Callan

This is a tight, intelligent thriller closely based on the fine novel Red File For Callan, from which the great 1960s-1970s Thames TV series developed. David Callan is a solitary, mentally unstable killer, who is given one last chance to return to "The Section", a shadowy British government security department. Callan hates to kill, but is qualified for little else, and has been forced by his old masters into a dull, mundane office job with a harassing boss. His test is to murder someone - a man whom it turns out he knows, an apparently harmless businessman with whom he shares an interest in military history and battle games. The film boasts a first-class performance from Edward Woodward as Callan, reprising his TV role with confidence. Russell Hunter is also extremely good as Lonely, a smelly petty crook whom Callan employs to buy him a gun. Sadly the film was made with little style, and the military band score is disappointingly out of kilter with Jack Trombey's fine, moody Callan TV theme.

The Callan character was an icon in British television history, and was extremely popular with viewers. This story got its first TV outing as A Magnum for Schneider (the book's original title) in a 50 minute slot on Armchair Theatre, a famous British TV drama anthology. (This unofficial pilot can now be seen on a very good DVD compilation of what early episodes are still unwiped, called "Callan: The Monochrome Years" (Network DVD, 2010).) There was also a recent BBC radio version. Callan was seen, like The Ipcress File, as an antidote to the invulnerable 007. Why there were no other Callan films made, since the creator James Mitchell wrote several filmable novels about the character, is a mystery.

Callan boasts one technical distinction: according to the Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats, this was the first film to be released with a Dolby encoded mono soundtrack. (A Clockwork Orange used Dolby noise reduction in its making some years before but used a conventional soundtrack on its release prints.) When I saw Callan on its release at a local cinema, I remember thinking the sound was uncommonly clear and the dialogue for once actually audible.

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.

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.

I saw this film prior to viewing any episodes of the TV series. With hindsight, one can identify ways in which this adaptation falls short of it's source material - however, taken on it's own merit, this is an excellent, slow burn thriller.

It has one undeniable advantage over the TV show. It is shot on film on location and therefore the grimy, low-rent milieu Callan occupies is rendered credibly. One of the strengths of the TV version is it's relentlessly downbeat tone, but this was somewhat mitigated by the stagey, shot on video aesthetic, which gave the material intimacy. On film the effect is far more cold and alienating. In some ways the film reminded me of an English 'Taxi Driver', with long scenes of Edward Woodward in a grubby bedsit practising his quick-draw.

I'd advise all viewers to give this fine film a look, and for Callan purists to give it a chance on it's own terms.

It would be interesting to know more about the circumstances that led to the making of this film. Would there have been sequels? Was it an opportunity to bring Woodward's excellent performance as the character to a wider, potentially international, audience?

In some ways, the later series The Equalizer feels like an americanised variation on Callan, wherein he has quit government work and become a freelance troubleshooter on behalf of private citizens. But Robert McCall is a much more straightfoward, palatable character for the US than the complex David Callan and his shades-of-grey world. Let me tell you, Brit 70s TV was really something!

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.