THE LAST EMBRACE

US, 1979, 102 minutes, Colour.
Roy Scheider, Janet Margolin, John Glover, Christopher Walken, Sam Levene, Charles Napier, Mandy Patinkin.
Directed by Jonathan Demme.

The Last Embrace was an entertaining thriller when it was first released in the late 70s. It was obviously indebted to the private eye film stories of Raymond Chandler. It was also indebted to Alfred Hitchcock and his style – especially with the culmination at Niagara Falls.

Roy Scheider, very popular as a lead at the time, plays a bewildered man whose wife has died. He finds himself in mysterious circumstances after being released from an institution – being pursued and pursuing. He encounters a mysterious woman, played by Janet Margolin. However, she is in the tradition of the film noir and the femme fatale. Also in the cast are Christopher Walken and John Glover at the beginning of their careers as well as Mandy Patinkin and a number of character actors including Sam Levine.

However, the film is also interesting in the light of the director’s subsequent career. It is one of the earliest films directed by Jonathan Demme, after his apprenticeship to Roger Corman. During the 1980s he made Something Wild and then went on to great success with his Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs as well as Philadelphia. He also did remakes of Charade (as The Truth About Charlie) and The Manchurian Candidate. However, his documentary on Haiti, The Agronomist, is well worth recommending as an example of interesting film-making without the intrusion of the director.

1. The popularity of the American thriller? The genre of the private eye? Popularity over the decades, literature, cinema? The title and the overtones of Chandler - love, death, betrayal?

2. The film as a homage to the work of Chandler and the other specialists in private eye stories? The references to Hitchcock both in theme, visual imagery, imitation? A satisfying derivative of Hitchcock's style?

3. Audience acceptance of the genre and its contrivances? The artificiality and its enjoyment? The blend of realism with the conventions? How much did this film rely on the conventions?

4. The gaining of audience interest, the atmosphere of the puzzle and mystery, identifying with Harry? Black comedy, social comment, romance? Ironic comment on American society, characters, corruption? Justice prevailing? Betrayal underlying the finding of justice?

5. Roy Scheider's style as Harry? The tough private eye type? The atmosphere of the opening, the restaurant, the shooting, Dorothy's death and Harry's grief? Seeing him as he recovered, his release? The immediate attempt on his life? His interview with the agency, his rejection, the cold calm of the head of the agency, the orders for Harry to be killed?

6. The quick picture of intelligence agencies - personnel, impersonal approach, presumption of right, playing God with people's lives? To what purpose? In the name of justice?

7. The introduction to Ellie? The sub-letting of the flat, the puzzle at her presence? The attraction? Student? The atmosphere of ease with her, overtones of mystery? The build-up of the relationship between Harry and Ellie? The irony when the truth was revealed - expected because of the Chandler examples?

8. The notes, threats? The background of information and research? Books and libraries? Universities? The buildings? Books and photos? The Hebrew background?

9. Dave and his working for the agency, his motivation, the attack in the bell tower? A deadly and dramatic interlude in the development of the plot?

10. Ellie and her relation to Peabody, his rooms at the university, research? The beauty and atmosphere of the university by contrast with New York?

11. Sam as the friend of the private eye, straight out thirties and forties books and films? His contacts? The discovery of the truth about the brothel?

12. The picture of Ellie at Niagara, disguised as a prostitute, the lurid and vivid presentation of her sexual relationship and murder? The influence of her grandmother and the brothel? Revenge? Credible motivation?

13. Harry and his intensity, worry, the effect of the attempts on his life, the puzzle, friendship with Sam, relationship with Ellie, their becoming lovers? The discovery of the truth and Ellie's part in it?

14. The build-up to the confrontation at Niagara Falls: its length, drama, Ellie and the truth, trying to save herself, Harry and his disillusionment and disgust? Her death?

15. The private eye film, seventies' style - cinema recognition of the tradition, paying homage to it, using it? The director calling his film a dark romance - a picture of individuals in society, American society and its hypocrisy, origins, cover-ups? The value of this kind of contrived film as entertainment, as social comment?