Half Moon Street ** (1986, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Caine) – Classic Movie Review 5546

Co-writer/ director Bob Swaim’s creaky old 1986 erotic thriller is intriguing but often quite tedious, straining the undeniable strong appeal of Sigourney Weaver and Michael Caine, though it just about stays on the rails through sheer professional determination.

Weaver plays the charmingly named Doctor Lauren Slaughter, an American PhD in London working at a research institute, who supplements her low income moonlighting as an upmarket escort in her flat on Half Moon Street in Mayfair.

Caine plays Lord Bulbeck, a British diplomat with a key role in the UK’s defence, who becomes a special client of hers under a fake name.

They start a relationship, but that is threatened after background check investigators get to work on Bulbeck, in Swaim’s adaptation of Paul Theroux’s novel Doctor Slaughter.

There are surprisingly half-hearted results from the hard work of the normally reliable stars and talented director, and that nearly sinks the film’s fascinating premise. Also the serious subplot about problems of the Middle East only gets in the way of the entertaining enough Jack the Ripper-style chiller story.

Also in the cast are Patrick Kavanagh (1931–2015) as General Sir George Newhouse, Keith Buckley, Nadim Sawalha, Angus MacInnes, Faith Kent, Ann Hanson, Patrick Newman, Niall O’Brien, Vincent Lindon, Muriel Villiers, Michael Elwyn, Ninka Scott, Jasper Jacob, Donald Pickering, Maria Aitken, Hossein Karimbeik, Anita Edwards, John Gordon Sinclair, Rupert Vansittart, Janet McTeer, Carol Cleveland, Ram John Holder and Claude Villers.

The co-writer is Edward Behr.

Bob Swaim is the director of La Balance (1982) and Masquerade (1988).

It is the first of five movies Caine has made with producer Geoffrey Reeve.

It is the first RKO Pictures solo feature in almost three decades since Jet Pilot (1957).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5546

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