A London-based bank-robber (Terence Stamp) gives evidence against his associate, whereupon the scene shifts to Southern Spain ten years later and the snatching of the grass from his rural retreat by a couple of hard men (chain-smoking John Hurt and a fright-blonde Tim Roth), detailed to transport him to Paris for summary justice at the hands of his erstwhile employer.

Dangerous to call a film The Hit, especially when - in box-office terms - it turns out not to be.

But it's a dazzling film, not least in the white outfit Terence Stamp wears throughout most of the dusty, sweaty journey (shades of Frears' beloved MacKendrick film The Man in the White Suit, perhaps ?)

The Hit also mines the vein of (that over-worked term) Pinteresque dialogue that bubbles through its contemporary Get Carter, and tries the difficult task of fusing it to occasional black humour with great success. It bears fascinating thematic comparison to Gumshoe despite the supplanting of pier-end grit with Mediterranean tan.

Even alongside excellent performances from Stamp and Hurt, Tim Roth is the standout turn, wonderfully sardonic and slack-mouthed ("this country goes on for ever and ever, dunnit ?") and adding yet another facet to his previous work for Loach (Meantime) and Clarke (Made in Britain).

Frears himself thinks " The Hit is terrific, and although I've never really understood why that film wasn't successful, I suppose the reason I liked it was because of all the peculiar aspects of the characters; the reason the audience didn't like it was because it was not couched in conventional terms, but a combination of the gangster and road movie genres. It's so haphazard whether the audience will like a film or not".

 

Braddock	John Hurt
Willie Parker	Terence Stamp
Myron	Tim Roth
Maggie	Laura Del Sol
Harry	Bill Hunter
Senior Policeman	Fernando Rey
Mr Corrigan	Lennie Peters
Barrister	Jim Broadbent
Director	Stephen Frears
Producer	Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay	Peter Prince
Photography	Mike Molloy
Editor	Mick Audsley
Music	Paco de Lucia
Theme	Eric Clapton

1984 GB 98 mins