rhinocerosfive-1 Through long practice, Clive Donner has mastered the art of making pictures unmistakable for anything but British television - cramped, carelessly framed shots; anachronistic hairdressing and set decoration; the cheapest possible film stock; music disinterred from a muzak burial ground; scenes every single one of which was obviously the first take; editing apparently committed with a greasy boning knife by a whimsical butcher. Yet for all its brownish greens, awkward flashbacks and 70s sideburns, the WWII thriller ROGUE MALE is that rarest of items, a badly directed good movie. It's Frederic Raphael, the most pretentiously named writer since Goldsworthy Dickinson, who bears primary responsibility for the film's success. He keeps things fairly rushing along, always ready with a clever quip for Peter O'Toole to flip from the tip of his furred tongue.Within five minutes, O'Toole at his most wan and inebriated is tortured by Michael Byrne, the same Nazi who twenty years later was hurled off a cliff by Harrison Ford. Here, he and O'Toole insult each other's public school before O'Toole is hurled off a cliff onto a shotgunned pig. Then O'Toole, probably of necessity, is allowed to abandon vertical ambulation, crawling and slithering through much of the movie. It's a good start to a really fun little spy hunter.This is the O'Toole of legend, the one who falls off stages reciting sonnets backward, the famous wastrel, the untamed actor so charming and well-equipped that even when he forgets his line, can't walk without a stagger, or drifts through entire scenes with the most bleary of stares, delivers a thoroughly entertaining and credible performance. When the Nazis stuff a dead cat into his burrow, he recites Byron to it. How many actors could pull that off, drunk or sober?Incidentally, his character's name in this film is Robert Hunter, not Thorndyke, which title IMDb curiously bestows upon him. (In the novel the character is unnamed, and in Fritz Lang's previous adaptation MAN HUNT he's Alan Thorndike with an i. Hmm.)

rsquires I wasn't expecting much, and the horrendous VHS-to-DVD transfer didn't help matters, but the close following of screenplay to novel, and the perfect casting of O'Toole as the vulnerable English aristocrat, makes this TV?!? adaptation a must see.Much of the quality and suspense of the novel comes through, and the wordiness if you will of the script gave O'Toole the freedom to express his character and the political-vs-personal tensions Household filled _Rogue Male_ with.This must have been an English production, I can't imagine an American one including the racial characterizations, 30's political details, or the quick repartee.

r555uk Peter O'Toole is perfectly cast as the Hannay-esquire Thorndyke (any relation to Thornhill? - Geddit?) in a claustrophobic, chill bitten English winterscape. It was broadcast in the mid seventies when I was a teenager - just the right age to watch this kind of hokum - so I can't actually remember much about it except it reeked of tweed, bracken and shotguns.. Alistair Sim was in it, again, perfectly cast. Seemed to mix a sense of ennui with slight disdain. O'Toole slots in there with Donat and Grant in a classic of its time.Top notch stuff, eh biffer!

pearsontepper This is a faithful adaptation of the book by Geoffrey Household. It was made in 1941 as Man Hunt, directed by Fritz Lang. That was also a good film, particularly the George Sanders character, but in no ways is it as good as Rogue Male. This was a TV movie, and the color has faded over the years, but it is extremely provocative of the country in south England. I give it a 9.