The Final Programme

US: The Last Days of Man on Earth (UK)

Goodtimes/Gladiole. Director Robert Fuest; Producer Jon Goldstone, Sandy Lieberson; Screenplay Robert Fuest; Camera Norman Warwick; Editor Barrie Vince; Music Paul Beaver, Bernard Krause; Art Director Robert Fuest, Philip Harrison

Jon Finch
Jenny Runacre
Hugh Griffith
Patrick Magee
Stirling Hayden
Julie Ege

Pic is a silly, pretentious pot-boiler, done in a jazzed-up style which suggests Ken Russell on an off day. Jon Finch is topcast as a rebellious intellectual in a devastated world seeking a new messiah. Pic alternates high-falutin' allegory with low-brow facetiousness, and the film is a mishmash.

Robert Fuest, who directed, based the story on Michael Moorcock's novel The Final Programme. Whatever ideas Fuest is trying to deal with, mostly in the pop cliche fashion of run-of-the-mill scifi, are submerged by the relentlessly chic filming style.

The Finch character runs up against some of England's most interesting supportng actors, none of whom has much of a part, and when the forlorn cast is coupled with the junk-strewn landscape, pic could be taken as a sad allegory of the British film industry. Among the talents stranded here are Jenny Runacre, Hugh Griffith, Patrick Magee, Harry Andrews, Graham Crowden, and George Coulouris. Sterling Hayden is in for a flash.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1973. Running time: 89 MIN.

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