ROGUE MALE

Nazis, spies, assassination and British nobility. Going down a checklist for making some action packed movies, you'd have lot of those on your list (probably minus the British nobility due to we could always get a Jane Eyre situation). This has the making for a great movie with action suspense and some witty British vernacular. The movie, based off the book of the same name, is called Rogue Male and it stars Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia). The movie is actually a BBC television movie and not a nationwide mainstream movie. So, needless to say, I never heard of the movie and only read a brief description on my box set. So, we're going to judge this movie based on story, action and overall entertainment. Let's put the kettle on and sit back and we shall go over the 1976 BBC TV movie Rogue Male.

The story of Rogue Male was actually a story written back in 1939. The main lead never had a name and the spies/opposing threat was left to be determined by the reader to either make it sound like Hitler or Stalin. The BBC version, of course, made the main threat Hitler and his storm troopers. The story is about Sir Robert Hunter, a nobleman from England, and his attempt to kill Hitler in 1938 as revenge for the death of his girlfriend/fiance (love interest) that we see through his flashbacks. We first meet him in the woods looking through his sniper scope and practices shooting at Hitler (why didn't he have the bullet loaded before and not just practice?!?). However, he misses his actual shot and gets caught by the Gestapo where he is tortured. Since he is a British noble, the Gestapo stage it to where he would fall to his death off a cliff. They beat him and Hunter ends up falling off the cliff and surviving. He now uses his cunning and ability to escape Germany. Once home, he realizes the Nazis have been waiting for him in England. Now, constantly being observed, he has to exile himself to the countryside and literally go underground and hope for spies to miss him or give up the chase. The story is quite fascinating and good. It has Hunter having to give up everything that he has to his name in order to survive and go underground.

Something that I'll give credit to the movie is their use of natural surroundings. The action sequences, even though it is pretty nonexistent aside for some scenes, uses sound to create different emotions whether for suspense or irony. During the torture scene, lively and pretty music is being played over a visual of Peter O'Toole screaming (we don't hear his screams). Another involved him back in London getting chased throughout the London Underground train system. There is no music, just the deafening thuds and echoes of O'Toole and the spies running and the sounds getting amplified by the emptiness of the underground. This feeling creates the uneasiness of the situation and you're thinking to yourself, try and run more quietly and they won't be able to hear you. It was my favorite scene in the whole movie and the sequence itself was five minutes the most.

This movie is 102 minutes long and at times, it feels like it is longer. During some of the hiding scenes, I was drifting and looking at my phone to see what time it is and how much longer I had left. The humdrum activities like riding his tandem bike and talking to his cat friend stall the pace of the movie. The isolation factor would be interesting if it gives us more emotional attachment to it but the character never really shows his displeasure until the spies encroach on his hiding spot.

With that being said, what the movie does well, I do enjoy. I enjoy the underground chase scene as well as the scenes where the spies catch up to him in hiding. Those show O'Toole at his best with his snarky wit as well as his bad ass approach to trying to rectify his unpleasant situation. The stuff that wear on me were the sequences of him leaving London, going to the countryside and ultimately waiting for the threat to change or be over. When it comes down to it, it has a good story, some good suspense, British snarky attitude and that lovely 1970's grainy film. Will I say check it out? If you're a fan of Peter O'Toole, have 102 minutes to kill, really enjoy chase movies, love 1970's grain and enjoy seeing some untouched British countryside, this movie might be up your alley. If that is not up your alley, this is not the movie you're looking for.

I give this movie 2 exposition flashbacks out of 5.