The Next Man ** (1976, Sean Connery, Cornelia Sharpe, Albert Paulsen, Adolfo Celi, Charles Cioffi) – Classic Movie Review 8662

Director Richard C Sarafian’s 1976 The Next Man stars Sean Connery, who is awkwardly cast as Khalil Abdul-Muhsen, an influential Saudi Arabian diplomatic ambassador seeking to make to make peace with Israel by negotiating a truce with the Palestinians and romancing gun-for-hire mercenary Nicole Scott (Cornelia Sharpe). He becomes the target of assassination attempts.

Sarafian’s pacy globetrotting thriller combines solid acting, conventional action excitement and pretty pictures to decent but not particularly special effect. Mistakes are made, and it does not cohere too well, but there is intelligence at work and its intentions seem good.

Sarafian’s trademark nervously restless handling tries to disguise the script confusions in the screenplay by Mort Fine [Morton S Fine] (screenplay), Alan R Trustman (screenplay), David M Wolf (screenplay) and Richard C Sarafian (screenplay). It is based on a story by Alan R Trustman and David M Wolf.

The desperately boring title was later changed to Double Hit but the film was not a hit either time, or under its video title The Arab Conspiracy. It remains, perhaps understandably, one of Connery’s least known and most obscure movies out of all the 90 he has made.

Also in the cast are Albert Paulsen, Adolfo Celi, Charles Cioffi, Marco St John, Ted Beniades, Jaime Sánchez, George Pravda, Holland Taylor, Lance Henriksen, David Kelly and Tom Klunis. The director plays Gregory Zolnikov (uncredited) and producer Martin Bregman has an uncredited cameo.

Adolfo Celi played the villainous SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo in Connery’s 1965 Bond film Thunderball.

Martin Bregman, producer of the Al Pacino films Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface and Sea of Love and Carlito’s Way (1993), died on 16 June 2018, aged 92. He was married to Cornelia Sharpe.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8662

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