Counting Down the Greatest Crime Films of All-Time: #39

Otto Penzler ranks, analyzes, & celebrates the 106 greatest crime films of all-time. Catch up on the series and find new installments daily here.

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The Day of the Jackal (1973)

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TYPE OF FILM: Suspense/ Espionage

STUDIO: Universal

PRODUCER: John Woolf

DIRECTOR: Fred Zinnemann

SCREENWRITER: Kenneth Ross

SOURCE: The Day of the Jackal, novel by Frederick Forsyth

RUNNING TIME: 141 minutes

PRINCIPAL PLAYERS:

Edward Fox……………………………..…….….The Jackal/ Paul Oliver Duggan/ Per Lundquist

Alan Badel…………………………………………………………………….………The Minister

Tony Britton……………………………………………………………………..Inspector Thomas

Denis Carey………………………………………………………………………………….Casson

Cyril Cusack……………………………………………………………………..…..The Gunsmith

Terence Alexander……………………………………………………………………………Lloyd

Michael Auclair………………………………………………………………..….Colonel Rolland

Adrien Cayla-Legrand……………………………………………………….………The President

Maurice Denham…………………………………………………………………..General Colbert

Vernon Dobtcheff…………………………………………………………..……..The Interrogator

Jacques Francois……………………………………………………………………………..Pascal

Olga Georges-Picot……………………………………………………………………….…Denise

Derek Jacobi…………………………………………………………………………….……Caron

Michel Lonsdale………………………………………………………………………………Lebel

Eric Porter……………………………………………………………………………Colonel Rodin

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DID YOU KNOW?

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To this day, there is speculation about how much of The Day of the Jackal is true and how much is fiction. There is an OAS (Organisation de l’Armée Secrète), and most of the characters in the book (and the film) were real, although most of the names were changed and even their physical descriptions altered to protect against libel suits. Forsyth has refused to confirm or deny that this plot to assassinate de Gaulle ever actually took place or that there was a leak in the top ranks of the Secret Service, though it is true that there were several attempts on de Gaulle’s life in 1963, the year in which this thriller is set. Forsyth has admitted that the Jackal was real and that he met him, though he lacked the suave sophistication and intelligence of the fictional character.

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THE STORY

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Many Frenchmen, especially former soldiers, are outraged with Charles de Gaulle for having given independence to Algeria and they vow to kill him, forming an organization called the OAS. After several assassination attempts fail, the group decides that it needs a professional to carry out the job and hires an Englishman with the code name Jackal.

After the Jackal receives $250,000, the first half of the fee, he begins to make meticulous preparations for his assassination attempt, acquiring expertly forged papers and buying a rifle made to his own design.

While he is attending to the details of his job, a member of the OAS is captured and provides information to the authorities, and a secret but massive manhunt is begun. Led by the man described as the best detective in France, top members of the Surete and Scotland Yard go to work and learn the Jackal’s identity, his description, and even the kind of car he drives. However, because a female member of the OAS has insinuated herself into the life of one of the ministers and pries information out of him, the Jackal is kept apprised of each step of their investigation.

The Jackal takes up with a beautiful and wealthy woman but kills her when she tells him the police have asked about him. He changes his disguise and his documents, assuming now the identity of a Danish schoolteacher.

As de Gaulle prepares to make a speech on August 25, Liberation Day, the Jackal makes his way into a house from which he will have a clear shot. Only the last-minute intervention by the detective, who shoots the Jackal, saves de Gaulle.

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Frederick Forsyth claims to have written the entire novel in thirty-five days. It was rejected by several publishers before Hutchinson bought it, spurred on by the fact that the manuscript had been approved by Andre Malraux, de Gaulle’s Minister of Culture.

It is difficult to imagine that a book or film in which the end is known could be a successful suspense story, but that is exactly what Frederick Forsyth, the author of the novel on which the film was based, and Fred Zinnermann, the director who translated the novel onto the screen, achieved. Everyone who remembers French history knows that General Charles de Gaulle did not die as a result of an assassin’s bullet, yet the maintenance of suspense throughout the cat-and-mouse game played by the security forces on the one hand and the cold-blooded contract killer on the other is remarkable.

In 1997, The Jackal was released. It was “officially” based on The Day of the Jackal but bore only the slightest superficial resemblance to the original. It starred Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, and Diane Venora. While no match for the original, it was stylishly and expensively filmed and is worth seeing.

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BEST LINE

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The three heads of the OAS are contracting the Jackal to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. He says his fee will be a half-million dollars. “Are you mad?” One of them asks. “Considering you expect to get France in return,” he replies, “I’d have thought it was a reasonable price.”