Last Embrace

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in a Mexican cantina across the border from El Paso, where government agent Harry Hannan (Roy Scheider) is canoodling with his wife. Harry spots an informant that he was supposed to meet in a few days. Realizing he is about to be attacked, he shoves his wife to the ground and starts shooting at the informant's companions who return fire and flee the restaurant. Harry's wife dies in the attack, and he suffers a nervous breakdown. He spends 161 days in a Connecticut sanitarium before being released.On his way back to New York City, Harry stumbles and nearly falls into the path of an express train. He goes to the makeup counter at Macy's to retrieve his next assignment. The saleswoman gives him a lipstick shade called "Sunset Rose", but when he disassembles the applicator, the assignment slip inside is blank. He accosts his contact who assures him that the agency probably just does not have any work for him at the moment.When Harry returns to his apartment, he finds it is occupied by a doctoral student named Ellie Fabian (Janet Margolin). She explains that she had a perfectly legal sublet arranged while she is in the last semester of her studies at Princeton. Ellie claims that the housing office said the Hannans would be gone indefinitely. She gives Harry a note that was slipped under the door, but it contains only a few Hebrew characters that Harry cannot read.Paranoid that he is being targeted by his own agency, Harry visits his supervisor Eckart (Christopher Walken), who assures Harry that the agency has higher priorities. Eckart insists that Harry is not ready to return to the field, but that he is perfectly safe. After their conversation, Harry notices that he is being surveilled. He loses the tail and rushes to the American Museum of Natural History, where Ellie is carbon dating a skull. She is astonished that he found her, but he rattles off facts about her life, including that she is conducting a study of prostitution.He gleaned everything from his brief encounter with Ellie in his apartment. He gives her some money and urges her to stay in a hotel, because he fears she will be accidentally targeted by whomever is after him. Ellie stays in the apartment despite Harry's request. When Harry wakes from a nightmare, he tells Ellie about the death of his wife. He takes a prescription pill, but immediately spits out, realizing that it is cyanide.
Harry takes the Hebrew note to a local rabbi who can only partially decode it. The rabbi informs the agency that Harry has visited him, and Eckhart orders Harry's murder. Ellie suggests that they take it to her friend at Princeton who specializes in Hebrew studies. On the train, Ellie tells Harry about her grandmother, and confesses that she inherited her wild streak. Harry notices an old man looking at him, and the camera reveals that another agent is also on the train.At Princeton, Ellie introduces Harry to Richard Peabody (John Glover), who is very possessive of Ellie. He decodes the note for Harry and explains that it means "Avenger of Blood." Peabody has accumulated several of the notes over the years, and they were all attached to very peculiar murders. Harry is the first one to have received the note and lived.The next day, Harry is lured to a trap by the other agent. He manages to kill the agent during a shootout in a bell tower. There, he encounters the old man from the train, Sam Urdeil (Sam Levene). Sam explains that he is part of a committee investigating the blood murders. Together, they investigate the various clues, and they piece together that Harry's grandfather owned a brothel on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.Meanwhile, in Niagara Falls, Ellie is seen putting on makeup at a vanity. She is dressed as a prostitute, and she lures a married man into a bathtub with her. As she has sex with him, she drowns him. As Harry and Sam put together all their information, they are lead back to Princeton. Harry realizes that Ellie is the one murdering men, on behalf of victims of white slavery like her grandmother. He drives her up to Niagara Falls, where they have an emotional confrontation. She tries to kill him but confesses that she loves him. He is conflicted, but he tells her that he will turn her in. Ellie runs from him, and the film ends with a prolonged chase through the hydroelectric power plant. It ends above the falls, where Harry grabs Ellie, but she struggles and ends up plunging to her death.

Tags: cult, neo noir, violence

Review:
A very decent effort from director Jonathan Demme before he went on to better things,LAST EMBRACE is inevitably compared to the works of Alfred Hitchcock,with many scenes derivative from many of the master's most famous works(VERTIGO,THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH,STRANGERS ON A TRAIN,etc.),but this is actually an effective suspenser in it's own right,with an intriguing plot,good performances and an exciting finale.Roy Scheider plays a Secret Agent just released from care after suffering a breakdown after his wife was killed in a shootout in a restaurant.After finding a woman(Janet Margolin)who has moved into his flat,he begins to suspect someone is trying to kill him after sinister messages in Amharic keep turning up.The film would've been more superior with more humour and better pacing,but nevertheless this isn't at all a bad Hitch imitation,with the bird imagery(a motif Hitchcock used frequently in his films)and a fine musical score by Miklos Rozsa(who had himself worked with Hitchcock on SPELLBOUND)adding to the atmosphere.The performances are fine,especially Ms Margolin,an undervalued and lovely actress who never quite made it to the top,making her character quite pitiable despite her actions.Her early death at the age of 50 in 1993 was indeed a sad loss for a film performer who deserved better.LAST EMBRACE was made shortly before Hitchcock's death in 1980;one wonders did he ever see this film?
Although Jonathan Demme's 1992 Oscar-winner THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was his first major suspense thriller, it wasn't the first film he'd ever made in that genre.
While LE definitely has strong elements of VERTIGO and other Hitchcock classics, I've always considered it to be more of a paranoia thriller with film noir touches, which I guess makes LE what might be called "film shachor." :-) Cool, craggy yet suave Roy Scheider had long been one of our family's favorite tough-guy actors; to many fans.
Janet, we hardly knew ye.) Scheider, Margolin, and Walken are aided and abetted by a rogues' gallery of stellar New York character actors, including John Glover as Ellie's insecure professor boyfriend; Marcia Rodd as Harry's nervous agency contact; David Margulies as a rabbi with connections; Joe Spinell and Jim McBride as thugs; Captain Arthur Haggerty as a bouncer waiting to use the phone; Mandy Patinkin and Max Wright in bit parts as commuters who may or may not have some 'splainin' to do; scene-stealer Sam Levene as the crotchety but likable head of a secret Jewish society; and director Demme himself cameo-ing as a stranger on a train.Some critics complained that despite Demme's obvious affection for the Hitchcockian material, LE could have used more of The Master of Suspense's zest and verve.
The settings contribute to the film's Demme-ness; his ace Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto really makes the New York City and Princeton, NJ locations integral to the plot and its Hitchcockian motifs, especially the bell tower sequence and an exciting climax at Niagara Falls (I can hear you making lewd jokes :-)).
Enjoyable mystery movie involves a guilt-ridden agent , and her new friend who attempt to locate a strange murderer who leaves Jewish signals ; as it begins with an ancient warning and it ends at the edge of Niagara Falls .
A feverish thriller in the Hitch style containing several iconographic elements and dealing with an ex-secret serviceman called Harry Hannan (a tremendous Roy Scheider) and his wife being attacked by hoodlums (Joe Spinell) when they find on holiday .
Scheider has his old colleagues (Christopher Walken) and his brother-in-law (Demme frequently casts Charles Napier) out to get him .Entertaining mystery movie packs thrills , action , suspense , pounding soundtrack and breathtaking outdoors from Niagara .
Good acting by Roy Scheider as a secret agent becomes involved in a deep nightmare and Janet Margolin as a strange woman who has taken possession of his flat .
Roy Scheider turned in his always good performance and I didn't mind looking at Janet Margolin in the bathtub..
And to complicate matters he falls in love with a young woman (the sexy, late Janet Margolin) with whom he is temporarily sharing his apartment.Two strong and gutsy performances from the two leading characters maintain the suspense levels right to the dramatic climax.
It's only fitting with films of this genre that Harry will fall for the beautiful young woman who apparently seems to be trying to help him solve the puzzle about a cryptic death threat he has received at home.Harry with the help of Sam Urdell, starts investigating about the meaning of the strange message he got.
Even before that there's also a great scene involving Harry's former brother-in-law in a tower at Princeton, which kept reminding us of "Vertigo".Roy Scheider makes an intense Harry.
Christopher Walken, Mandy Patinkin, Jacqueline Brookes, Marcia Rodd, Charles Napier, among others are seen in the film.Jonathan Demme proved he was a talent that would go to bigger and better things even then..
Director Jonathan Demme has done some interesting films since then, too.Most of the story involves "mysterious" people chasing others and if I went into it in any detail it would ruin things for anyone who hasn't seen it.
I also think the profanity could have been lowered in here, especially by Roy Scheider's character "Harry," and the film would still have been just as intense.What I really appreciated, more than the actors or story, frankly, was the photography and Demme's direction.
The film expects you to become close to characters that on the whole are very poorly fleshed out.The movie does offer a great opportunity to see Janet Margolin who is a very uniquely and naturally beautiful woman.
However, instead of just being a flawed Hitchcock homage, I think "Last Embrace" stands up well as an enjoyable movie in its own right.Harry Hannan, a secret service agent, has fallen foul of both the government agency he works for, and a mysterious killer who leaves notes for intended victims written in ancient Aramaic.
It features an ending at Niagara Falls that has strong echoes of Hitchcock's classic "North By Northwest".It seems Demme had doubts about the finished film.
Based on a novel, "The 13th Man" by Murray Teigh Bloom, Demme and his team created a new story around the basic plot with the result that the film, in my opinion, emerged as the superior work.Demme called on the services of Miklos Rozsa for the music.
Rozsa scored only one movie for Hitchcock - "Spellbound" - but his style was distinctive and the score for "Last Embrace" brings to mind that famous romantic thriller.
I think she brought a lot to this movie especially when it is seen simply as an intriguing and well-made thriller.Demme has not repeated the Hitchcock homage, but has gone on to hone his own distinctive directorial style - "Silence of the Lambs" gained him an Academy Award - one prize Hitchcock never received.
Someone is trying to kill Roy Scheider, and fine actors Christopher Walken, John Glover, and Charles Napier are essentially wasted as "red herrings".
Gripping from start to finish "Last Embrace" is one of those forgotten films by the movie-going public that over the years, since it's release back in 1979, that when re-discovered it has the Hitchcock thrillers compared to it instead of the other way around.
Surviving an assassination attempt that took his wife's Dorothy, Sandy McLoad, life government agent Harry Hannan, Roy Scheider, suffered a nervous breakdown from holding himself responsible for his wife's death by taking her to the restaurant where she was killed.
Based on the Murrary Teigh Bloom novel thriller "The 13th Man" the film "Last Embrace" is a well thought out story that keeps you guessing to just where it's taking you until the very end.
The beautiful Janet Margolin was never better as Ellie Fabian the young women with a past and secret that was the key to what was the real reason behind all those shocking and ritualistic-like murders in the movie.
And of course the final scene between Harry and Ellie at Niagara Falls that even the great Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud of making..
Jonathan Demme is such a character-oriented director that, to see him pulling a Brian De Palma (which is to say, aping Hitchcock), it's predictably distressing when he fails to work up much suspense within this mystery.
After having read many of the earlier reviews, however, I tend to agree that a lot of the theme is convoluted, and even the untrained eye will see familiar, much too familiar cinematography.If one thinks of "Niagara", "Vertigo" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much", you will have a pastiche of ideas similar to this film.Roy Scheider is very good, and underplays his role as a CIA/secret agent.
Perhaps this part of the story could have been more central, so we would not have wound up with a Hitchcock copycat film.That aside, there are some unique camera shots, the backdrop of Niagara Falls is an interesting choice, and if you are at all interested in Demme's work, this film is worth viewing..
The chemistry between Roy Scheider and Janet Margolin is so good, it's a real shame this movie wasn't conceived as a romcom: he even adopts her cat.
He tries to decipher a mysterious letter that is sent to him, written in an unknown language, in the hope to find out who is trying to kill him.Sometimes the acting by the supporting actors is somewhat overdramatic, deliberatedly done to again copy the original Hitchcock style in which characters often performed with large gestures.
To conclude: if you never have seen a Hitchcock movie and even if you dont know Roy Scheider either, "Last Embrace" is still a good suspense thriller.
Frequently referred to as 'Hitchcockian' don't let that promise of quality fool you into thinking The Last Embrace is anywhere near the same level as a good Hitchcock movie because it isn't.
Thriller involves a government agent (Roy Scheider) who has a nervous breakdown when his wife is killed in front of him and he is, partly, responsible.
With the help of a very odd woman (Janet Margolin) he tries to find out.Very good attempt at a Hitchcock-like thriller.
It's well directed by Demme (especially a great tracking shot at a train station), has an overstated (if good) music score, has an innocent man involved in murder, and has direct references to other Hitchcock thrillers (especially "Vertigo" and "Psycho").It has an excellent performance by Scheider and early small role for Christopher Walken!But it doesn't entirely succeed.
There are so many similarities between this relatively obscure thriller directed by Jonathan Demme and the works of either Alfred Hitchcock or Brian dePalma, that it's hard to know where to begin.
Even the plot outline suggests a Hitchcock film with someone like James Stewart carrying the lead.But here it's ROY SCHEIDER, a very intense Scheider (even more so than in JAWS), because he never recovered from a nervous breakdown after his wife's sudden demise.
Naturally, in a story of this sort, we have to have a femme fatale and in this case it's JANET MARGOLIN as someone who tells him she wants to help solve his dilemma.There are some tricky camera shots, odd angled and always interesting, and Scheider really does carry the film with an extra intense portrayal of a hunted man who doesn't know who his enemies are.Add to this the somber score fashioned by none other than Miklos Rozsa (who did that wonderful SPELLBOUND score for Hitch), and you have all the elements of a first-rate crime story.Unfortunately, there are a couple of drawbacks.
This is a very good mystery thriller from the director of The Silence of The Lambs, with Roy Scheider in one of his best roles, playing a government agent who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, after a botched assassination attempt on his life results in the death of his wife.
Roy's character, Harry, finds that his flat has been mistakenly leased to a woman called Ellie, who works at a university and later on they both become involved in trying to find out who is behind the murders of several people and the attempts on Harry himself.The last half hour of the film reveals a smart twist and an exciting chase that finishes at Niagara Falls, it ends on a satisfactory/what happened then?
kind of way, with the viewer wanting to know more.Sadly though, Last Embrace never saw box office potential when it was released in the late seventies, probably because of films like Star Wars and Jaws were more exciting at the time for the masses, still its a great film and one of Roy Scheider's best performances, also Janet Margolin is particularly good as Ellie and the two of them have good chemistry together.
The look and feel of the film put me in mind of De Palma's movie Obsession, which itself was a homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo.Roy Scheider is excellent as the shell shocked spy who uncovers what he thinks is a Jewish conspiracy but runs much deeper.
In fact, Demme, a director I often think of as clunky, proves himself well up to the art of sympathetic pastiche, and I actually found this movie a little more engrossing than many of Hitchcock's own, although the plot is still holey and the overall feeling is that of an early 1960s movie, unusually well done, rather than a real late 1970s film.
While this film is not in the category of those listed, it shows the promise of a great director.Roy Scheider, who won Oscars for All That Jazz and The French Connection, and who is probably best know for his role as the sheriff in Jaws, plays a man who has become a target after his wife's murder.
This movie was showing at the terribly late time of 12.00am Last Night on BBC1 which is usually reserved for awful Made-for-TV Dramas starring Jane Seymour or Patty Duke, So i'm always wary of staying up late ,usually Realising soon after that I Shouldn't have bothered,But 'Last Emnrace' a movie that I ashamed to say have never heard of was a very good film and well worth staying up for.It stars that bloke from Jaws with the big Nose Roy Scheider who plays Harry Hannan a Intelligence agent whoose Wife gets killed in a Restaurant shootout, He very quickly suffers a nervous breakdown a spends a few months in a Mental Hospital.
It has great performances from Scheider,Margolin and Glover with a Cameo From Walken, with a great climax at the Niagra Falls, Hitchcock would have been proud of, but it does seem to go on and on to pad out it's 100mins+ running time, Other than that I have no complaints.all in all one of the Best Films you've never heard ofA truly underrated Classic (over 25 years old) probably Scheider's BestMy Rating ***1/2 out of ***** or 8/10.
Roy Scheider plays this character who, in a state of recovery, after suffering a nervous break-down from seeing his wife gunned down becomes convinced that his own spy agency is trying to kill him because he is a liability revolving around a politically motivated serial killer who may have targeted him as the next victim for reasons he can only guess at.
It's slow at parts as it bounces around to the endeavors of various characters, and some of Harry's moments of sentimental dialogue may've worked for a 50s era Hitchcock film, but it sure is ridiculous for a movie like this.
A lot of people have mentioned Alfred Hitchcock,but the movie which crosses my mind is undeniably Henry Hathaway's much underrated "Niagara".Not only the scenes in the cave by the fall ,but also the one in the steeple with the bells which will remind you of Marilyn Monroe's murder by Joseph Cotten .I urge people who enjoy the Niagara falls location to see this gem.As for Demme movie,it oddly begins as a spy thriller and continues as an esoteric one,with connections with Jewish culture and the Bible .The hero receives bizarre notes ,which,if we trust the eminent professor of Princeton ,mean death.This fondness for riddles will later emerge again in his towering achievement "silence of the lambs".This screenplay also predates ,relatively speaking , "seven" and its horrible rehashes ,the likes of "Resurrection" .What's definitely lacking is tempo,humor and madness;the final scenes in Niagara falls drag on :just compare them with Jean Peters' odyssey at the end of Hathaway's film;and as many users have already pointed out,what the point of casting a first-class actor like Walken for such a useless part??.
Even if the viewer figures out where the story is headed, getting to the conclusion is an enjoyable journey.Making a difference is the ever personable Roy Scheider, playing Harry Hannan, a CIA agent who has to watch while his wife is assassinated in a cantina.
Well, this is not a Hitchcock film but still, I like this movie.
The late Janet Margolin enriches the film and counts in part for my high score.Roy Scheider, as always, has immense presence Locations in New York encase a time when the city looked particularly rundown and that somehow defines an effective iconography though I have no idea why.
And the finale was spectacular in the surroundings of Niagara Falls.Jonathan Demme did a good job directing this suspense thriller.
Roy Scheider's performance as Harry Hannan is admirably bitter and integer, but his character is repellent and I'm pretty sure I would also want to kill him.
I can see what the critics say about the Hitchcock aspects, and it it similar to the Marilyn Monroe film, Niagara (towards the end), but this is quite a good film from director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs).
When his wife and a cop are killed, Harry Hannan (Roy Scheider) has a breakdown, and the department he works for don't want him back.