Rogue Male

I watched Rogue Male the other evening. This was the 1974 movie made for British television. It starred Peter O’Toole as the British nobleman and sportsman. He stalks Hitler and draws a bead on him but is caught before he shoots. It is never clear from the script nor from the book written by Geoffrey Household whether he is merely stalking to see whether he can get Hitler in his sights or if he really meant to shoot. After Sir Robert is caught he is severely beaten, fingernails pulled out and tossed over a cliff. When the Gestapo go to retrieve his body in the morning (an unfortunate accident, they will say) Sir Robert is gone. He makes his way to a port, then finds a ship to England. But he is not home safe. He continues to be followed and hounded. Finally he decides to go to ground in Dorset. He really goes underground, digging a hole like a fox or badger, but his presence is given away by a cat. The final confrontation with a National Socialist (Mosely’s Boys) sympathizer is quite good.

I probably read the novel and many other Household novels sometime in the fifties. He wrote very exciting thriller and spy novels. I think that I read everything that he wrote. I probably should revisit them again. The film was supposed to be digitally remastered. Well, I don’t know about that. Parts of it were pretty clean and others not so sharp. Still I enjoyed seeing the film once more. Alastair Sims plays O’Toole’s uncle in two scenes both of which take place in the steam baths. He appears to have connections to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain originally and in the later scene, with Winston Churchill. He calls Sir Robert "Bobbity" and advises O’Toole to go see Neville or Winston, speaking familiarly of them. I had forgotten what a great voice he had. Another actor shows up surprisingly. We think of Harold Pinter as a playwright; The Birthday Party and The Boxer are a couple of his plays. He plays O’Toole’s solicitor, who happens to be Jewish and knows what Hitler’s dictatorship will bring to his people. If you like thrillers you might try this one on.