A Prayer for the Dying ** (1987, Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, Sammi Davis, Liam Neeson, Alison Doody, Christopher Fulford, Karl Johnson) – Classic Movie Review 12,017

Mickey Rourke.

The 1987 British film A Prayer for the Dying is a tense and interesting but muddled thriller, recut by the producers to the fury of star Mickey Rourke and director Mike Hodges.

Both Rourke, as Martin Fallon an IRA gunman-bomber who wants to break free of the IRA and start anew after killing a bus full of kids instead of an army lorry, and Bob Hoskins, as Father Da Costa a priest he finds he can’t kill although he can identify him, are strangely unconvincing.

But Alan Bates enjoys himself in a camp performance as Jack Meehan, a gangster-undertaker, who offers to help Rourke in return for a final job to kill an opponent.

The troubling tale from Jack Higgins’s novel boasts some, but not enough, excitement and enlightenment.

It stars Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, Sammi Davis, Liam Neeson, Alison Doody, Christopher Fulford, and Karl Johnson.

Also in the cast are Ian Bartholomew, Peggy Aitchison, Cliff Burnett, Anthony Head, Leonard Termo, Camille Coduri, Maurice O’Connell, Mark Lambert, and David Lumsden.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,017

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Mickey Rourke.