Last Embrace

Jonathan Demme's Hitchcock homages in 1979's "Last Embrace," for young fledgling as he was at the time were quite accomplished. Several incidences like the stalking and subsequent in the bell tower, and the events all leading to a rather national monument as Hitchcock's "North By Northwest" led to Mount Rushmore, "Last Embrace" has its climatic moments at Niagara Falls. One it's producers, Michael Taylor is interviewed on one of the few extras on the blu-ray version tells us Demme even had a cameo as a "stranger on a train" and channeled the Hitchcock legend by hiring one of Hitchcock's best composers, Miklos Rozsa ("Spellbound") to do the music. Co-producer is Dan Wigutow. Demme has a brilliant assist by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto. Screenplay by David Shaber is based on an original novel, "The 13th Man" by Murray Teigh Bloom. Roy Scheider is the best I've ever seen him, however, I believe he scored in Hitchcock territories in David Newman and Robert Benton's ("Bonnie and Clyde") "Still of the Night" (1982) with Meryl Streep which I've never seen. Janet Margolin is as I've never seen her either, however, she has been consistently been practically ignored by Hollywood since coming to acclaim in "David and Lisa" (1962). Demme goes out of his way to take little risk, and although the film was not noticed much at the time of its release, in hindsight seems the better for it. It is distinctive, but never a facsimile like in even the titles by Pablo Ferro. Although he scored highly later with "Silence of the Lambs," (he won an AA), he kind of washed out in his re-make of Stanley Donen's classic, "Charade" ("The Truth About Charlie" (2002)) which suffered from its poor casting choices who had no charisma. It serves well more for a comparison to Hitchcock than as a true conspiracy theory film as its touted now, but the subject matter is truly unique. Kino Lorber presents this blu-ray from MGM/UA in color, 102 min.

When it comes to film reviews, nothing galls me more than reviewers and would-be reviewers who love to hear (see) themselves talk (write) and the inevitable comparisons to "The Master," Hitchcock when it comes to films of this genre. The truth is that Hitchcock, deserving as he was was not God. Many of his films, in particular everyone's favorite, Vertigo (also mine) has plenty of room for improvement in dialogue and certainly the ridiculously abrupt ending which always struck me as "Hurry! Let's finish, we're running out of film!" I would subtitle that classic "Finale interruptus" thanks to the abrupt and unsatisfying finish. Nevertheless, it's a great film but not without flaws. Rarely is perfection attained, especially in the movies.That said, Last Embrace may not be the Gone With the Wind of mysteries but it's a strong contender for the top of the heap of mysteries that are not derived from cookie-cutter scripts and that fascinate. Plus, (a BIG) plus, Janet Margolin is superb playing a complex character. If you avoid this film it will be your loss.

I saw this in 1979 and was amazed. I never forgot it. I even ordered a European region disc, and bought an all region DVD player to watch it and other great movies not available on USA DVD. That European disc transfer was awful. Now comes this new USA Kino Blueray transfer and it is magnificent. Deme, Miklos Rozsa, Scheider, Margolin and the rest of a stellar cast, and even the cinematographer Fujimoto, all are superb. This new transfer even seems better than the theater screen version I remember from 1979. Forget about the Hitchcock allusions, they don't matter. Watch it for its own merits. By the way the back story about those days of yore, when pimps from all backgrounds waited for the incoming ships to inveigle immigrant women into prostitution, is historically accurate. Get this Blueray version.

Alfred Hitchcock's repertoire inspired many filmmaker's from Brian De Palma's stylish homages to Gus Van Sant's dreadful "Psycho" remake. Though "Last Embrace" seems informed by the Master, in particular "Vertigo", director Jonathan Demme adds enough of his own flourishes that you're not about to scream rip-off. Story wise it's not classic stuff but the selling points would be the terrific cast and some eye opening set pieces notably a shootout in the Princeton University bell tower and a tense Niagara Falls finale. Roy Scheider is terrific as the government operative who suffers a breakdown after witnessing his wife's killing achieving the correct equilibrium between sanity and mental imbalance. The late Janet Margolin, who portended great things after an auspicious debut in "David and Lisa" and appeared in "Take the Money and Run" as Woody Allen's wife, has a sexy enigmatic turn as the anthropologist who occupies Scheider's apartment while he was recuperating and later his bed. Demme assembles a terrific supporting cast that includes early roles for Christopher Walken and John Glover as well as Demme stalwart Charles Napier. The only things missing are Tracey Walter and Chris Isaak. All kidding aside, a classic score by Miklos Rozsa accentuates this very good film from a director who would later achieve greater things. Now if they would only issue "Handle With Care", Demme's first mainstream film, on DVD.

I enjoyed this movie, unfortunately had to buy a PAL player to view it, as at that time unable to find in U.S. version, Story was good, acting fair,

Talking about history repeating itself. Wow, did it ever. Watch it today.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What's that? No, no, I hones-, no I didn't hear you, sorry. Oh, it's a Jonathan Demme movie? You don't say. How can you tell? Oh, what's that? Because...because of one scene with Christopher Walken? That's the only good scene you say? Its a GREAT scene? What? The plot has something to do with Jewish pimps? Well, that doesn't make any sense. Oh, how's that? Rent it, don't buy it. Gotcha. Worth seeing if you're a Demme fan? gotcha.

Excelente envio muy buena pelicula sin extras pero por el precio esta muy bien, todo con muy buen embalaje

The DVD is good quality - 16.9 ratio, good colour, picture and optional English subtitles (and a good current price on Amazon). Director Demme didn't have many box office blockbusters (Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia perhaps the biggest) but he did make some quirky, interesting ones, like "The Last Embrace". Well cast with a terrific performence from an almost forgotten Janet Margolin, and a hysterical, but effective one from Roy Sheider (a bit like Willem Dafoe - always very physically watchable). The plot is really quite labyrinthine, and there are times when I wondered what was what, but it all falls nicely into place, with a stunning climax at Niagara Falls (coincidentally we watched Monroe in "Niagara" yesterday - it hasn't changed much, if at all and is still fascinating. I would love to go there - I digress). A good exciting, and quite sexy 100 mins. I just wish Christopher Walken had a bigger part (was his role cut in the editing???) Highly recomended.

I had it on VHS and would love to get it on DVD but sadly it is very hard to find. Janet died too young in real life and she was a very talented young actress.

Una nueva "edición" BD-Rip que no respeta al consumidor. Es cierto que la imagen es buena (faltaría más), pero resulta incomprensible que en España las distribuidoras legales no hagan su trabajo.

I've always loved Last Embrace since I first saw it on BBC2 in the early 90s, and for someone who's as a rule only about 20/80 in favour of post 60s American cinema, that's saying a lot. I'd go as far as to say that Jonathan Demme crafts a richer suspense here than with the 'showier' excess of Silence Of The Lambs - maybe I'm setting myself up as the proverbial to the slaughter in that opinion, but hey-ho.As to the Dutch, 'Green Cow' DVD, I feel I must rebuke some earlier comments on quality - the print is a very decent 1.85:1 (ie NOT merely 16:9) transfer. Even with the drawback that it's non-anamorphic, zooming to my TV's 16:9 setting results in a surprisingly minor loss of definition. Background detail isn't exactly gilt-edged, but the main image remains solid, colour palette is seemingly faithful, and even tricky shots involving panning and/or process work are quite agreeably stable. I'd much rather this than hold out for a R1 release and its inherent NTSC 'judder' any day. Anyone who proclaims it little better than 'VHS quality' clearly has not actually revisited VHS in a long, long while.