NOT Available on DVD: The Last Embrace

Article by Dana Jung

The 1970s was a time of many cinematic styles and fads, and one of the most entertaining phases of the era was the Hitchcock-inspired movie. Through the popular writings of people such as Francois Truffaut and Richard Shickel in the 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock had rightfully and rather suddenly been elevated from mere shockmeister to Master Artist of the Cinema. Either intentionally or by cinematic osmosis, Hitchcock’s style became the fashion of the day throughout the 70s. From low budget exploitation such as WICKED, WICKED (covered in a previous Not Available on DVD), to arguably its peak in the work of Brian De Palma (SISTERS and especially OBSESSION), several filmmakers basically ripped off one of the greatest directors in history throughout the 70s. Long camera tracking/dolly shots, first person perspective, and rapid editing started showing up in loads of films, even non-thrillers. But by the end of the 70s, the fad had succumbed to comedy and self-parody in works such as FOUL PLAY and Mel Brook’s HIGH ANXIETY. However, in 1979 Roy Scheider closed out the decade in one of the best Hitchcock homages, the little-seen LAST EMBRACE, which so far is NOT available on DVD.

Scheider plays Harry Hannan, an agent for some shadowy, never-named government agency. The film begins with a dream-like sequence (the first of many long tracking shots) set in a restaurant. Harry and his pretty wife are having a romantic dinner when some seedy-looking men show up, seemingly recognize Harry, and start shooting, killing Harry’s wife. Cut to several months later, and Harry is checking out of the sanitarium where he has (mostly) recovered from a nervous breakdown after the death of his wife. It’s established here early on that Harry is still a damaged man, getting tremors in moments of anxiety. “Think of the mind as a weave, Harry, a fabric”� his kindly doctor advises him, “Some of your threads happened to get a bit over-stretched. We don’t want to put too much pressure on the thin spots.” Harry doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to get stretched very thin indeed.

Director Jonathan Demme emphasizes Harry’s (and our) paranoia quickly, when Harry believes he is attacked at a train station (look for a very young Mandy Patinkin in this scene). His boss at the agency (Christopher Walken, menacing even wearing glasses) doesn’t seem happy to see him back. He finds his apartment has been sublet to a talky grad student (Janet Margolin), whom he’s sure is either a spy or an assassin. And his dead wife’s brother (Charles Napier) is following him, apparently blaming Harry for her death. Add to all this a hidden gun, a Jewish private detective, a vaguely threatening college professor (John Glover), and a mysterious note written in ancient Hebrew referencing the ‘avenger of blood’� and all the elements are in place for a Hitchcockian mystery.

Demme purposefully uses many of Hitch’s most assured techniques to build suspense slowly through the film’s first half. There is liberal use of red herrings, tracking shots, and the first-person perspective–not only from Harry, but other characters as well. During a murder sequence, the camera never leaves the face of the killer while the brutal death takes place. The film’s climax at Niagara Falls recalls other spectacular backdrops in Hitch’s SABOTEUR and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. In perhaps the most suspenseful scene in the film, Harry roams the deserted courtyard of a small college. Using a silent soundtrack with no music, the scene eerily recalls the cropduster sequence in N by NW, but inverts the wide open spaces to a claustrophobic area common to most schools. Surrounded by the walls of academia, Harry is shown from a bird’s-eye view, alone and isolated. Death can find us anywhere, even among these hallowed halls.

Scheider, in one of his best performances, belies his tough guy persona to portray a truly broken man. The scene where he wakes from a nightmare and recounts the details of his wife’s death is both hypnotic and sad. After the film is over, we wonder how the events we have witnessed will affect this man, the sure sign of a compelling portrayal. Even though LAST EMBRACE created buzz at the time for its rather overt sexuality and Hitchcock themes, it under-performed at the box office. But it was a good year for Scheider as he would get an Oscar nomination, not for EMBRACE, but for ALL THAT JAZZ, which opened some months later. Playing the college prof with a few secrets, John Glover made a career of creating smarmy, intelligent villains, which perfectly suited his signature role as Lionel Luthor (father of Lex) in 100 plus episodes of TV’s SMALLVILLE.

Janet Margolin was an attractive, dark-haired actress who created a big splash as a teen with the glorified art film DAVID AND LISA in 1962. She was on the fast track for Hollywood stardom with roles in big studio productions like THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, MORITURI (with Marlon Brando), NEVADA SMITH (with Steve McQueen), and others. But with the end of the 1960s also came, inexplicably, the end of Margolin’s film career. She turned to roles in television throughout the 1970s (I have fond memories of her as Harper Smythe in Gene Roddenberry’s PLANET EARTH), usually playing either troubled women or to her forte for comedy. In LAST EMBRACE, she again displays the fresh, luminous quality that allows her to convincingly portray a college grad student while in her mid-30′s. A native New Yorker, Margolin also has the whole annoying native New Yorker� persona down pat. Here, in her last real starring role, Margolin’s nuanced performance is both sexy and real. When she tells Harry, “Sometimes I think I’m quite depraved,â€� the mind boggles! Sadly, after EMBRACE, Margolin’s career consisted of ever smaller roles in TV and film, such as a minor part in ANNIE HALL for her friend Woody Allen. Only 14 years after heating up the screen in LAST EMBRACE, Margolin died of cancer at age 50.

Demme is a quirky director known as much for music documentaries such as STOP MAKING SENSE as he is for thrillers. While LAST EMRACE does not quite live up to the sum of its derivative parts, Demme used the Hitchcock influence to better effect later in the underrated SOMETHING WILD (1986), and the Oscar-winning SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. In both of these later films, Demme shows that it’s not necessary to stylistically emulate Hitchcock, but just to use the same principles of storytelling that made Hitch the Master of Suspense. LAST EMBRACE is a satisfying cinematic experience for the sexy performances, the visual stylings, and to look for all the Hitchcock homages. The lush musical score by Miklos Rozsa evokes the psychological mystery of SPELLBOUND. There are visual references to DIAL M FOR MURDER, VERTIGO, PSYCHO, and THE BIRDS. I’m sure there are many more, and part of the fun in watching the movie is looking for these in-jokes from Demme, but for now you’ll have to look for them on the MGM/UA Home Video VHS or Widescreen Laserdisc released in the 1990s, and not on DVD.