Wading into the stream of Seven Days in May and The Manchurian Candidate, Alan Pakula contributes to feverish political fantasies a thriller about a hypothetical organization for the recruitment of paid assassins. This stuff gets out of hand quite readily. The incredible premise -- which feigns an attitude of frantic alarm-sounding while it exploits the situation with cool opportunism -- becomes less offensive, somehow, because of the equally incredible exposition: a barroom brawl, a splashy fight in river rapids, an obligatory car chase. An indoctrination slide-show on the values of God, Country, Mother, Father, the Enemy, etc., is the highlight of the movie, and not merely because it functions as a welcome commercial interlude. Gordon Willis's photography includes some chilling compositions of modern architecture, though his lighting is dimly deficient, as usual. Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn. (1974) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.