Meurtres en cascade

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

This is an engrossing thriller -- clearly in the vein established by Hitchcock -- and very much like Brian De Palma's carefully structured style. This is the first Jonathan Demme film I saw and I expected him to work more in this genre. Fortunately, he directed a cornucopeia of film in various styles that vary between intriguing and amazing: including "Melvin and Howard," "Stop Making Sense," "Philadelphia," and one of the best films for repeat viewing, "The Silence of the Lambs." This film stands out from the standard murder mystery in that it presents a non-standard view of Jews who immigrated to the US. To divulge more would spoil the film. Roy Scheider is perfect and Janet Margolin is beautiful. In addition , now -- nearly 25 years later -- it is fun watching Chris Walken, John Glover and Mandy Patinkin early in their careers. It is funny to realize that Margolin, Walken and Glover were all in "Annie Hall" two years earlier.

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.

Having watched an interesting documentary recently, "Dial H for Hitchcock", it's clear to see how Jonathan Demme was influenced by the master himself. His admiration for the master is evident, yet, in spite of everything, Mr. Demme's "Last Embrace" was a surprise nonetheless. "Last Embrace" was one of his first films and it sort of showed the trajectory of Jonathan Demme as a film director would follow. If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.

When Harry Hannan's wife is tragically killed, his life begins to unravel. Harry spends some time in a sanatorium trying to get himself together. Unfortunately, whoever wanted him put away is still much in evidence as his presence is felt right at the station where Harry is trying to board the train back home to Manhattan.

Harry is taken aback to find Ellie living in his apartment, something he had no idea was happening. It's only fitting with films of this genre that Harry will fall for the beautiful young woman who apparently seems to be trying to help him solve the puzzle about a cryptic death threat he has received at home.

Harry with the help of Sam Urdell, starts investigating about the meaning of the strange message he got. Urdell's connection within the Jewish community also unravels another conspiracy that Harry knew nothing about. The final episode involves going through the tunnels where visitors must enter in order to see real close the Falls at Niagara. Even before that there's also a great scene involving Harry's former brother-in-law in a tower at Princeton, which kept reminding us of "Vertigo".

Roy Scheider makes an intense Harry. In fact, Mr. Scheider at the time this film was made, was at the height of his career and he clearly shows why he was an excellent actor. The beautiful Janet Margolin plays Ellie, a woman who is too good to be true when we first meet her, but we have no clue as to what she is capable of doing. The great Sam Levene is seen as Sam Urdell, who befriends Harry and is instrumental in getting to the bottom of this mystery. In supporting roles some familiar faces who went to do much better work later. Christopher Walken, Mandy Patinkin, Jacqueline Brookes, Marcia Rodd, Charles Napier, among others are seen in the film.

Jonathan Demme proved he was a talent that would go to bigger and better things even then.

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/