Rogue Male (1977)

Touches You

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Very much a film from the times -- extremely long sequences with no dialogue, bad flashbacks, and an almost entirely male cast. The two women who appear have a total of under 10 lines and exist only as romantic interests for men.O'Toole is riveting whenever he speaks; unfortunately, he spends much of his time peering through shrubbery. Alastair Sims is always a joy to see but he, too, is terribly underused.The film has one additional positive aspect, in that it depicts many aspects of British fascism and fascist sympathies (such as the casual appearance of the Mosley graffiti) that many people today are unaware of. Too many of today's films about WWII paint the Allies as all-good and the Axis as all-evil, when history tells us people are far more complicated than that!This would be a good movie for when you're recovering from the flu and are bundled on the couch and not able to absorb anything too complex. If you just need something to pass the time while your electrolytes stabilize, this is the movie for you.

Peter O'Toole is perfectly cast as the Hannay-esquire Thorndyke (any relation to Thornhill? - Geddit?) in a claustrophobic, chill bitten English winterscape. It was broadcast in the mid seventies when I was a teenager - just the right age to watch this kind of hokum - so I can't actually remember much about it except it reeked of tweed, bracken and shotguns.. Alistair Sim was in it, again, perfectly cast. Seemed to mix a sense of ennui with slight disdain. O'Toole slots in there with Donat and Grant in a classic of its time.Top notch stuff, eh biffer!

I have read the book, and it is still, rather surprisingly, not as well known as some of the lesser output of Alastair MacLean or Hammond Innes, for example, despite its being of the very highest order.This adaptation does slightly change the plot but not to the detriment of the pace or the characterisation. This is not a jolly hockeysticks pre-War John Buchan world that these characters inhabit. The protagonist, never named in the novel, is emotionally stunted by virtue of his aristocratic upbringing and the grieving process for his one true love, whom we can guess at being either a Czech, or a Pole from Danzig/Memel. In a gesture of futile resistance the lord decides to hunt down the great dictator, in a spirit of cold vengeance and sporting curiosity. He is caught and tortured and having expended much inexplicable violence upon him the Gestapo decide to fake his death as a fall from a cliff in order to explain his injuries, having satisfied themselves that his actions were not instigated by the British government. He survives this ill use and then begins one of the most stirring manhunts in literature as he attempts to return to England without embarrassing his former circles.However, when he returns to England he finds that not all is well back in the sceptred isle.......O' Toole is on fabulous form. The lead villain is all you would expect from a Fascist sympathiser, polished, virile and an emetic upon right-thinking people. the celebration of countryside and sport is not lost upon the director as the motor for the political beliefs espoused by both sides as Milord strives to survive and the German Foreign Service seek to make political capital out of his predicament once they have his admission of acting under orders wrung out of him. It is a beautifully paced evocation of a rustic idyll that no longer exists as a result of the chancre, which it, itself, has spawned.

For those of us who still wonder at how the world could have been hornswaggled so long by Hitler, this movie gives us an insight into the spell he had some of the English under!! O'toole plays the brave nobleman who attempts to assassinate the personable madman at his holiday digs. I could have done without the 'pull his fingernails out' scene, but the point was driven home.He was tortured and escaped with some help from a wonderful German who considered the Nazi thugs 'trash', as well as English sailors. Knowing O'toole's background in the Royal Navy, his disguise didn't take much acting. The 'by the book' captain who refused to allow a search of his vessel by the intimidating Germans made me wonder if any of my compatriots would stand up to that today.If you've never seen the Tower Bridge, the significance of O'toole coming up from his cramped hiding place onboard the ship, seeing the underside of the bridge, might escape you. He portrays the joie de vivre of that moment wonderfully. I could just fall into his beautiful blue eyes!!The interplay between O'toole and his uncle, as the love then hate relationship between Parliament and Hitler progresses, gives great insight into how this horror happened. O'toole, the rogue, is under suspicion and search by, not only the Nazi English agents, but his own people, normal agents of government!!! This only added to my usual cynicism concerning governments. Now to read the book!!!!