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

The Battersea Blue Line…. All Coppers Are... (1972)

 

A picture paints a thousand words, or does it? The truly awful cover on this Network DVD lengthens Julia Foster’s hair but also digitally inserted a new face for her and Nicky Henson based on a comparison with an earlier draft which looks far truer to the film. This, and the general consensus on IMDB and elsewhere, seems to indicate an issue with All Coppers Are’s “authenticity”; even the original images need airbrushing/photo-shopping to make up for the lack of Get Carter grit.

They should perhaps left well enough alone as a) there is nothing, at all, wrong with Ms Foster’s face – quite the contrary in fact - whilst the World doesn’t need a wax-work Nicky Henson. All Coppers Are is a decent enough film that perhaps left too much of a challenge for its cast to meet in terms of a “soft” script that is too much in collusion with the audience expectation of a gangster flick. But what buoys it aloft above the dangerous terrain of un-gritty is indeed the beautiful and expressive face of Julia Foster; she is the class act here and acts with a subtlety and nuanced grace that gives Coppers an emotional anchor it would otherwise lack.

*Dame* Julia Foster (or at least she should be!)

Now, full disclosure, I have had a crush on Ben Fogle’s Mum since I saw her in Mr. Axelford's Angel in 1974 when I was but a wee lad. She has an emotional openness as well as a perfectly proportioned face which made me, fall in love with her during the course of that play and every time I’ve seen her since, from Alfie, Half a Sixpence, The Small World of Sammy Lee, to the recent Dad’s Army film and Dr Who, she has never failed to impress. At this point she was 29, more than ten years into her career, and she gives the assurance you expect as Sue, a woman who has already known too much disappointment and is cautiously looking at all those around her not to fail her.

Chief among life’s disappointments has been her Mother (Sandra Dorne) who has shacked up with another freeloading boyfriend, Jock (Glynn Edwards) who, to say the least, is a little grabby when it comes to his “daughter in law”. But it’s her own relationships that cause Sue the most grief and more than once bitten she is very shy of new mistakes.

Julia Foster is in this film... and boy she can act!

The film opens with police constable Joe on patrol in his native Battersea – the films good location for Battersea and Clapham, still recognisable for any of us commuters who’ve had the daily pleasure of watching the old power station be turned into a modernistic mess by soulless developers. Back in the early 70s it was still working and, a few years before Floyd’s Pink Pig flew overhead, the area was charcoal grey, smothered in coal dust and exhaust fumes. Joe spots a young Robin Asquith attempting to steal a car and gives chase over to the slag heaps at the power station.

Martin Potter has a detachment which suits Joe’s vagueness and self-doubt and whilst these are characteristics well used by Federico Fellini, who cast him as Encolpius in his striking Satyricon, we’re in Battersea now and Potter seems a little lost even as he convinces with presence and skill. Joe is unformed and just about the only thing he is convinced about is his job, he has a young child with pretty wife Peg (Wendy Allnutt, once described by Dennis Potter as “paralyzingly beautiful”) who he married in haste after the unexpected result of their short relationship forced their hand. Yes, even in 1972.

Nicky Henson and Dame Julia

The third of our leads, small time hustler Barry (Nicky Henson along way from Charterhouse in this neck of the woods…) who is keeping a watch on a warehouse where he’s planning a robbery. He has a room in a house run by Mrs. Briggs (Carmel McSharry) who’s son, Ronnie is played by one David Essex whose next film would be That’ll be the Day. They invite Barry to a wedding reception where he meets and fancies Sue who meets and fancies Joe. After a few drinks they head off to the embankment for some larks and champagne, quickly bonding as friends as the triangle of affection solidifies.

Now, Joe, if you remember, because he’s forgetting… is married but he’s smitten with Sue and the two end up together for the night only for Joe’s conscience to finally kick in as he tries to brush her off. She turns her attention to Barry but the two run into Joe again in a pub run by the Malloys, Eddie Byrne and Queenie Watts - now there’s a surprise. Joe gets the cold shoulder as a copper but its only after administering first aid to a stricken pensioner that Sue and Barry discover his day job…

Martin Potter and the “paralyzingly beautiful” Wendy Allnut

That’s it for Barry, obviously, but Sue, so disappointed to discover his marital state, is more sympathetic… In the absence of anything better though she has ended up living with Barry and, against the odds believes he is a) honest and b) has work to take them away from SW11. This stretches credibility given her earlier reticence, especially after Sue joins Barry at the Odeon for ten pin bowling and a meet with some underworld contacts.

Time for Ian Hendry as sinister Sonny Wade, who brings the Get Carter grit with knowing menace enhanced by his friend Fancy Boy (David Baxter). Hendry’s radiates febrile threat with every quiver, a man of criminal passion who’s flawed ruthlessness presents Barry with a situation only a desperate man would accept, he has little to gain if he delivers the stolen goods to Sonny and everything to lose.

Cue, the finale and some unexpectedly dramatic twists and turns.

And pigs might fly...

Dusty verdict: Directed efficiently by Sidney Hayers and produced by Carry on’s Peter Rogers (there’s even a music score from Gerald Thomas!), the film certainly wanted to hit hard and even includes a well-realised sequence where Joe and his colleagues have to confront a protest march. It’s brutal stuff with truncheons flying before police horses arrive to kettle the ring leaders. Was this a comment on the political upset of the time – the nature of the protest is ill-defined, something about “fascists” and “student grants”, or just a means of showing how the Coppers, “bastards” though they may be, have a tough job to do. It could just be gratuitous of course, a tick of the “counterculture” box.

The script is uneven and the characters are a struggle for the performers to keep coherent. Julia Foster achieves this with ease – we believe in Sue, and her flawed judgement - but, despite a decent performance, I’m not entirely convinced by old-Carthusian Henson’s Battersea boy Barry. As for Joe, Martin Potter is sometimes absent without leave and at times magnetic given his conflicted existence. You care about these characters in the end even whilst feeling that there should have been more to care about…

If you buy the DVD for one thing only... it's Julia!

The film is available on Network DVD and you can buy direct or from Amazon etc. It’s well worth a watch especially for all those of us who love Julia Foster!