by Frank Calvillo
Fandor Files
Welcome to the Fandor Files, a six-part monthly series featuring the best from Fandor.com, one of today’s top streaming sites showcasing the best of classic titles, independent films, and insightful documentaries. Each month, we’ll take a look at a pair of selections linked by a common thread, illustrating important parts of history and society.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, as the saying goes. However, no one ever states how fun preparing such a dish can actually be. My theory is that there is not one single person out there who isn’t hell bent on following through with some sort of revenge, be it diabolical or totally justified. Everyone has been done wrong on at least several occasions, and while some are able to let things go, most would welcome the chance at getting back at their tormentors. Without question, the more elaborate and creative a revenge, the more invigorating and therapeutic the end result can be. In this month’s edition of the Fandor Files, two legends, Walter Matthau and Michael Caine, explore the various sides of the subject in two of the actors’ most underrated works, both of which hilariously illustrate the power of revenge.
A Shock to the System
In the virtually unseen 1990 black comedy A Shock to the System, Michael Caine plays Graham, a Manhattan marketing executive who has just been passed over for a well-deserved promotion, which was instead given to the slimy Robert (Peter Riegert). Things at home are equally as bad with Graham’s shrew of a wife Leslie (Swoosie Kurtz) giving him nothing but trouble. The only person on his side, it seems, is graphics designer Stella (Elizabeth McGovern), who believes in Graham as an executive and as a person. At the end of his rope, however, Graham decides to literally, and creatively, eliminate everyone who has taken part in making his life a living hell.
A Shock to the System’s decidedly dark tone is probably the reason it received little-to-no release upon its completion. After all, the hero is a man who murders his wife and competitor, manipulates a woman genuinely interested in him, and takes great joy in doing all of the above. Yet it’s hard to find a reason not to root for an individual who has played by all of the rules, only to have the game of life turn on him. Graham’s transformation from a hapless nobody into a man projecting confidence and mystery is easy to applaud thanks to Caine’s typically game performance. The film has such a wickedly dark yet oddly enjoyable tone to it, which comes alive through the intriguing camera set-ups, dark music, and especially in the way Graham so deviously utters, “Abra kadabra. Shalakazam” after one of his deeds has been completed. The actions in A Shock to the System may seem rather cartoonish. Your wife is nagging you? Electrocute her. An under-qualified colleague took the position you worked hard for? Blow up his boat. Outlandish answers to very real problems for sure that neither I nor anyone I know would resort to. However, if the minds behind A Shock to the System know anything, is that somewhere deep down, most people secretly wish that they could.
Hopscotch
One of Matthau’s least-celebrated roles, the Ronald Neame-directed Hopscotch sees the actor playing Miles Kendig, an aging CIA agent who has just returned from an assignment in Vienna, the results of which have angered his new boss Myerson (Ned Beatty) to the point that he relegates Kendig to a desk job. Refusing to be marginalized by the agency he’s dedicated his life to, Kendig decides to write a tell-all book, exposing the many secrets of the CIA, much to the disgrace and humiliation of Myerson. Enlisting the aid of a retired European agent/old flame (Glenda Jackson), Kendig sets off on a globetrotting adventure where he completes and sends off a new chapter at every stop, all the while keeping Myerson and Kendig’s protege and friend Cutter (Sam Waterston) on their toes as they try to hunt him down.
From the word go, there isn’t a single second of Hopscotch which doesn’t feel like the most cinematic of chase movies. There are the various locales, the enthusiastic score, and the sparkling chemistry between Matthau and Jackson. For me, a role like Kendig isn’t one I would normally associate with Matthau, but the actor gives some of the best work of his career in a performance full of self-assuredness and glee with that classic Matthau touch. It’s a real delight watching someone who knows all the tricks of the trade exact a kind of revenge on one of the most powerful organizations in the world…and make it look like a fun-filled romp. In real life, Kendig would most certainly be seen as the bad guy in some people’s eyes, but how can you not champion someone who holds the CIA in the palm of his hand, making himself literally the most powerful man in the world? It’s a real tour-de-force performance for Matthau, and one which, much like the film, should be celebrated more.
