Last Embrace (1979) ***

With Last Embrace (1979), Jonathan Demme tries his hand at a mystery/thriller in the vein of two titans of the genre, but it’s missing the sense of humor and adventure that Hitchcock had, and the melodrama and technical wizardry of De Palma. It feels a bit too much like a copy of a copy (a bunch of MacGuffiny stuff in the first half and callbacks to Hitch films galore), lacking both the charisma of a lead like Cary Grant or Gregory Peck and the audacity of De Palma’s grand set pieces, but it’s still a fun flick with a solid cast—including Roy Scheider, doing his best to one-up Grant's leathery tan, and Janet Margolin, who does a hell of a job bouncing between mousy and femme fatale. Miklós Rózsa (who scored many a great film from the golden age of Hollywood, including the greatest film noir of them all, Double Indemnity (1944), and Hitch’s own Spellbound (1945)) is on hand to provide music.

For fans of North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), and Obsession (1976).
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