The MacKintosh Man (1973) on Netflix
Joseph Rearden, a criminal turned agent for British intelligence, is jailed for a diamond theft. He aims to infiltrate the Scarperers, a ring that breaks inmates out of prison.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.3/105,834 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes58%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joseph Rearden works for the British Secret Service, and only two people know his assignment: his director, Angus Mackintosh, and Mackintosh's assistant, Mrs. Smith. Posing as an Australian tourist, he robs a postal shipment of diamonds worth £140,000 and lets himself be convicted, with the jewels hidden away so they are never recovered. The theft is bait for the Scarperers, an organization that arranges escapes for long-term prisoners in exchange for money. In prison, Rearden is put on laundry duties and asks after Ronald Slade, a former intelligence officer held apart from the other inmates after being identified as a KGB mole. Weeks pass before another prisoner mentions that the organization can get him out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The MacKintosh Man (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Walter Hill was in a legal dispute with Warner Bros. over the fact they had sold his script for Hickey & Boggs to United Artists without paying him any extra money. As a compromise, Warners sent Hill some novels they had optioned and offered to pay for him to write the script for one; he selected The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley.
- The 1971 novel behind the film was loosely based on the exposure and defection of George Blake, a Soviet mole in MI6.
- The scene where Slade, played by Ian Bannen, and Rearden, played by Newman, escape from prison was inspired by Blake's escape from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966.
- Walter Hill, who received sole screen credit, said he actually wrote only about 90 percent of the first half of the script with others writing the rest, and did not think it was a very good film.
- Because director John Huston was denied permission to film inside London's actual Old Bailey courthouse, the production built a full replica of its courtroom on an interior set.
- A contemporary article on the making of the film reported that the script still was not finished two weeks after shooting had already begun.
