Rogue Male (1976 film)

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''Rogue Male'' is a 1976 British

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

starring Peter O'Toole, based on

Geoffrey Household Geoffrey Edward West Household (30 November 1900 – 4 October 1988) was a prolific British novelist who specialized in thrillers. He is best known for his novel '' Rogue Male'' ( 1939). Personal life He was born in Bristol; his father Hora ...

's 1939 novel '' Rogue Male''. Made by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, it was adapted by

Frederic Raphael Frederic Michael Raphael (born 14 August 1931) is an American-British BAFTA and Academy Award winning screenwriter, biographer, nonfiction writer, novelist and journalist. Early life Raphael was born in Chicago, to an American Jewish mother f ...

, directed by

Clive Donner Clive Stanley Donner (21 January 1926 – 6 September 2010)Ronald Berganbr>Obituary: Clive Donner ''The Guardian'', 7 September 2010 was a British film director who was part of the British New Wave, directing films such as ''The Caretaker'' ...

and also stars

Alastair Sim Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his ...

John Standing Sir John Ronald Leon, 4th Baronet (born 16 August 1934) is an English actor and baronet who is known as John Standing. He is the stepson of John Clements. Early life Standing was born in London, the son of Kay Hammond (née Dorothy Katherin ...

and Harold Pinter. It was first broadcast on 22 September 1976.

Plot

In early 1939, before the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Sir Robert Hunter (O'Toole) takes aim at

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

with a hunting rifle, but hesitates to shoot and is spotted and tackled by a ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...

'' (SS) guard. Captured and tortured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

, he claims that his aiming at Hitler was simply an intellectual exercise, to see if it could be done. Because of his high status in Britain, his captors intend to shoot him and disguise it as a hunting accident, but, because his body displays clear evidence of torture, they decide instead to throw him off of a cliff to disguise the signs. However, Hunter survives the fall, and, with the aid of a German fisherman and a friendly sailor, makes his way back to England. He soon discovers that German agents are after him, and that the Nazi government has requested his extradition. After killing a pursuer by electrocuting him on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

, Sir Robert, now a fugitive, goes underground in rural England to escape his pursuers. It is revealed through flashbacks that his girlfriend, who played a role in organizing the German Resistance, was executed by the Nazi government. Hunter's lead pursuer, an English Nazi sympathizer named Major Quive-Smith, successfully tracks him to his lair and traps him within it. Rather than kill Hunter, Quive-Smith offers to spare his life if he signs a false confession stating that he attempted to assassinate Hitler on behalf of British intelligence. Over the course of several days, Hunter constructs a rudimentary crossbow, lures Quive-Smith into looking down his breathing hole, and shoots him in the head, killing him. Soon afterwards, Britain declares war against Germany, and Hunter, now with his status restored, agrees to see the Admiralty about a secret mission (heavily implied to be a second attempt on Hitler's life).

Cast

* Peter O'Toole as Sir Robert Hunter *

as Major Quive-Smith *

as The Earl * Harold Pinter as Saul Abrahams * Michael Byrne as Interrogator *

Mark McManus Mark McManus (21 February 1935 – 6 June 1994) was a Scottish actor. He has played roles in British television series '' Sam,'' '' Bulman, The Brothers, Strangers,'' and ''Dramarama'' and starred in the feature film '' 2000 Weeks''. He was ...

as Vaner * Ray Smith as Fisherman *

Hugh Manning Hugh Gardner Manning (19 August 1920 – 18 August 2004) was an English film, radio and television actor. He is best remembered as the Reverend Donald Hinton, in the soap opera '' Emmerdale Farm'', a role he played from 1977 until 1989. From ...

as Peale * Robert Lang as Jessel * Cyd Hayman as Rebecca * Ian East as Muller * Philip Jackson as 1st Seaman * Nicholas Ball as 2nd Seaman *

Maureen Lipman Dame Maureen Diane Lipman (born 10 May 1946) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and her stage work has included appearances with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespea ...

as Freda * Ray Mort as Gerald *

Michael Sheard Michael Sheard (18 June 1938 – 31 August 2005) was a Scottish character actor who featured in many films and television programmes, and was known for playing villains. His most prominent television role was as strict deputy headmaster Mauric ...

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

* Shirley Dynevor as

Eva Braun Eva Anna Paula Hitler (; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his ...

* Ivor Roberts as Drake *

John Ringham John Henry Ringham (10 February 1928 – 20 October 2008) was a British actor who appeared on both television and stage. Among his roles was that of Norman Warrender in the 1980s sitcom ''Just Good Friends''. Early life Ringham was born in Che ...

as SS Officer

Background

The novel had been filmed in 1941 by

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

, as '' Man Hunt'', with

Walter Pidgeon Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...

in the lead role. According to producer Mark Shivas, script editor Richard Broke had the idea of making six TV movie thrillers for the BBC which showed the changing nature of the British hero from 1918 to 1939, with ''Rogue Male'' to be the last. Shivas was then working on an adaptation of ''

The Glittering Prizes ''The Glittering Prizes'' is a British television drama by Frederic Raphael about the changing lives of a group of Cambridge students, starting in 1952 and following them through to middle age in the 1970s. It was first broadcast on BBC2 in Jan ...

'' with writer

and commissioned him to adapt ''Rogue Male''. Raphael went back to the novel and ignored the 1941 film. Shivas felt there were three things any version of ''Rogue Male'' had to have, the attempted assassination of

at the beginning of the story, the chase on the

and the battle underground at the end. Filming took 25 days and involved 29 locations.Television: An Interview with Mark Shivas Hodgson, Clive. London Magazine18.1 (1 Apr 1978): 68. Shivas would make two others in the series, '' She Fell Among Thieves'' and ''

The Three Hostages ''The Three Hostages'' is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. Hannay had previously appeared in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1915), his most famous ...

''. Interviewed by the '' Radio Times'' for the first screening of the film, Household acknowledged that he always intended the protagonist's target to be Hitler, "Although the idea for ''Rogue Male'' germinated from my intense dislike of Hitler, I did not actually name him in the book as things were a bit tricky at the time and I thought I would leave it open so that the target could be either Hitler or Stalin. You could take your pick". It was reported that Peter O'Toole had agreed to be cast in ''Rogue Male'' partly because the original novel was a favourite of his wife Sian Phillips.

Production

Some of the filming took place around King's Stag in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, including the area around a local pub, The Fox Inn, Court Hill, Corscombe in Dorset.
As a TV production, the film was made on a relatively tight budget and the crew was paid at the lower rates applicable to TV productions.

Release and reception

Despite its low budget, the finished film was regarded by the BBC as being suitable for a cinema release internationally. This had the potential to cause legal and

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

problems in the UK, because the crew had not been paid at the rate applicable to cinema releases. The BBC decided to terminate screenings in the UK and disallow future screenings in the UK. In an interview with

Francine Stock Francine Stock is a British radio and television presenter and novelist, of part-French origin. Early life Born in Devon, and with early years in Edinburgh and Australia, Stock later attended St Catherine's School, Guildford, where she was head ...

for BBC Radio 4's Film Programme in 2007, Peter O'Toole named the film as his favourite among those that he had made.

References

External links

* {{Clive Donner 1976 television films 1976 films British television films BBC television dramas Films about assassinations Films based on British novels Films directed by Clive Donner Films scored by Christopher Gunning Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler Films set in Germany 1970s English-language films