Sitting Target ** (1972, Oliver Reed, Jill St John, Ian McShane, Edward Woodward, Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones) – Classic Movie Review 9,954

The 1972 film Sitting Target is a vicious, crude crime thriller with Oliver Reed and Ian McShane going into overdrive.

Director Douglas Hickox’s 1972 film Sitting Target is a vicious, crude and undistinguished but often exciting and vaguely credible crime thriller with Oliver Reed and Ian McShane going into overdrive as Harry Lomart and Birdy Williams, escaped convicts preparing to slip abroad while seeking murderous revenge on Harry (Reed)’s straying wife Pat (Jill St John) and her lover.

Hickox directs with a lot of rude energy, coming up with some tense sequences, and it does, belatedly, deliver the basic action thrills. Reed really relishes his raging, malevolent character. Edward Woodward is typecast but rock solid as Milton, the police inspector trying to keep Pat (St John) alive.

And it is good to see Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones, Robert Beatty, Tony Beckley, Mike Pratt, Robert Russell, Joe Cahill, Robert Ramsey, Susan Shaw, June Brown and Maggy Maxwell again.

Alexander Jacobs’s screenplay is based on Laurence Henderson’s novel.

Sitting Target is directed by Douglas Hickox, runs 93 minutes, is made by Peerford and MGM British Studios, is released by MGM, is written by Alexander Jacobs, based on Laurence Henderson’s novel, is shot by Ted Scaife, is produced by Barry J Kulick (producer) and Basil Keys (associate producer), is scored by Stanley Myers and is designed by Jonathan Barry.

The prison sequences were filmed at Arbour Hill Prison, Arbour Hill, Dublin, County Dublin, and in the abandoned Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, which was also used for The Italian Job and McVicar.

Incredibly, actors from different universe come together as Jill St John’s character lives next door to June Brown’s neighbour character.

Douglas Hickox said in 1970: ‘I’m a narrative director. An audience should become totally involved in the film, the actors and the story. They shouldn’t be aware of the director or of how things are done.’

Jill St John (born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim) turned 80 on 19 August 2020. She was the first American Bond girl, starring in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever as Tiffany Case. She is married to Robert Wagner.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,954

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