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| Title: SCORPIO Year: 1973 Rating: **1/2 |
During the final act of Michael Winner's 1972 crime-thriller THE MECHANIC, veteran hit-man Charles Bronson is targeted by his own young assassin student Jan-Michael Vincent...
And a year later, in Winner's espionage-thriller SCORPIO, this same exact ironical setup is already happening (has already happened), right when the movie begins...
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| Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon in SCORPIO |
Like starting a book halfway through, missing important character traits of Burt Lancaster's world-weary yet family-man-loyal CIA-agent Cross, and lonely French protege Alain Delon: the latter as crazy about vagrant cats as he was his caged bird in LE SAMOURAÏ...
As it often feels like Michael Winner's not only attempting to be a British-born/American-market director making a crime picture throughout Europe, but like he's creating a bonafide European/French New Wave film...
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| Paul Scofield and Burt Lancaster in SCORPIO |
Right down to inventive camera angles, ambiguous villains, desperate anti-heroes, brooding ingenues and (loads of exposition) dialogue, sounding looped instead of actually spoken by the actors, taking away what could have been far better performances from who are obviously topnotch actors...
Also including Oscar-winning Paul Scofield as a far-too-conveniently-reliable (and boorishly predictable) Russian agent, not only a former comrade of Lancaster but the only true friend he's got...
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| Burt Lancaster and James B. Sikking in SCORPIO |
While being otherwise surrounded by TV-actor types, like John Colicos as the formidable CIA chief, J.D. Cannon as his nefarious backup, or William Smithers, playing one of their keystone-cop operatives miscalculating both Delon's ability to kill and Lancaster's ability to survive...
In what's basically an action flick sporadically attempting a spy thriller... only Winner's far more suited to his signature camera zooms underlining fast-paced chases than keeping the audience guessing... or to be entertained by the polar opposite anti-chemistry of the two opposing agents...
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| Alain Delon in SCORPIO |
Effectively occurring throughout THE MECHANIC, also composed by Jerry Fielding, whose signature smooth orchestral score mixed with offbeat jazzy overtones is replaced by a far too peppy and repetitive travelogue soundtrack...
But the real sin is wasting the two edgy crime-genre co-leads... filn-noir veteran Lancaster and neo noir star Delon... whose best collaborative moments obviously occurred during the unseen buildup — of the motion picture we should have experienced instead.
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| Burt Lancaster in SCORPIO |
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| John Colicos and JD Cannon in SCORPIO |
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Alain Delon in SCORPIO with William Smithers
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| Alain Delon in SCORPIO |
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Howard Morton and Celeste Yarnall in SCORPIO
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| Alain Delon in SCORPIO |
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| Gayle Hunnicutt in SCORPIO |
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| Alain Delon and Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Alain Delon and Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Alain Delon and Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Alain Delon and Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Mary Maude in SCORPIO |
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| Joanne Linville in SCORPIO |
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