Rosebud (1975)

ROSEBUD  (1975)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Otto Preminger
    Peter O'Toole, Richard Attenborough, Cliff Gorman,
    Claude Dauphin, Raf Vallone, Peter Lawford,
    Isabelle Huppert, Kim Cattrall, John V. Lindsay
Palestinian terrorists abduct five women, all of them young and beautiful, the daughters of influential business and political leaders in Europe and the United States. Recruited to get them back is a rakish, chain-smoking agent named Larry Martin (Peter O'Toole), a Brit working for American intelligence while posing as a correspondent for Newsweek. Otto Preminger's next-to-last film isn't aiming for greatness, but it's not a bad piece of escapist cloak-and-dagger work, more European art film than James Bond. O'Toole's larky manner and movie-star looks make him an improbable spy, but he's never not fun to watch. The script is by Erik Lee Preminger, Otto's son by Gypsy Rose Lee, and the ending is borderline biblical, an eye for an eye, never-ending.