ASSASSIN (1986)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

I saw a lot of the journeyman-TV work of Sandor Stern, but not much of his writing and/or directing proved memorable, and his one big break into feature films, writing the screenplay for THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, is far from one of my fave horror flicks. That said, I did at least remember this mostly routine TV-movie better than a lot of others.

It's a mark of Stern's gimcrack scripting that when retired CIA agent Henry Stanton (Robert Conrad) is persuaded to help terminate a killer who's preying on other agents, nobody thinks it necessary to impart to Henry the information that the killer is a high-functioning robot. Even the woman Henry is partnered with, a female scientist named Mary (Karen Austin), doesn't bother to explain this little detail until after Henry has had his first run-in with the super-strong automaton. Since it's a TV-film, the ballyhoo surrounding the story would have ensured that anyone watching knew the subject matter, so who was Stern trying to surprise?

That said, once that clumsy set-up is done, ASSASSIN moves briskly enough from point A to B and so on. Mary explains that the robot (Richard Young), given the ironic name of Robert Golem, was designed to function as an assassin for the CIA, but for some reason it malfunctioned and started killing off its handlers-- one of whom is Mary. In contrast to the cinematic Terminators on whom this killer robot is partly modeled, Golem is supposed to function in society like a regular human, and to that end he's been given a good-looking face and build and even instructed in how to seduce a woman if it serves his mission.           

Yet for every element Stern provided that might hold some promise, he largely botches that potential. Golem does indeed seduce a young woman to give himself some cover, but nothing much comes of this. Late in the movie, because Golem can access all CIA files, he tries to persuade Henry to desert the agency boss because the guy betrayed Henry on a previous mission. Henry is clearly irritated by the revelation but he nevertheless doubles down his efforts and does end up terminating the terminator. It might have been more interesting had Henry had some real internal debate about which villain was the greater menace.

Since Young isn't on screen enough to build up his persona, Robert Conrad is pretty much the whole show here. As Mary, Karen Austin doesn't have much to do but to provide exposition. There's one odd moment where, despite being a non-combatant, she gutpunches some enemy agent. I like to think the actress complained about having too little to do, so Stern just cobbled together a scene where she hit someone.