Jean-Claude Bercq Movies
- 1973
- R
In Sidney J. Furie's interminable caper film, Billy Dee Williams is a federal agent who takes matters into his own hands after the government refuses to do anything about French drug trafficking. After his daughter dies of an overdose of heroine and the authorities seem unconcerned, Nick Allen (Williams) takes it upon himself to organize a small independent task force of mercenaries to travel to France in order to kill the nine leaders of a Marseilles drug syndicate. This motley group of angry American citizens who are out for blood include the rabid Mike Willmer (Richard Pryor); the sedate Sherry Nielson (Gwen Welles); the robust Dutch Schiller (Warren Kammerling); and the kindly old Jewish couple, Ida (Janet Brandt) and Herman (Sid Melton), who want to inflict Old Testament revenge upon the dope peddlers. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, (more)
Steve McQueen is ideally cast as a champion race car driver, participating in the famed 24-hour race headquartered in Le Mans, France. Though dedicated to Going for the Gold, McQueen finds time to romance widowed Elga Andersen. The dramatic angle to this plot wrinkle is that McQueen may well have been responsible for the death of Andersen's husband during a previous car pile-up. Director John Sturges, who'd previously helmed Steve McQueen's legendary motorcycle chase scenes in The Great Escape, was originally slated to direct Le Mans, but withdrew from the project; it was then taken over by Lee H. Katzin of The Phynx. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, (more)
- 1969
- R
In this crime drama, an introverted, self-effacing bank manager falls for a gorgeous fashion model and allows her evil brother to convince him into embezzling the money he needs to invest in a uranium scheme. But when the manager discovers that the two are not brother and sister at all, he tries to break out. Unfortunately they force him at gunpoint to continue. During the crime, the end up framing the clerk's wife's lover resulting in his arrest. Fortunately, a photographer caught the whole affair on film who clears the lover's name. As the police investigate further, the "brother" is shot by the cops as he tries to escape. Meanwhile, the clerk grabs the model and escapes on a speed boat. The police pursue him and eventually shoot him dead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
A banker experienced in judo is picked up by a beautiful blonde woman. The unknown woman is being used by a blackmailer who plans to rob a bank. When love blooms between the two, the woman helps the banker guard against the robbery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Bercq, Michel LeRoyer, (more)
- 1968
This romantic tragedy concerns the Archduke Rudolf (Omar Sharif) and his mistress, the Baroness Maria Vetsera (Catherine Deneuve), and their untimely demise at Mayerling, the sight of the Austrian royal family's hunting lodge. Rudolf verbally spars with his father Emperor Franz-Josef (James Mason) about wanting to implement progressive policies for his country. Ava Gardner plays his mother Empress Elizabeth. Rudolf also contends with the fallout from a loveless marriage with Princess Stephanie (Andrea Parisy). Respectful of the centuries-old Hapsburg family rule over Austria, Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that will not realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales (James Robertson-Justice), later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides the only comic relief with his dialogue. The deaths remain a mystery, but director Terence Young suggests the two lovers made a suicide pact when they decided they could not live in a world without love where the prospects for peace were dubious at best. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
- 1967
Adapted from his autobiography The Eddie Chapman Story, this is the story of a British safecracker who was in prison when WWII broke out. When the Germans occupied the area, he offers to work for them if they will set him free and they do so, sending him as a spy to England. Once there, however, he offers his services to the British and becomes a double agent. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Plummer, Yul Brynner, (more)
In this wartime melodrama, Lieutenant Colonel Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is a French peasant who has worked his way up the military ladder during the French involvement in Indochina. Sent to Algeria, Raspeguy must mold a group of raw recruits into a competent fighting unit. He calls on Esclavier (Alain Delon), his sensitive assistant who eventually deserts the military out of frustration over the pointlessness of war. Raspeguy's other assistant is Boisfeuras (Maurice Ronet), the affable officer whose outside demeanor hides the heart of a vicious killer who loves the bloodlust of battle. Raspeguy takes up with Countess De Clairefons (Michele Morgan), the widow of a respected general. She promises Raspeguy she will marry him if he comes back from the conflict as a general. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, (more)
- 1966
In this crime drama, two middle-aged gangsters attempt to run an international smuggling ring and begin looking for new people to sneak their illicit gold across Europe. They take on a jobless journalist to assist, not realizing he is really a US government agent who is looking to see if the two crime lords are affiliated with an American crime boss who runs illegal guns to Cuba. The agent discovers that the two are not affiliated with the Mafia. The American Mafioso wants them to be though and eventually sabotages their operation and forces them to join. During a meeting between the two sides, the smuggler pretends to willingly acquiesce to the American. He also manages to surreptitiously plant a bomb that explodes and kills everyone but him. The US agent is impressed and compliments the wily old smuggler. The smuggler shrugs him off. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, George Raft, (more)
John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum to the fatherland. The head of the museum (Suzanne Flon) attempts to convince Labiche that he should sabotage the train on which they are transporting the art. Labiche is more focused on destroying a trainload of German weapons. After his friend is killed trying to stop the train with the art, and after a consciousness-raising conversation with a hotel owner (Jeanne Moreau), Labiche resolves to save the antiquities. Lancaster and Frankenheimer had worked together previously on both Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, (more)
By 1964, it was possible for a major studio to make a film touching upon the Spanish Civil War without having to answer to some senate investigating committee or other. Based on Emeric Pressburger's novel A Mouse on Sunday, Behold a Pale Horse stars Gregory Peck as a war veteran who continues waging a one-man offensive years after hostilities have officially ceased. Exiled to France, Peck is lured back to Spain by vengeful police captain Anthony Quinn. Priest Omar Sharif advises Peck that he's being tricked, but Peck is determined to return to Spain to bid farewell to his dying mother Mildred Dunnock. Halfway through, the film bogs down into ponderous preachifying and moralizing, but overall the film is worth a glance. In 1966, Behold a Pale Horse was scheduled to be telecast on a major American network, but was cancelled at the last minute, reportedly at the behest of the Spanish government. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, (more)
