Get Hendry… Assassin (1973), Indicator Pemini Organisation Box-set

Pissholes in the snow?

Sometimes the story behind the making of a film is as fascinating as the final product itself. I’d never heard of this film but that’s not unusual as I was in junior school at the time however there’s good reason why it’s not come to my attention since then as one of a piece with other tough-edged fare of this period including obviously Get Carter but also Sitting Target, Villain, Unforgiven, Man of Violence and many more.

The film was the second one made by the Pemini Organisation made up of  Peter Crane, Michael Sloan and Nigel Hodgson who leaving film school combined forces, and the first two letters of their names, to create this bold new imprint with which to make films that would capture the new wave of British style… a “young, independent British production company…” with “enthusiasm and vitality who don’t just talk about films, they make them”.

Sadly, despite making three well-cast and inventive films in three years, Pemini ran out of steam and funding leaving their output long unseen until the release of this superb Blu-ray set including Hunted, a high-suspense thriller starring Edward Woodward and June Ritchie, and two feature films: Moments, an enigmatic romantic mystery starring Keith Michell and Angharad Rees, and this one, Assassin, starring Ian Hendry, Edward Judd, Frank Windsor, Ray Brooks and Mike Pratt. The company’s ultimate failure was not down to lack of class or imagination but the complexities of distribution and the arid marketplace in seventies Britain for films that did not quite fit.

Ina Hendry

Directed by Peter Crane from a script by Michael Sloane, Assassin is full of fresh energy from the get-go as a darkened room shows illicit hands photographing classified materials. The scenes shift and we’re at British intelligence with MI5 Controller (Edward Judd) calling in his men to authorise a hit on the suspect who we quickly see is Ministry of Defence official John Stacy (Frank Windsor). Control tells two of his finest, Matthew (Mike Pratt on excellent form, edgy and unpredictable) and Luke (Frank Duncan) – biblical reference duly noted – to keep an eye, as he’s calling in one of the deadliest guns for hire and, at this short notice, and so un-planned, anything could go wrong.

Meanwhile we find Stacy working late in his office with, incidentally, a very attractive and familiar young secretary (Celia Imrie in her first film role). We discover that Stacy’s about to be the best man of the man who has just got the promotion he was, once again, passed over for, public school educated and connected, Edward Craig (Ray Brooks). Stacy’s preoccupied about many things yet he joins Craig’s stage night and is happy to be his best man for the wedding. Stacy’s wife Ann (the excellent Caroline John, RSC member and an early companion for Jon Pertwee’s Doctor) understands both men full well and just wishes her’s would accept his achievements in rising from state school and the working class.

Caroline John and Frank Windsor

If Stacy thinks he has problems, things are about to get worse as his Assassin arrives in the UK and begins to prepare for his work. Ian Hendry is magnetic in this film, carrying a wearily professional air but also clearly traumatised by his lifestyle and a recent near miss involving an Eastern Block agent who very nearly outcompeted him. There’s only so long you can stay on top of this game and this mission has come at the wrong time as he is not only haunted by the near-death experience but actively seeking to get out of the game.

Killing time before his appointment with Stacy – he’s the perfect spot overlooking the car park of the wedding venue and where he can make the kill in a public space to send the appropriate message to the other side – he ends up in a pub talking to a very pretty young woman (Verna Harvey). Harvey is a former ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi at Covent Garden aged 14 and had a very busy seventies as an actor before, presumably, starting a family as well as moving into production. She’s very good here, a pure hearted woman who provides an opportunity for some humanity and tenderness to the Assassin who ultimately knows she cannot be for him.

Verna Hervey

The film is very good at presenting the dichotomy between “real life” as we happily assume it to be and the urgencies and sickness of professional, state-sponsored killings. Hendry’s character lives in another world, one where his peace of mind has forever been shattered by his murderous routines and the ever-present thought that he himself is being watched all of the time: a deadly weapon and, ultimately, a threat to every side.

There’s also a superbly executed rhythm as the story moves inexorably towards what will have to be a deadly conclusion. As Stacy and Ann play their parts at the wedding and our gunman enjoys his romantic interlude, we know things are about to explode… what we can’t be sure about is exactly for whom that bell is going to toll.

Caroline John, Franks Windsor and Ray Brooks

Dusty verdict: Assassin is an impactful, pacey film full of interesting moments and skilled performances, it certainly stands up both as a time-capsule but also as entertainment and I would highly recommend this set.

It includes:

·         New restorations of Hunted and Assassin from 4K scans of the only surviving film elements by Powerhouse Films

·         Audio commentaries on Hunted and Assassin with Pemini co-founder and director Peter Crane and film historian Sam Dunn (2022)

·         Organising Principles (2022, 32 mins): Crane remembers the origins of Pemini and his subsequent work in Hollywood.

·         An Amazing Time (2022, 7 mins): Pemini co-founder and writer Michael Sloan looks back at his three early films.

·         Good Chemistry (2022, 29 mins): Pemini co-founder Nigel Hodgson revisits an exciting chapter in his life.

·         A Group of Friends (2022, 14 mins): June Ritchie, star of Hunted, recalls her time with Pemini.

·         Scoring with Gerry (2022, 13 mins): the veteran Soho musician Graham Dee remembers his work with Gerry Shury on the compositions for In Search of Lebanon and Hunted

 

The three films are accompanied by a wealth of newly produced extras, including feature-length director commentaries, cast and crew interviews, and an 80-page book. It is a numbered limited edition – mine’s 1487/6000 – so I wouldn’t hang around if I were you, get your order in and take a trip back to a most excellent adventure: “an amazing time” indeed!

You can order from Powerhouse Films where it's on special offer!

 

Edward Judd

Mike Pratt and Frank Duncan

Verna Harvey and Ian Hendry

Is Ian reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation or The Assassin?

Interesting to see the ads for other films of the time, Pulp and Shaft

Still a play for today. Gangsters (1975)

All I want is out of this bastard second city of his, I’ve done time for his brother, either we call it quits or I’ll kill him or any more of his bleedin’ men he sends to get me…

This has been on my watch list for some time now, partly because of its reputation but also because Dave Greenslade wrote the score and the main theme features on Greenslade the bands LP, Time and Tide as well as a single version with Dave’s former Colosseum bandmate, Chris Farlow on vocals. This version was concocted for the TV series that followed in 1976 and which ran for two series, watching this original TV film, part of the Play for Today series, there are so many characters and ideas here, you can well understand why there was room to expand the tale.

Directed by Philip Saville, Gangsters was written by Philip Martin who also featured as the main gangster, Rawlinson a nasty piece of work he clearly relished creating and performing. There’s something of the swagger and violence of contemporary American cinema as if Dirty Harry and Popeye Doyle had been transferred to Birmingham and the city is very much one of the stars along with its culture.

The film is a real slice of Brummie life and starts in a nightclub with two comics, Rolf Day and Mohammed Ashiq swapping what would now be considered unacceptably racist jokes – white, black, brown and Irish - and yet there’s warm applause and laughter from the extras spotting the observational foundations for their jokes. Five years later I’d be a young student working summers in Butlins and these kinds of jokes were still part of the acts for many on the circuit.

Philip Martin

There’s also a number of inserts featuring proto-Bollywood films – Sharmeelee, a 1971 Indian Hindi-language romantic film - and other representations of cultural diversity; Birmingham as one of the most racially diverse cities in Britain at the time and where, unlike some, there was more mixing, so far as this went. Here there’s criminal operations based on these different cultures and sometimes they work together to maintain the peace. That said the story directly addresses illegal immigration with Rafiq (Saeed Jaffrey) a “reluctant” community leader answering a TV interviewer’s questions about a supposed “Pakistani mafia” and accusing politicians of ramping up a distorted narrative about immigration even as he is shown to be a major player in people smuggling.

He's seen in cosy conversation with Rawlinson celebrating his gaslighting before handing the latter’s girl, Anne (Elizabeth Cassidy) a bag of heroin brought in along with some men, from Pakistan. There’s an uneven peace.

The action centres around John Kline (Maurice Colbourne), an ex-SAS soldier, recently released from a four-stretch, after doing time for a job for Rawlinson and who now wants his share of the loot. Unfortunately, Rawlinson blames Kline for the death of his brother Brian and so there’s no easy compromise possible even if Kline sees his debt as paid by taking the jail time. He goes to a café and is approached by a man called Khan (Ahmed Khalil) who claims to be looking for a relative who had been taken from Rotterdam to Britain… thinking he’s from Rawlinson, he throws him to the ground, but there’s more to Khan than meets the eye.

Kline goes to the Maverick Club, a delightfully dingy bar/strip club where he meets the manager, old “friend” Dermot Mcavoy (Paul Antrim), who greets him as warmly as he can, as he pours him a strong one and encourages him to watch his new stripper, Dinah (Tania Rogers), rehearse, an almost transcendental experience for the man who hasn’t drunk for years nor seen a woman outside of prison let alone her clothes. There’s tension in the air as Dermot tells him he hasn’t got the money and Kline measures Dinah’s every contour as she looks him straight in the eye… racy stuff for TV in the mid-seventies.

Khan goes to the crime boss to tell him about Kline’s release only to find he already knows: I know everything in this city me… and how to profit from it. He’s trying to ingratiate himself with the mob working also with Rafiq’s right-hand man Kuldip (Paul Satvendar) as well…

Dermot promises to get Kline’s money and sets him up with Anne for a romantic treat on her canal boat but organising beating at the hands of handy scouse henchman Malleson (Paul Barber) and his compadres. Kline’s no mug though and repels Anne and then Malleson’s mini mob. He goes straight back to the club to confront Dermot as Dinah entertains an authentically sleazy looking crowd (I should imagine). How many times have we seen such confrontations of masculinity in showgirl settings… it’s the law of the jungle and Kline’s bite is far worse than the others’ bark.

So it goes as, in Get Carter style, the violence and the stakes escalate as does the romance between Kline and Dinah, how many mixed-race couples were seen on screen at this time? It was certainly one of the bolder decisions of the production and importantly gives Kline someone to protect and raises his stakes in this fight to the end with Rawlinson and pretty much every gang in town.

DustyVerdict: Gangsters feels both of its time but also still fresh, the buildings and the suits may have changed in Birmingham, but the crimes remain the same there and elsewhere made so much worse by the influx of new drugs and new weaponry. Philip Martin, who had never been to the city before spent three months immersing himself there and meeting with local criminals to understand the locality and its issues. Maybe only an outsider could paint the picture he does, I don’t know Birmingham that well and thankfully only have limited experience of Liverpool – where my father was a policeman – and London.

Discussing the film with Billy Smart of the Forgotten Television Series website in 2020, Philip Martin said that after some pushback from various dignitaries from the city “… the same week there were fifteen illegal immigrants caught in the Bristol Channel on the way to Birmingham and the Scratchwood Services which had a two million pound heroin heist picked up by the police. So, we just said, ‘well, read the papers. We don’t need to justify ourselves.’”

Ultimately Gangsters was part of a wave of more realistic fiction that balanced its concerns with rich characters and essentially human stories… the con men are still in charge, and we’re all still being lied to by the Rawlinsons and the Rafiqs, some of whom are closer to political power than we’d like. Do gangsters exist? Yes, and they’re all a bit like this.

Tip of the hat to for Birmingham’s “Three Degrees” … Earlene Bentley, Ethel Coley and Joanne White who sing in the nightclub. I can, almost, remember venues like these.

Next up I must watch the TV series, two quite differing sets of six episodes by all accounts the second being what Kim Newman describes as “one of the damnedest things ever shown on UK TV”.

The full interview with Philip Martin is available at the Forgotten Television Drama website which is highly recommended!