GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

VideoEmbolism Before Johnathan Demme was directing pseudo intellectual crap like "Silence of the Lambs" and socially relevant crap like "Philadelphia" he made this great movie about a burnt out CIA agent who may be going crazy, or may be the target of a psycho killer, or may be the last loose end on the bad side of a career with an organization that has too many secrets to lose. Roy Scheider plays this character who, in a state of recovery, after suffering a nervous break-down from seeing his wife gunned down becomes convinced that his own spy agency is trying to kill him because he is a liability revolving around a politically motivated serial killer who may have targeted him as the next victim for reasons he can only guess at. Then there's the Jewish conspiracy involving the physical abuse of whores. Because Jews hate whores right? Or something like that. Great movie! Lots of suspense, twists and turns, killings, paranoia, great filmmaking, exposing horrifying history that reveal people losing their humanity, identity and individuality by either being a victim of or thriving off of the human race defined by cultures, organizations and finance/power ambition based collectives that evolve through time into nothing more than the despicable scum-sucking power hungry monsters they try to convince themselves, and others, they aren't, and ultimately failing at, through lies and deceit masquerading as the innocence they lost long ago. Watch it and be entertained!

moonspinner55 Jonathan Demme is such a character-oriented director that, to see him pulling a Brian De Palma (which is to say, aping Hitchcock), it's predictably distressing when he fails to work up much suspense within this mystery. Working from David Shaber's mediocre adaptation of Murray Teigh Bloom's novel "The 13th Man", Demme attempts to strike a chord somewhere between Alan J. Pakula's paranoia dramas and Hitchcock's dangling-participle thrillers. Roy Scheider stars as a retired secret agent mourning the murder of his wife, now busy dodging the bad guys who are out to kill him. Takes off right away, but the script is full of flimsy threads and any early excitement quickly dies out. There's a visually impressive climax at Niagra Falls, but Demme gets next-to-nothing out of his cast, and even less out of this tepid story. ** from ****

Neil Doyle There are so many similarities between this relatively obscure thriller directed by Jonathan Demme and the works of either Alfred Hitchcock or Brian dePalma, that it's hard to know where to begin. Even the plot outline suggests a Hitchcock film with someone like James Stewart carrying the lead.But here it's ROY SCHEIDER, a very intense Scheider (even more so than in JAWS), because he never recovered from a nervous breakdown after his wife's sudden demise. And little does he know that he's a part of a plan of vengeance when he starts receiving threatening notes--nor does he know who to trust, and when. Naturally, in a story of this sort, we have to have a femme fatale and in this case it's JANET MARGOLIN as someone who tells him she wants to help solve his dilemma.There are some tricky camera shots, odd angled and always interesting, and Scheider really does carry the film with an extra intense portrayal of a hunted man who doesn't know who his enemies are.Add to this the somber score fashioned by none other than Miklos Rozsa (who did that wonderful SPELLBOUND score for Hitch), and you have all the elements of a first-rate crime story.Unfortunately, there are a couple of drawbacks. The tale is a bit too leisurely in building up to the suspenseful moments--and only Scheider and Margolin are seen to advantage. CHRISTOPHER WALKEN has what amounts to a cameo role and most of the other members of the cast are unfamiliar faces.But it is suspenseful in a calculated, contrived sort of way and does build to a terrific climax at Niagara Falls.

dphelan-1 This is one of Janet Margolin's best performances and I am reminded of how I miss seeing her in films. She certainly plays a complex character here. Her metamorphosis in one scene in particular is dramatic. Reuniting her with John Glover was great too. Even though they shared no real scenes in Annie Hall, I remember them both in that and was pleased to see each in Last Embrace. Glover is still going strong. The plot of this Hitchcockian thriller is multidimensional and fresh. I think Demme ( not one of my favorites) did a great job and the famous finale at Niagara Falls is reminiscent of NIAGARA without really aping it. This is the film that made want to ride the Maid of the Mist. And the one I always remember when I miss Janet Margolin.