To Kill the Queen

Trailer—Hennessy

Security was fairly poor at Parliament at this time. You only have to look at the car bombing of Airey Neave in March 1979. This film gets of to a good start with the depection of the riots,sags a bit in the middle but comes up trump's with a good climax. The filmmakers should have known they were playing with fire by incorporating footage of the Queen's speach. So little surprise that the 2 main circuits wanted nothing to do with it.

Not in a class with THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, but still very engrossing. Rod Steiger actually underplays(!) a role as an Irishman seeking revenge on all of Great Britain after the slaughter of his family...he decides to blow up Parliment while the Queen is speaking. Richard Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay, is the fanatical cop out to stop him. Both Steiger and Johnson are quite good and make compelling foes. Lee Remick proves her acting mettle as an IRA widow who harbors Steiger for as long as her conscience allows. The direction by journeyman filmmaker Don Sharp is surprisingly brisk and he mounts a lot of suspense blending the film with actual news footage of the Royals. It's a refreshing film that has no pat ending. With Trevor Howard as Johnson's crusty yet benign superior.

Typical of the seventies, the decade - with the late sixties - of the desperate, gloomy, melancholic stories, showing anti heroes, characters facing their doom, facing the.inevitable. In this register, Rod Steiger is at his best, the perfect role for him. Of course this topic would have never been made now. Dark, brutal, gritty and hopeless, exactly what I crave for. But this not DAY OF THE JACKAL, though the some lines may seem very close to the Fred Zinneman's feature.

Maltin is an idiot for saying that the plot is unbelievable. It is in fact all too believable. Rod Steiger shows his versatility by playing an Irishman who impersonates an Englishman. Lee Remick is delectable as usual and English fans will applaud the inclusion of Eric Porter

Demolitions expert in Belfast, once a member of the Irish Republican Army, sees his wife and child accidentally killed in a street riot between political protesters and soldiers; he reacts by traveling to England to carry out a plot against Parliament and Queen Elizabeth II, though Scotland Yard is one step behind. Dreary topical thriller, an odd release coming from American International Pictures, has some relevance to today's headlines, though that doesn't exactly make this endeavor an important or intriguing one. Rod Steiger and widowed friend Lee Remick (reunited from 1968's "No Way to Treat a Lady") are somewhat uneasily cast in their roles, though the film has good music scoring by John Scott and fine cinematography from Ernest Steward. Controversial in Great Britain due to the Queen's appearance via newsreel footage, the producers were forced to begin the film with an amusing disclaimer. ** from ****

My father-in-law, Les Hammond, did the sound on this film, and I remember at the time him telling me that he did not think this film would be released on general release because the authorities thought it would be looked upon as some sort of bible for terrorism. We went to see it a long time after it's release, and I'm pleased to say that it was an eye opener. The storyline was good, the acting was excellent (the accents were difficult but you can't have everything). I'm a great fan of Rod Stiger and he did not let anyone down in this film. Les Hammond is still in rude health and will be celebrating his 100th birthday on 6th June 2008.

A fun little reworking of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, not on par with that classic film but pretty good in its own right. Rod Steiger is well cast as an IRA sympathiser who goes off the deep end when his wife and daughter are killed by a British soldier and decides to recreate Guy Fawkes' crimes in the modern day. A taut pace and gritty realism throughout means that this one builds to a strong suspense climax cleverly incorporating real-life footage of the queen.

If anyone liked "Day of the Jackal", then they will certainly like this movie. The plot is similar in that a political enemy is to be killed by an individual. In this case two groups are trying to stop the killing-the government of Great Britain and the IRA. The IRA is not trying to defend great Britain but trying to prevent the backlash that would have been certain if the Queen and her family along with the House of Lords and Parliment were blown up. Definitely worth seeing in any case because of Rod Steiger's performance..

I first saw this film at the cinema when it was released in 1975. I got the shock of my life when I saw myself in the newsreel film over the opening credits. In 1969, 1971 and 1972 I had served tours in Belfast with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and it is film of the Winter 1971/Spring 1972 tour that opens Hennessy. The first few scenes of the street rioting, the armoured "pigs", the equipment of the squaddies and the visceral hatred shown by the rioters was scarily authentic, unfortunately the accents of some of the "Irish" characters wasn't. With such heavyweights as Rod Steiger and Trevor Howard, the film should have received more support- perhaps the distributors were concerned about the politics. A brave film for daring to confront "The Troubles" and a good "yarn" as well.