Word: mcgoohan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...process of disillusionment starts melodramatically. A chilly, officious "civil servant" (Patrick McGoohan) arrives at the Jacksons' home and bullies them into permitting his unnamed, hush-hush government agency to install surveillance agents in the upstairs front bedroom. The targets of this scrutiny turn out to be the Krogers: they have fabricated their personal histories, and are suspected to be part of a Soviet spy ring. But Pack of Lies, a West End hit now on Broadway, is only secondarily about espionage. As in his play and film Stevie, a small masterpiece that starred Glenda Jackson, Whitemore is more interested...
...between the two women is the play's mainspring. Ivey bubbles with crude gaiety in her effort to be liked. Harris finds pathetic dignity in an emotional loss that makes her physically ill. The supporting cast is also adept, notably George N. Martin as Harris' stolid, stubborn husband; only McGoohan's automaton-like condescension seems unreal. Director Clifford Williams has sensitively evoked the rhythms of the play, which alternates between naturalistic bursts of action and spotlighted soliloquies. Much of the story is told after the fact, in an elegiac, ruminative tone, reminiscent of $ recent work by Tom Stoppard and Simon...
Perhaps Whitemore, who has written works for both stage and screen, has gotten the two genres confused. The premise of Pack of Lies could have created an excellent IV movie. An inspector from Scotland Yard, a Mr. Stewart (Patrick McGoohan), asks a suburban London couple if they might lend their upper floor for a bit of police surveillance work. Bob Jackson (George N. Martin) is willing to defer to the authority of Her Majesty's Representative, but his wife Barbara (Rosemary Harris) is not so sure...
...thoughtful enough that you could almost believe he has a radio transmitter in the basement (which he does). Ivy's accurate portrayal of a loudmouthed, gregarious American makes the audience cringe: it is doubly funny because she has convinced the Jackson that she and her husband are Canadian. McGoohan? What can you say about a man who can turn a casually waved cigarette into a deadly rhetorical weapon? But closet Prisoner fans should not go expecting to see No. 6 in civil service dotage; Stewart is the ultimate government spokesman, and McGoohan plays him to the hilt. The rest...
...nervous system. Darryl Revok (Lawrence Dane), a bad scanner, tries to form an underground league of scanners who will overthrow the U.S. government and establish "a civilization that will be the envy of the world." Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), a good scanner, is abducted by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) so that he can be trained to search out and destroy Revok. Mutant takeover of the world is hardly an original idea, but the main plot pales when compared to the staggering number of inanities Cronenberg pours into the film...