JACK HIGGINS' ON DANGEROUS GROUND
UK/Canada, 1996, 102 minutes, Colour.
Rob Lowe, Kenneth Cranham, Debra Moore, Jurgen Prochnow.
Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.
Jack Higgins' On Dangerous Ground is based on one of his very popular novels featuring a regular character, Sean Dillon, a mercenary available to most governments, but especially active in the Irish Troubles.
Rob Lowe is at first an unlikely candidate to be Sean Dillon on screen. He gives a very dour performance, scarcely smiling throughout the whole film. However, this severe approach works to his advantage and he carries off the action sequences. He was to make several telemovies of Jack Higgins novels as Sean Dillon. Kenneth Cranham is far more credible as Brigadier Ferguson, also a regular in the novels. Jurgen Prochnow is one of the main villains.
The plot seems highly farfetched, but is in keeping with many of Jack Higgins' creative hypotheses about what might have happened during the war. The most famous of these, of course, is The Eagle Has Landed. In this one, in order to get the assistant of Mao Tse Tung to help fight against the Japanese at the end of World War Two, Earl Mountbatten and Douglas Macarthur made a Chunking Covenant with Mao Tse Tung that they would help him with arms and he would allow another hundred years' extension on the treaty with the handing back of Hong Kong. It all comes to a head in the mid-'90s with Hong Kong businessmen eager to extend their business interests, Chinese wanting to take over Hong Kong and using terrorists to help them in their means, the Mafia getting information about the covenant and sending some of their operatives to Scotland to recover it. There are the usual betrayals, sometimes from an unexpected source, as well as British derring-do. Although it is mainly the outline of Higgins' plot (of which there is a great deal), it is still an entertaining look at a Higgins story on screen.
1. The popularity of Jack Higgins' novels? Action? Military hypotheses like the Chung King Covenant? British intelligence in the latter 20th century? Individualist operatives and mercenaries like Sean Dillon and their toughness and success in their missions? A good action show?
2. The reference to China, the Chung King Covenant and its political use?
3. The locations, Britain, the United States, Palermo, Scotland, China? An authentic atmosphere of international espionage? The musical score?
4. The opening with Dillon in Yugoslavia, as a priest in the confessional, shooting the penitent, being rescued by Ferguson, being employed by him despite the hostility? Dillon and his personality, his disillusionment with Ireland, his being available to all the governments, Ferguson interrogating him in Ireland and his not breaking, Ferguson wanting him on the side of England? Ferguson's hold over him and Dillon's agreement to work? The relationship with Bernstein and her being an assistant to Ferguson, her relationship with him, the clashes of personality?
5. The intended assassination of the American president, Billy Quigley infiltrating the group, the Irish, Mike Ahern and Norah Bell with the Iranian? Revelation later that it was Chinese backing? Billy Quigley telephoning and being shot? Dillon and his getting information, shooting the informant in the ear? The truck, the bomb exploding - and its being interpreted as a decoy? The real thing, Ferguson and Dillon present at the reception, the president and the foreign secretary, the planting of the tree, Ahern and Bell and the detonation? Dillon acting in time, the shootings, Bernstein killing Norah Bell as she stabbed Dillon? The aftermath, hospital, the Chinese woman, her uncle, the explanation to Dillon and getting him to act?
6. The old man dying in New York, the doctor, listening to the history of the Chung King Covenant, the flashbacks? His telephoning his uncle? The Mafia going into action, getting Carl Morgan, his stepdaughter? The meetings in Italy, the visit to Scotland, Carl Morgan and his deadly attitudes, his stepdaughter and Dillon following her, rescuing her from the attacker? The brake lining in the car going? The irony that she was the villain, doing it all for love of Carl Morgan, the showdown in Palermo with Dillon parachuting in, with Ferguson as hostage? Dillon turning the tables by revealing that the girl had murdered her mother? Morgan's horrified reaction? The pause enabling the shootout? And the police rescue?
7. The significance of the Chung King Covenant in the past, to contribute to World War 2, to the '90s and the incorporation of Hong Kong in China?
8. The action sequences, especially the visit to Scotland, Lady Campbell and her going along with the plan, the information about the Bible, the diving, the rescue, the Bible being taken? Leading to the showdown in Sicily?
9. The happy and satisfactory resolution - and Dillon to go on more adventures?
