Solid thriller, AIP's take on Day of the Jackal with Rod Steiger as an Irishman - an engineer who served with the British in North Africa - whose wife and child are killed accidentally by a British soldier during a protest (a very good sequence).
Everyone figures out pretty quickly what he's up to - blowing up the Houses of Parliament. The IRA and British special branch try to stop him.
The film could have done with another subplot or two - his relationship with Lee Remick for instance (an IRA widow... would've been better had she loved Steiger more obviously and/or been in cahoots) - or another person after him/helping him. Without this it felt a little long - it could have had ten minutes or so cut out.
I didn't mind that the plot depended on him impersonating a politician because Steiger is such a good actor.
Richard Johnson is good as the tormented cop after him (I was convinced he was going to be killed it was so foreshadowed but he pulled through). Patrick Stewart pops up as an IRA gunman with a little bit of hair.
The use of documentary footage is great (protests, bombings, the Queen at parliament). The pace quite fast.
It's a good movie. A highlight of the career of Don Sharp.
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