The Mackintosh Man
| The Mackintosh Man | |
|---|---|
Original film poster by Tom Chantrell
|
|
| Directed by | John Huston |
| Produced by | John Foreman |
| Screenplay by |
Walter Hill William Fairchild |
| Based on |
The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley |
| Starring |
Paul Newman Dominique Sanda James Mason |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
| Cinematography | Oswald Morris |
| Edited by | Russell Lloyd |
|
Production
company |
Newman-Foreman Company
|
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. (US) |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
98 min |
| Country | United States United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,500,000 (US/ Canada rentals) |
The Mackintosh Man is a 1973 British-American Cold War spy thriller film, directed by John Huston and starring Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda and James Mason.
Joseph Rearden, a British Intelligence agent, arrives in London and makes a rendezvous with MacKintosh, the head of his organisation, in a discreet office located just off Trafalgar Square. MacKintosh and his deputy, Mrs Smith, inform him of a simple way to steal diamonds which are transported via the postal service to avoid attention. This he does, apparently getting successfully away after punching a postman, and making off with the diamond-filled parcel. However, that evening, in his hotel room he is paid a visit by two Metropolitan Police Service detectives who have received an anonymous phone call advising them about the robbery. They are unconvinced by Rearden's pretence to be an innocent Australian who had recently arrived in London.
The judge at his trial is angered by the failure to recover the stolen diamonds from Rearden, who he believes has stashed them away somewhere, and sentences him to twenty years in jail. Rearden is shipped off to HM Prison Chelmsford. He slowly begins to blend in with the other prisoners, and is assigned to laundry-washing duties. A few days after entering he encounters Slade, a former British intelligence officer kept in high security after having been exposed as a KGB mole. He makes innocent enquiries of his fellow inmates about Slade, but not a great deal is known about him.
A few weeks later, he is approached by a well-spoken inmate who offers to act as a go-between with an organisation which can spring him from the prison in exchange for a large cut of the stolen diamonds. They are used to helping prisoners escape, and have another exit planned shortly, which he can join, if he is prepared to put up the money, to which he agrees. Two days later a diversion is arranged, and smoke bombs are hurled over the walls. Using the smoke screen Rearden and a fellow prisoner, who turns out to be Slade, are lifted over the walls by a cargo net and driven away at high speed. They are then drugged by injection, and taken to a secret location, somewhere in wild, deserted countryside. When Slade and Rearden awake, they are told they will be kept there for a week until hunt for them dies down.
...
Wikipedia