Evening in Byzantium
| Evening in Byzantium | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Based on | Evening in Byzantium (novel) by Irwin Shaw |
| Written by |
Glen A. Larson Michael Sloan |
| Directed by | Jerry London |
| Starring |
Glenn Ford Eddie Albert Vince Edwards Shirley Jones Erin Gray Gregory Sierra Harry Guardino Patrick MacNee |
| Theme music composer | Stu Phillips |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Glen A. Larson |
| Producer(s) | Robert F. O'Neill Michael Sloan (supervising producer) Gary Winter (associate producer) |
| Cinematography | Michael D. Margulies |
| Editor(s) | Buford F. Hayes |
| Running time | 240 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Operation Prime Time Universal Television |
| Distributor | Universal Television |
| Budget | $4 million |
| Release | |
| Original network | Operation Prime Time |
| Original release | August 14 – August 15, 1978 |
Evening in Byzantium is a 1978 two-part, four-hour made-for-television film produced by Glen A. Larson Productions and Universal Television, and directed by Jerry London, about the Cannes Film Festival being overtaken by terrorists. It stars Glenn Ford, Vince Edwards, Shirley Jones, Eddie Albert and Erin Gray, with Edward James Olmos in a bit role. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Irwin Shaw.
Famous motion picture producer and writer Jesse Craig (Glenn Ford) attends a film festival on the French Riviera. He has not been actively making films for a few years and some in the film industry think he has retired, but he comes to the Riviera with a new screenplay to show it to his friend and film/literary agent Brian Murphy (Eddie Albert) who is attending the festival. The screenplay is a cautionary tale about terrorists attacking major cities in the United States using hijacked commercial airliners containing nuclear bombs as the attack vehicles. No one knows the content of the script or its author who Craig claims is a new writer by the name of Malcolm Hart.
Bret Easton (Vince Edwards) is a popular American film actor, director and producer who lives and makes films in Europe. His most recent film is about a revolution and uprising in a third world country in which he portrays the leader of the revolutionaries in the film. He secretly arranges to get a copy of Craig's script by sending several women to Murphy's hotel suite. While Murphy is otherwise occupied one of the women takes the script downstairs to the copier machine in the hotel offices.
Craig meets a former love, Constance Dobson (Shirley Jones) and they decide to travel into the countryside together to a small inn. Meanwhile, Easton has read Craig's script at his riviera mansion and is deeply troubled. His underling, Fabricio (Gregory Sierra) asks him what he wishes to be done. Easton replies, "We'll have to kill Mr. Craig." Later that evening, Fabricio secretly enters Craig's room at the inn where Craig and Constance are staying and plants a bomb among Craig's clothing. The bomb is a string of plastic explosives concealed within the belt of Craig's bathrobe. When the ends of the belt are drawn together it closes the circuit setting off the electrical detonator of the bomb. After Craig enters the room he goes to the bathroom to shower. Constance undresses to surprise Craig when he emerges from the bathroom. She puts on Craig's robe and unknowingly detonates the bomb when she ties the belt. The bomb blast kills Constance and injures Craig who is taken to a local hospital.
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