At first glance, The Destructors looks like a bargain offering of little redeeming value. It’s a genuine pleasure to discover that the film (originally bearing the superior title The Marseille Contract) is a competent Euro-thriller with two contrasting but equally laudable performances by Anthony Quinn and Michael Caine. Director Robert Parrish works from a script by Judd Bernard, delivering an occasionally clumsy film that benefits hugely from a charismatic lead in Caine and being shot on location in Paris, Marseille and beyond.
The locations, in particular a seemingly abandoned train station, have an old-fashioned charm that makes the rote chase sequence stand out. Also notable are two excellent car chases that demonstrate that CGI may have incapacitated the genuine thrill of an experience stunt driver showing off. Quinn plays Steve Ventura, an American cop who’s stuck in a very personal prison behind a desk at a Parisian embassy. He passes the time by carrying on a puppy-dog affair with a colleague’s wife, who does not return even a fraction of his often pathetic affections. When the colleague in question is murdered, Ventura fumes and complains but can do nothing to pursue the man he believes is responsible, Frenchman Jacques Brizard (James Mason).
Tipped off by a French detective, Ventura settles on a dangerous solution: he will hire an assassin to get to Brizard, then sit back and watch the dirty work unfold. He is surprised when the killer turns out to be an old friend, John Deray (Michael Caine). Ventura quizzes Deray on what events could have predicated the man’s decent into a living as a paid murder, but Deray simply responds “the hours are short and the pay is good.” Ventura pays the fee and Deray is off, moving in quickly to get closer to Brizard by expertly charming his daughter Lucienne (Maureen Kerwin). The car chase that the two undertake midway through the film is impressive and fun, and Caine’s skill behind the wheel impresses and attracts Kerwin.
This is where the plot gears shift and a single major criticism can be leveled justly against the film – Bernard’s script seems to be telling two stories, but Ventura effectively disappears after putting Deray on the job. Suddenly, we are thrust into a mob thriller, with the occasional police procedural poking its head up as Ventura tracks down suspects and finds a way to get Brizard lawfully. Frankly, Caine’s charisma and charm are significantly more interesting to watch then Quinn’s moping, no matter how well he does it. Seeing this slick killer hobnob with the wealthy crowd, throwing in winks at his career choice here and there, you are reminded of a different film, perhaps something in the vein of a down-and-dirty, anti-hero James Bond.
As the film moves into its final stretch, several events threaten both Ventura and Deray and stakes are raised. It’s odd then, that the ending of the film is so sudden, so anticlimactic that it almost feels like it belongs elsewhere, much like the Deray portion. I won’t spoil it here and it is a logical conclusion, just an offbeat one for the purposes of this film. The Destructors is an odd title since the film doesn’t dwell on the body count or other damages done but makes a compelling case of watching Caine slide purposefully into the ranks of the criminal elite and the waiting arms of Lucienne. That romance remains unresolved and unfulfilled, as does a moral lurking at the edges about the eventual toll of Caine’s high-stakes career.
This isn’t a taxing film flirting with grandiose ideals or a shoot-em-up with a climbing body count, but a genre flick that whose parts happen to be particularly well oiled. Quinn and Caine share the screen comfortably and Caine in particular offers a fresh reminder why he had star power to spare before he settled into a respectful late career as a living legend of sorts. Seek it out.
DVD Bonus Features
Just the trailer, which is adeptly cut but hasn’t aged so well.
"The Destructors" is on sale April 18, 2011 and is not rated. Action, Crime, Thriller. Directed by Robert Parrish. Written by Judd Bernard. Starring James Mason, Michael Caine.
