Lassiter

source: Lassiter

Good cloak and dagger action drama set in London 1939.Has very good sets and story but could have been a classic if it had better directing and script/screenplay.The director had a little difficulty finding a good balance between being edgy or watered down in a more Hollywood way.Great entertainment though for cloak and dagger fans and big fans of the lead stars.Selleck looks really good here.....

Not having seen this movie for over twenty years, and stumbling across a video of it recently I said "why not?" The stars of this movie provided outstanding acting. Joe Regalbuto as the FBI agent in London of 1939 was a bit wooden in the part. However, I try not to blame actors as they may have been directed to act the way they do. Also, the part called for a naive and inexperienced federal agent. The thing that occurred to me is why would the US Government send an inexperienced agent all the way to London for such an important job, and no senior partner to guide him? He wasn't a bad actor it was bad writing, he just didn't seem to be into the part. Other than that, the top actors and actresses did a fine job. Tom Sellick brought his usual suave good looks and easy manner to the part of the professional jewel thief. The local London police official (Bob Hoskins - later of Roger Rabbit and other fame) hated the thief. I don't think it was ever explained why he had such a virulent hatred. One thing is for sure though, he was very believable and made a name for himself. Lauren Hutton was the twisted Nazi female, so scary that I tipped my hat to Selleck during the movie for even getting close to her. But he had his job to do and never lost his confidence. Hutton played the part to the hilt. Her watch dog was played by Nazi Gestapo badman Warren Clarke and brother was he tough. Excellent job Mr. Clarke. Ed Lauter played Lassiter's friend the car thief and the man who taxied him around town. I've seen him many times and he is always a steady addition to any cast. In the top parts that brings us to Jane Seymour. She has played so many wonderful parts it is difficult to say which was best. But this much is true - she may very well be one of the most beautiful woman of our time. I mean truly beautiful. Sure, she had a * scene in this movie and what a lovely bottom. However, I'm talking about her face with delicate features that slender down to the chin past sensual eyes, nose and lips. Not quite perfect, yet nearly so, and all coming together into a delicate oval shape. Nevertheless, she has handled demanding roles like Dr. Quinn, the first Battlestar Galactica movie and Somewhere In Time to mention just a few. In this movie, she was Selleck's lover and a local dancer. She took a part that might have been on the minor side for other actresses, and turned it into a vehicle that increased her value. Lassiter has so many neat things that might be missed like the period costumes, antique automobiles, motorcycle, dinning car in a train, casino interior, Nazi guns and guards, a high wire escape (probably by a stunt man), and kudos to the two boxers (Clive Curtis and George Lane Cooper) who gave a real knock-em-down performance. It is a movie made of the good stuff of old fashioned entertainment. It wasn't perfect but it had danger, love, sex, gambling, fist fights, gun play, boat explosion, diamonds, intrigue and treachery. Be sure to catch this one.

Lassiter stars Tom Selleck and Bond-girl Jane Seymour. Lassiter, like Bond gets into similar situations and in the end triumphs over the enemy. Lassiter has action, beautiful stars, acting, and enough plot to keep it going. It's not perfect, nor a hidden gem, but it should not be forgotten either. It's worth an evening and a bag of popcorn.

Saw it in my youth in '84. Liked it then. Watched in in the early 2000's in my thirties, liked it more. Just watched it again in 2022. Loved it. Very STINGish. Cloak and dagger movie w/ some clever twists. Selleck is adorable and debonair. Very Cary Grant like.

I love Tom Selleck's early movies where he was clearly willing to take a chance. Once he began his career into western type movies the boredom set in for me. This was a risky movie to make, but he clearly succeeded! Great mystery, fun story line, and I never saw the ending forecast. Beware of full nudity if that bothers you. There's enough violence if you find that less threatening than the peacefulness and beauty of the human body. Set in pre WWII London, this story is based on the reputation of an established American cat burglar caught in a police frame to steal Nazi diamonds. Lassiter's solution is brilliant and, for me, completely unpredicted. Marvelous! Watch and enjoy. See if you can figure out what's REALLY going on!

This is my favorite Tom Selleck movie!! Plain and simply, when are they going to put it on DVD? Now the site tells me I have to write more than one line...so... It has been too long since I have seen it! I don't have a working VCR anymore and I wouldn't invest in one, anyway. I remember that Tom Selleck is great in this movie and along with Jane Seymour, they have a great on-screen chemistry. The movie reminds me of the cat-burglary of "To Catch A Thief", but the period is WWII Europe and Tom Selleck must break into an embassy to try to avoid prison, much like Sean Connery did in "The Rock". It has many twists and turns and a surprise ending to equal "The Sting"! This movie has it all!

Tom Selleck; best known for the 1980s cop TV show "Magnum P.I." and of course for his signature mo. But in the middle of that series he starred in a classy, old-fashion crime caper which sees him as jewel thief Nick Lassiter working in London in the 1930s, but one day he's arrested by Scotland Yard and blackmailed into stealing a large quantity of diamonds that's kept in the heavily guarded Germany embassy and is looked after by Hitler's cruel, but seductive secret agent Kari Von Fursten. What made the film for me were the performances. Selleck is fitting in the main role as Lassiter; suave, but dogged. Who really stood out though were the ladies; Jane Seymour and especially Lauren Hutton. A hypnotic Seymour brought a sweet innocence to her role as Lassiter's dancer girlfriend, while the very seductively edgy Hutton was the opposite in her kinky femme fatal part. In support there were solid character actors; Joe Regalbuto, Bob Hoskins, Ed Lauter and a burly Warren Clarke as a German bodyguard. Watching how the breezy story unfolds is predictable (although clever in its schemes and throwbacks), but the engrossing script (Whom playing whom), character interactions and planned-out scenarios (numerous instances of caught between a rock and a hard place) are enjoyably digestible and humorously sharp. The direction is trim, but fashionably tailored with good locations and period details. Catchy theme song during the end credits too.

For me, the best part of this movie was Lauren as the assassin, as her character killed the G-man while she was having sex with him. I loved seeing that while he was dying, that she held him in his arms, showing the right combination of power, sexual excitement, strength, and even a touch of compassion. I seem to love this scene more than any other. No wonder I sort of have a soft, hot spot for Lauren, and this scene gave me a love for the black widow roles in the movies. Thank you, Lauren. You helped establish my first guilty pleasure, as the beautiful killer Kari Von Fursten. You were wonderful. You made your role as Kari Von Fursten, and this scene, very special, very deadly, and very sexy.

Convincing period settings highlight this uneven film inspired by some of the caper films of the 1930s focusing on a suave cat burglar in London blackmailed into service for the Allies. He is tasked with trying to break into the imposing German Embassy and stealing some gems in an attempt to foil a Nazi plot. A fun concept somehow goes astray and never realizes its full potential. Director Roger Young and company take an old-fashioned plot, dress it up in dandy clothes, add some dashes of modern sex, violence and nudity, but their final effort falls apart long before the conclusion and, at least in one case, it is not hard to see why. A plot this simple should move with fleet feet, but the pace instead moves in fits and starts. The bones of a great film are here, but they are never fleshed out enough and some convoluted plot additions do not help. The film drags on long past the point it should have concluded and contains at least one too many conclusions. The production looks great and sports a fine supporting cast. Bob Hoskins is on hand as a sputtering British bobby who does not like giving the elusive Lassiter a get-out-jail-free card for his efforts. Jane Seymour is as pretty as a porcelain doll as Lassiter's girl Friday. Lauren Hutton has a field day as the sexually voracious and deadly German courier whom Lassiter must romance in order to scope out the interior of the German Embassy. Unfortunately, after presenting Hutton as a truly deadly nemesis, the film completely bungles their final confrontation and fails to show us their love scene, which one would imagine would have been wild indeed. The film's biggest problem lies with its leading man. Obviously the character of Lassiter conjures up the likes of a George Sanders, David Niven or Cary Grant. In short, it requires someone charismatic, urbane, debonair yet able to pull off the physical action required. After having bored us to death two years previously with a similar period adventure in High Road to China, actor Tom Selleck now torpedoes another period piece. Where debonair is called upon, Selleck gives us dull. Where suspense and action are called for, Selleck gives us lifeless. He comes off as little more than a good-looking prop who can barely summon the energy to move from point A to point B on the set. I would say he is wooden, but I am afraid to libel a tree. He never seems much of a match for Hutton, proves a dismally lacking romantic foil for Seymour and comes off as little better than a stunt man in the action scenes. We have no rooting interest nor concern in what happens with this character and that is largely the fault of Selleck's lackluster performance. By the film's conclusion, quite literally the ONLY memorable thing that Selleck has contributed is in briefly baring his best asset while exiting Hutton's bed in the *. This stellar contribution is offset moments later when a guard catches him lounging around in Hutton's frilly robe and a scene where the actor could have demonstrated a light comic touch is instead played as if a humorless mannequin inhabited the part. Rarely have I seen an actor whose low-wattage on screen personality so completely sabotages a film (Rob Lowe's ho-hum performance in Masquerade comes to mind, but that film was strong enough to overcome him), as what Selleck does here. Hollywood was and is teaming with a lot of good-looking leading men, so why filmmakers would choose to fill such a role as this with an actor of arguably no charisma or life is a real head-scratcher. In all honesty, in some scenes Lassiter could have been portrayed by a chair and the end result would offer no difference than what Selleck contributes here.