Chasse à l'homme

"Rogue Male" is Geoffrey Household's finest thriller, and has long been one of my favorite books. I only discovered the existence of the film recently, and, sold by the screenwriter, director and cast listings, bought it sight-unseen, which I NEVER do. I was not disappointed. Cuts and changes were made, of course, the vast majority thoroughly justifiable. One or two others, while perhaps not strictly necessary, did no harm at all. The result was complete justice to the novel and a fine film!

I first saw this on TV back in the mid 70's and it was definitely a story of the time, when WW2 was still in the forefront of many peoples minds.

Maybe not to the more modern taste, I've always enjoyed this film. It has a feel of the Thirty Nine Steps about it.

Just before the outbreak of WW2, Peter O'Tooles character fails in his revenge assassination attempt on Hitler. With the help of a sympathetic German, and English sailors, he escapes back to Britain and has to go on the run from the British and Nazi authorities who are both after him to return to Germany to answer for his "crime". He goes into hiding in the country, drawing on his hunting experience, and waits to the outbreak of war when his assassination attempt is looked on in a completely different light by the British, who now see him as a potential asset.

I first saw this in the mid 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. This film is criminally underrated n it definitely deserves a remake with bigger budget, action sequences n a different ending.

The film is about a hunter who gets a chance to shoot Hitler but misses it. He is then tortured n left for dead by the nazis. He somehow manages to make his way back to his home country. Fearing of extradition n the nazis n local cops after him, he goes under the ground. Yes, literally under the ground. The film turns into a survival thriller n we come to kno that our hunter is the forefather of Rambo. The film is beautifully shot with some amazing countryside locations. The editing, acting n direction is top notch.

This film is based on a book. There is a 1941 film version. The writer of the Rambo series got heavily inspired by the book upon which this film is based on.

The story is good, but the whole thing is let down by some truly appalling camera work/lighting that makes the whole thing look cheap as chips. Some decent, if slightly wooden, acting from O'Toole, upstaged by Sim.

I wasn't expecting much, and the horrendous VHS-to-DVD transfer didn't help matters, but the close following of screenplay to novel, and the perfect casting of O'Toole as the vulnerable English aristocrat, makes this TV?!? adaptation a must see.

Much of the quality and suspense of the novel comes through, and the wordiness if you will of the script gave O'Toole the freedom to express his character and the political-vs-personal tensions Household filled _Rogue Male_ with.

This must have been an English production, I can't imagine an American one including the racial characterizations, 30's political details, or the quick repartee.