...because if I do, it will go way beyond spoilers.
"The Holcroft Covenant" is based on a Robert Ludlum book which went some 600 pages. Unfortunately it did not have a David O. Selznick at the helm, overseeing writers and scripts the way he did with Gone with the Wind. This was doomed to failure, although it is a John Frankenheimer film.
The plot, for starters, is far-fetched even for those of us who don't mind suspending some reality. Michael Caine stars as Noel Holcroft, an architect living in New York who is contacted by a Swiss banker. He is told that his father, a financial adviser to Hitler whom his mother left and that he never acknowledged, has left him the executor of a trust worth $4.5 billion.
The trust is to be used, according to the letter his father wrote him, to make restitution to victims of the Holocaust. There are two other people who will serve as advisors, sons of the men who went in on the covenant with Noel's father. One is Jonathan Tennyson (Anthony Andrews), whose sister Helden (Victoria Tennant) is also involved in bringing the covenant to fruition, and Erich Kessler, a conductor who changed his name from Jurgen Mass.
Noel's mother (Lili Palmer) is against his involvement and begs him not to sign or even look into the matter. Turns out she's not alone. But some people have a vested interest in Noel signing the covenant - and they'll stop at nothing to get him to do it.
This should have been an episode of Whom Do You Trust? The audience certainly doesn't know, which should keep the action exciting - instead, it's muddled and confusing.
And why the officers made this covenant to accumulate for 40 years is beyond me - seems kind of a long time to wait for those reparations.
And then there's the plot giveaway component I can't mention, which reminded me -- strongly -- of a much better, much more famous film done a decade earlier. I almost burst out laughing. I don't have to tell you what it is - you'll know it immediately.
The acting is pretty bad. Sadly this was the wonderful Lilli Palmer's last film. She had a decent role and she does it as well as can be expected given the script, but it was a sad ending to an excellent career. When you look at the fact that Anthony Andrews' film career did not take off, nor did Victoria Tennant's -it's a little sad for all of them, most especially the marvelous John Frankenheimer.
