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As Good As It Gets

Absolutely the worst movie.

This 1974 film of "Callan," lets itself down to a screenplay that is too thinly plotted and the sense of intrigue and tension has been 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 poor narrative. The story is very good in lasting for an hour on television but at 100 minutes, it becomes tiresome and irritating. There are a few bits that are OK but that's about all. It was the right decision to have Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter reprise their respective characters.

Callan made Edward Woodward into a star. He plays a sort of James Bond as anti hero, a reluctant and downbeat assassin who wants to retire as he is being damaged by his work, but is blackmailed by the SIS into carrying out one last job, which is never his last.Basically the 1973 film version of Callan was a remake of a classic episode A Magnum for Schneider, where Callan is ordered to kill a German businessman who has links to the Stasi and who is involved in some dodgy arms deals with a liking for Magnum revolvers. ( Interestingly the little known Japanese version of the pistol is mentioned in the film).While I haven't seen this film for a while, it seems to have disappeared from the late night television schedules, Callan is quite a good and brutal film. Callan in this is shown to be a karate expert, he uses it to extract some information from his associate Lonely in his squalid bedsit and then dispenses with two arms dealers in the most brutal karate display this side of a Bruce Lee film. Also of note are a car chase which involves Callan driving a Range Rover through an orchard and a Jaguar being bounced across a level crossing by an Inter City train. Schneider, who is killed off by Callan, also has a penchant for collecting toy soldiers and re enacting classic battles.Another interesting fact about the film is Clifford Rose makes an appearance as a consultant physician, later he was to make his name as the sinister SS officer Kessler in Secret Army.Not a great film, but a good way to pass an afternoon and Russell Hunter in particular is excellent as Lonely, the smelly, loyal informant for Callan who deserves a medal for the way Callan treats him throughout the film( usually knocking him about).

I first encountered this film on USA Cable, in the late 80's. At first, I thought it was another Harry Palmer film (Ipcress File, Funeral In Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain), but with a different actor. I soon realized it wasn't and recognized Edward Woodward from The Equalizer and Breaker Morant. The film is very much in the same vein as Harry Palmer, slower paced, a character who is an agent not by his own choice, meticulous detail, and a more real world approach.Edward Woodward is outstanding as David Callan, an ex-thief and troubleshooter for a secret government department. he specializes in assassination, frame-ups, and other dirty dealings. This is a dark and shabby world inhabited by Callan, and he doesn't like it. He is torn at every turn by the morality of the job he does. He is affected by nightmares of past deeds, prone to alcoholism, and is deeply cynical.Woodward breathes tremendous life into Callan. He is ably assisted by Eric Porter as Hunter, his boss, and Russel Hunter, as the always smelly and put upon Lonely. Hunter (the actor) is the only other carry-over from the TV series. He is a small man who is abused by all.The film greatly expands the TV series (which I was finally able to view recently), something that other TV-based British films rarely did effectively. Callan was stage bound and shot on video. This motion picture allows for greater location shooting and a more vibrant look.Hopefully, the film will see the light of day again in the US, along with the recent DVD releases of the color episodes of the series. It is an excellent piece of work, sure to appeal to fans of Harry Palmer, Jason Bourne, the writings of John Le Carre, or other serious espionage thrillers.

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 who Callan employs to get 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 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).) 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.