Cry of the Innocent

This is an Irish film that premiered on American TV back in 1980. It's nothing special. It's a conspiracy story involving industrial spying and a plane from Rome that crashes in Ireland: certainly elements that you could see coming from the pen of Frederick Forsyth. It's Rod Taylor's family that is wiped out in the plane crash and, outraged at discovering that it was no accident, he finds a way to gain revenge on the people behind it. Taylor plays an American insurance exec in Ireland, but of course that isn't a position with enough muscle and craftiness, so the writers also provide him with a background as a former Green Beret. This gives him filmic license to be as sharp and as deadly as they come. Guess those villains picked the wrong family to accidentally wipe out---now they've got an angry Rod to deal with. Actually, Taylor's character and most of the others are cliché (including Pettet as the intrepid female reporter---yawn). But there IS one actor and character that stands out: Cyril Cusack as the Irish police inspector. His rumpled, calm and casual, yet brilliant inspector is the best thing in the film. He steals every scene. Too bad nothing further (another movie or even a TV series) was done with this delightful character. It's the one thing to recommend in this otherwise ordinary revenge saga.

This is not one of the best films of Frederick Forsyth, Rod Taylor, Nigel Davenport nor of Michael O'Herlihy, the story is a typical Forsyth thriller focussed on brutality, the slaughter of innocents, revenge and death, with a beautiful girl in between, who tries to save the show in the end, but that does not help the story. The music is fine, Cyril Cusack does a good job as the criminal inspector, but the film is rather bleak in character. Rod Taylor was good in parts like this in the 60s, but 20 years later he is not equally convincing any more. And the story, although well contrived, suffers from what seems to be the case with every Forsyth story, no matter how brilliant and intelligent, there is never any human depth and seldom any interesting psychology. The main human interest of his characters is usually only in the victims. Rod Taylor got his girl, but he still lost an entire family.

While it is set up with an interesting premise, a man losing his family as collateral damage caused by some spy stuff, this starts strongly and then just fizzles. The character played by Rod Taylor is so dull. He seems to recover from an incredible tragedy very quickly, then finds himself embroiled in espionage and a need to avenge the event. There are a series of connections that he must make and finally face the person at the top. This could have been OK but its so tiringly dull. There are encounters, handled so incompetently by the bad guys, that he is allowed to roam free. Anyone who is involved in the upper levels of this type of crime would have taken one of many opportunities to just finish him off. Obviously, there is the ubiquitous briefcase, but we don't even know what that's all about. It's so obvious when a film is made for TV with so little effort to fill in the spaces. Taylor is apparently a Green Beret, but there is so little character development that we don't get in his head at all. Could have been good. Isn't.

Taylor stars as an insurance executive (and ex-Green Beret) whose family is killed when a private jet crashes into their holiday house. Initially thought to have been a tragic accident, the wily local inspector (Cusack) discovers that a bomb brought the plane down, a revelation that has Taylor seeing red and bent on finding those responsible to take revenge. Pettet co-stars as an intrepid reporter whose expose on shady corporation "Intent" suggest industrial espionage may have caused the death of Taylor's family. Its wealthy CEO (Davenport) appears to be unconnected, but a quick sojourn to Corsica reveals more intrigue and implication.

While Taylor might do a realistic portrayal of an unhinged widow, he's less believable in Green Beret fatigues and face paint. Davenport appears late in the film and makes little impact, Alexander Knox has a pointless cameo as Taylor's war veteran father now living on Corsica, and Pettet is pretty but frivolous. Cusack has the best dialogue and is able to stand apart from the dreck.

Some picturesque Irish countryside together with the capable cast is all that saves this would-be thriller from going down in flames with the plane. Desperately in need of more action and suspense, and less clichéd conspiracy speculation.

In CRY OF THE INNOCENT, a family's holiday is brought to a sudden, tragic end. It's made clear to the viewer from the beginning that the incident was caused by an assassin. Now, the sole survivor, Steve Donegin (Rod Taylor) sets out to uncover what happened, and why.

Since he gets the runaround, Donegin does his own sleuthing, teaming up with a reporter (Joanna Pettet) to get to the bottom of things. Corporate espionage and murder ensue.

CRY OF THE INNOCENT is an above average made-for-TV thriller with a great role for Taylor. Ms. Pettet is also good in her dual role...