called The Equalizer; and, of all things, this bizarre almost reverent attempt to milk the original cow (the first novel) one more time, in 1974, using most of the original cast, in a feature length film, and shot in colour.

This should be point in the review where I tell you that this whole exercise was of such high quality that Callan is as watchable today (whenever you are reading this) as it was then. If I said that, I would be lying.

While Mitchell had his finger on the pulse of the 60s -- a gradual turning away from traditional and respectable spy stories to something a little more violent and gritty -- it was only a taste of what was to come.

Which means that this film, as competent as it is, will always remain merely a curiosity for fans who remember the original. (And also remember, for example, that in the series, Callan not only returned to his "job" but for a while actually ran the entire Section!) Fond memories. But only memories.