Hard Contract
                              
Director: S. Lee Pogostin
Year: 1969
Rating: 4.0
All it takes it seems is the love of a good woman to turn a professional killer into a marshmallow. Damn her. Or what promised to be an interesting film into an endless dull death march. In theory, this was about a killer for the government with three targets and a deadline. And a big payoff. At least, I guess that is what audiences back in 1969 were expecting. With the ever so cool James Coburn as our protagonist. I can practically hear them yelling out, what the hell. I didn't come for a dreary farfetched love story. I could have gone to see Goodbye, Mr. Chips for that. At least she dies in that one.



You can give the director S. Lee Pogostin credit for turning expectations on their head and committing career suicide, but what was he thinking. It drifts all over the road trying to juggle a bunch of characters, locations and ideas. The killings are lethargic and uninteresting. They take longer to execute than a teenage love affair. Of course, the hits are not the point. Instead, I think the director is trying to say killing is bad, love is good. In honor of Jessie Colin Young may he rest in peace.

Come on, people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another right now

Coburn is the pro. Unemotional, detached from feelings or relationships, he only gets close to his series of prostitutes (Karen Black), he is the one who won't kiss. His agent played by Burgess Meredith at his most annoying asks him to kill three people. All unrelated to one another in different parts of Europe. That is the main selling point. Europe! Never been there. First thing he does is ask the front desk of his hotel where he can hire a woman for $50. Make America proud. Lee Remick overhears this and is so intrigued by him that she pretends to be a prostitute and has sex with him. And what sex! He rings her bell. A few times by the look on her face. First time. And that is all she needs to fall in love. He has no personality. Hardly talks but her orgasm says enough.



In between this affair he has to fulfill his contract. Then he kisses her and you know love is all around. It turns into some tedious quasi French New Wave film at that point and flounders around like a dying fish on the dock. He tries talking the third target to death and nearly succeeded in putting me into a coma. Will you please just shoot him.  Also stars Lilli Palmer as her friend, Patrick Mcgee as a creepy ex Nazi and Sterling Hayden as an ex killer who gets a nice ten minutes of screen time and espouses the philosophy of the director. The film flopped and Coburn blamed the director for refusing to change the script.