Goodbye and Amen (1977): Diplomacy and Dirty Tricks (Review)

Released to Blu-ray by Radiance films this week, Goodbye and Amen is director Damiano Damiani’s 1977 political thriller-cum-hostage drama, starring American actor Tony Musante of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage fame and Italian screen icon Claudia Cardinale, and featuring support from prolific Italian filoni star John Steiner and a pre-Dynasty John Forsythe.

Musante stars as John Dannahay, a cynical CIA agent stationed in Rome’s US embassy, much to the distaste of Forsythe’s ambassador. Dannahay and his team are preparing to stage a coup in Africa, overthrowing an elected government to preserve and protect US interests in the region when news comes through that an American sniper is assassinating people from the roof of the nearby Hilton hotel. Suspicions point to one of Dannahay’s colleagues, a corrupt agent whose wife Dannahay has been having an affair with, and it isn’t long before Dannahay is called in to problem solve what has become a tense and dangerous hostage situation within the rooms of the luxurious hotel.

Goodbye & Amen was adapted from a 1974 Silver Dagger award-winning novel entitled The Grosvenor Square Goodbye (the movie’s title derives from the book’s retitling for the US market) from British author and former SOE veteran Francis Clifford. Damiani later said of his movie “I did it because I had to. There are films when you feel that your heart is beating in a different direction, whereas others just pass along and leave you nothing” leaving us under no allusion therefore that Goodbye & Amen belonged in the latter category for the filmmaker. Nevertheless, Damiani clearly threw himself into the project, adapting Clifford’s novel alongside Nicola Badalucco, whose previous illustrious credits including both The Damned and Death in Venice for Visconti.

Clifford had originally set the action in Washington DC and the sniper sequence is apparently just one of several narratives contained within the book. Damiani specifically sets his targets however on this one compelling strand, channelling the contempt he personally felt for the intelligence services, whom he viewed as nothing more than state-sponsored killers, at a time when such protagonists were routinely lauded as heroes elsewhere in cinema, most notably the James Bond franchise. The film explores the uneasy alliance and tightrope walk between diplomacy and a nation’s visible and accepted presence on foreign shores and the nefarious, dirty work of its spies whose presence and actions were not visibly acknowledged. This comes to a head of course when the US ambassador himself attempts to intervene in the situation and a surprising twist regarding the identity of the deranged sniper is revealed that sets Dannahay down a path in which his authorised murderous instincts correspond with his own personal desires.

Musante, never the most likeable of stars for directors on account of his slavish commitment to ‘the Method’ and his desire to interfere and sabotage productions (something it is alleged he did on this shoot too), exhibits some of that unattractiveness in his performance as Dannahay, a world-class bastard and the film’s anti-hero rather than protagonist. Given Damiani’s intentions with the portrayal of the intelligence community, this works rather well for the film, but Cardinale and Forsythe feel rather wasted in their thankless roles. Damiani’s direction too, feels somewhat less assured at times, perhaps indicating his lack of heart in the project or his frustrations with Musante. The ball is often routinely dropped as he tries to get the narratives to co-exist, leading to some sequences – most notably a bizarre full-frontal nude scene for Cardinale’s himbo actor squeeze Gianrico Tondinelli before an unimpressed gun-toting Steiner – that feel unnecessary and tonally jarring. The ending, however, is a triumph. A clinical, atmospheric of high-stakes tension as our protagonists watch as Steiner leads his three hostages, all dressed in anonymous black raincoats and helmets, across the hotel’s rooftop towards the helicopter he hopes will provide his escape.

As ever with Radiance, this release is a treat for all movie lovers. As well as the film itself, beautifully restored from its original negative, there is also an audio commentary from Eurocrime experts Nathaniel Thompson and Howard Berger, a new interview with the film’s editor Antonio Siciliano and an archival interview with Wolfango Soldati who plays the pivotal role of CIA agent Harry Lambert. The movie is presented in its original Italian, as well as an opportunity to view the English dub for the first time on home video, though be advised that’s something of a Frankenstein’s monster of a cut. Unavailable to this reviewer, the release will also feature a limited edition booklet featuring new writing from Lucia Rinaldi, an expert in Italian crime cinema.

Mark’s Archive – Goodbye and Amen