Introduction

The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 political thriller film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale.

Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, the film is about a professional assassin known only as the “Jackal” who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963.

Outline

On 22 August 1962, the militant underground organisation OAS, infuriated by the French government granting independence to Algeria, attempts to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. The assassination attempt fails, leaving de Gaulle and his entire entourage unharmed. Within six months, OAS leader Jean Bastien-Thiry and several other members are captured and Bastien-Thiry is executed. This historical event provides the context for the film’s fictional plot.

The remaining OAS leaders, now hiding in Austria, plan another attempt, and hire a British assassin, credited with the assassination of Rafael Trujillo, who goes by the code name “Jackal”, for $500,000. The Jackal travels to Genoa and commissions a custom rifle from a gunsmith, and fake identity papers from a forger, whom the Jackal kills when the criminal unwisely tries blackmailing him. In Paris, the Jackal duplicates a key to a sixth-floor flat overlooking the Place du 18 Juin 1940 at Boulevard du Montparnasse.

The OAS relocate to Rome. The French Action Service kidnap the OAS’s chief clerk, Viktor Wolenski. Wolenski dies under interrogation, but not before the agents extract vital information about the plot, including the word “Jackal”. The Interior Minister convenes a secret cabinet meeting of the heads of the French security forces. (The Minister is anonymous in the film: the actual Minister at the period was Roger Frey.) Police Commissioner Berthier recommends his deputy, Claude Lebel, to lead the investigation. Lebel is given special emergency powers, though de Gaulle’s refusal to change his planned public appearances complicates matters.

Colonel St. Clair, a personal military aide to de Gaulle and a cabinet member, carelessly discloses classified government information to his mistress, Denise, unaware she is an OAS agent. She passes this on to her contact, who, in turn, aids the Jackal. Meanwhile, Lebel determines that British suspect Charles Harold Calthrop (whose name Cha… Cal… suggests chacal, French for jackal) may be travelling under the name Paul Oliver Duggan, who died as a child, and has entered France.

Although the Jackal learns the authorities have uncovered the assassination plot, he decides to proceed. While at a hotel, the Jackal meets and seduces the aristocratic Colette de Montpellier. Warned by his contact, the Jackal leaves just before Lebel and his men arrive. After a nearly fatal vehicular accident, the Jackal steals a car and drives to Madame de Montpellier’s country estate to hide out. He kills her after she reveals the police have already spoken to her. Using an already stolen passport, the Jackal then assumes the identity of a bespectacled Danish schoolteacher named Per Lundquist. After disposing of Duggan’s belongings in a river, he catches a train for Paris.

Madame de Montpellier’s body is discovered and her car is recovered at the railway station. Lebel, no longer hindered by secrecy restrictions, launches a public manhunt. The Jackal allows himself to be picked up by a gay man at a Turkish bathhouse and stays at the man’s flat. The Jackal kills him after the man sees a TV news broadcast that “Lundquist” is wanted for the murder of Madame de Montpellier.

At a meeting with the Interior Minister’s cabinet, Lebel says he believes the Jackal will attempt to shoot de Gaulle during the commemoration of the liberation of Paris during World War II, scheduled three days hence. Lebel plays a recording of a phone call in which Denise provides information to an OAS contact. St. Clair apologises for his indiscretion and immediately leaves. When asked how he knew St. Clair was the source of the leak, Lebel says he wiretapped every cabinet member’s phone. The French Interior Minister, feeling that the case is now solved, dismisses Lebel from the case. Denise returns to St. Clair’s apartment and discovers that he has committed suicide and finds the police awaiting her. Subsequently losing track of the Jackal, the French Interior Minister reinstates Lebel because he’s still needed for the manhunt.

On Liberation Day, the Jackal, disguised as André Martin (an elderly French veteran amputee), enters a building using the key he had earlier procured. In an upper apartment overlooking the ceremonial area, he assembles the rifle hidden within his crutch and waits by the window. When Lebel discovers that a policeman allowed “Martin” to pass through the security cordon, the two race to the building. As de Gaulle presents the first medal, the Jackal takes aim, but as he shoots he narrowly misses when the president suddenly leans forward. As he reloads the rifle for another shot, Lebel and the policeman burst in. The Jackal shoots the policeman, but Lebel kills him using the officer’s submachine gun.

In England, while police are searching Charles Harold Calthrop’s flat, the real Calthrop suddenly arrives. He accompanies them to Scotland Yard and is later cleared, leaving the police to wonder about the true identity of the assassin. The Jackal is buried in an unmarked grave, with Lebel as the only witness.

Cast

• Main:
  • Edward Fox as the Jackal, also known as Paul Duggan, Per Lundquist, and André Martin; a British assassin hired by the OAS to kill President Charles de Gaulle
  • Michael Lonsdale as Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel, the man sent to find the Jackal
  • Derek Jacobi as Caron, Lebel’s assistant
  • Michel Auclair as Colonel Rolland, the head of the French SDECE Action Service
  • Alan Badel as the French Interior Minister
  • Tony Britton as Superintendent Bryn Thomas, a Metropolitan Police officer who helps uncover the Jackal’s identities
  • Terence Alexander as Lloyd
  • Denis Carey as Andre Casson, the head of the OAS-CNR underground in mainland France
  • Cyril Cusack as the Gunsmith, who crafts the Jackal’s weapon to use on de Gaulle
  • Maurice Denham as General Colbert
  • Delphine Seyrig as Colette de Montpellier, a rich woman whom the Jackal seduces
  • Jacques François as Pascal
  • Olga Georges-Picot as Denise, Colonel St Clair’s mistress
  • Raymond Gérôme as Flavigny
  • Barrie Ingham as St. Clair, a military officer and unwitting leak to the OAS and the Jackal
  • Jean Martin as Viktor Wolenski, Rodin’s bodyguard
  • Ronald Pickup as the Forger, who creates the Jackal’s fake ID
  • Vernon Dobtcheff as the Interrogator
  • Eric Porter as Col. Marc Rodin, the OAS operations chief
  • Anton Rodgers as Jules Bernard
  • Donald Sinden as Assistant Commissioner Mallinson
  • Jean Sorel as Jean Bastien-Thiry, a real-life failed French Air Force assassin on President de Gaulle
  • David Swift as Commandant Rene Montclair, the OAS treasurer
  • Timothy West as Commissioner Berthier, the head of the French police and Lebel’s superior
  • Bernard Archard as Inspector Hughes
  • Philippe Léotard as Paris Gendarme
  • Adrien Cayla-Legrand as President Charles de Gaulle, the French head of state
  • Andréa Ferréol as Hotel Staff

• Uncredited:
  • Edward Hardwicke as Charles Calthrop, a man who is arrested on suspicion of being the Jackal
  • Howard Vernon as Minister Lévesque
  • David Kernan as the real Per Lundquist, whose identity the Jackal steals as a disguise
  • Féodor Atkine as an OAS gunman
  • Max Faulkner as a Special Branch Inspector
  • Liliane Rovère as Hotel Chambermaid
  • Nicholas Young as Passport Officer

Production

The Day of the Jackal was originally part of a two-picture deal between John Woolf and Fred Zinnemann, the other being an adaptation of the play Abelard and Heloise by Ronald Millar.

Universal Studios initially wanted to cast a major American actor as the Jackal, with Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson flown to Europe to audition. Although Universal favoured Nicholson, Zinnemann ultimately secured a production agreement stipulating that only European actors would be cast. Afterwards, British actors David McCallum, Ian Richardson and Michael York were considered, before Zinnemann cast Edward Fox. Jacqueline Bisset was offered the role of Denise, but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts.

The Day of the Jackal was filmed in studios and on location in France, Britain, Italy and Austria. Zinnemann was able to film in locations usually denied to filmmakers — such as inside the Ministry of the Interior — due in large part to French producer Julien Derode’s skill in dealing with authorities. Nevertheless, the opening sequence was not shot in the Élysée courtyard but at the hôtel de Soubise, the main office of the French National Archives. The two palaces were both built at the beginning of the 18th century, but the Hôtel de Soubise is more accessible and has less security than the Élysée.

During the massive annual 14 July parade down the Champs-Élysées, the company was allowed to film inside the police lines, capturing extraordinary closeup footage of the massing of troops, tanks, and artillery during the final Liberation Day sequence. Zinnemann wrote that Adrien Cayla-Legrand, the actor who played de Gaulle, was mistaken by several Parisians for the real de Gaulle during filming — though de Gaulle had been dead for two years prior to the film’s release. Since the sequence was filmed during a real parade, it led to confusion; the crowd (many of whom were unaware that a film was being shot) mistook the actors portraying police officers for real officers, and many tried to help them arrest the “suspects” they were apprehending in the crowd.

During the weekend of 15 August, the Paris police cleared a very busy square of all traffic to film additional scenes.

Frederick Forsyth later wrote that for the film contract to buy rights for his novel, he was offered two options: £17,500 plus a small percentage of subsequent film profits, or £20,000 and no royalties. He took £20,000, noting that such a payment was already a massive sum to him, but due to his naïveté about finances, he waived rights to a small fortune in royalties given the film’s enduring success.

Release

Box Office

The movie grossed $16,056,255 at the box office, earning North American rentals of $8,525,000. Zinnemann was pleasantly surprised by the commercial results, telling an interviewer in 1993: “The idea that excited me was to make a suspense film where everybody knew the end – that de Gaulle was not killed. In spite of knowing the end, would the audience sit still? And it turned out that they did, just as the readers of the book did.”

Remakes

• August 1 (1988): An Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Sibi Malayil, written by S.N. Swamy, and starring Mammootty, Sukumaran, Captain Raju and Urvashi.
  • This adaptation relocates the story to the Indian state of Kerala.
• The Jackal (1997) – An American film directed by Michael Caton-Jones, written by Chuck Pfarrer, and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora.
  • Forsyth, Woolf, Zinnemann and Fox opposed the production and filed an injunction to prevent Universal Pictures from using the name of the original novel and film, and it would be marketed as being “inspired by” rather than directly based on Forsyth’s novel.
  • The film does not credit Forsyth’s novel as source material, and only credits Kenneth Ross with “earlier screenplay.”
• The Day of the Jackal (2024): A British television drama serial adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name.
  • It stars Eddie Redmayne, is produced by Ronan Bennett and directed by Brian Kirk.

Trivia

• The special lightweight rifle that The Jackal concealed in a crutch was a genuine working model.
  • Two of them were made for this movie; one was handed over to the British authorities, the other resides in the Paris Cinematheque.
• Director Fred Zinnemann wanted the Jackal to be played by someone anonymous and indistinct, so he cast the relatively unknown Edward Fox.
  • He later admitted that may have led to the film’s lack success in theatres.
  • Although this movie was not a box-office success, it received generally excellent reviews and made Edward Fox much in demand in movies and on television.
• The Liberation Day scenes were filmed at a real parade, with most spectators being unaware of a movie being shot.
  • This caused a bit of confusion: many of the crowd mistook the arrests being filmed for real ones, and attempted to assist.
• This movie features no soundtrack music after the first five minutes other than diegetic background music from marching bands, street musicians, and radios.
  • Director Fred Zinnemann deliberately refused to use it on the grounds that soundtrack distracts the movement and tension generated.
• During the filming of the final sequence where President Charles de Gaulle is presenting medals to veterans, the many extras were unaware of how close a resemblance actor Adrien Cayla-Legrand bore to the actual President.
  • On the first take, when the President exits his limousine, most of the crowd gasped, and an elderly extra, who was playing one of the veteran soldiers, fainted in shock.
• French President Charles de Gaulle was alive when Frederick Forsyth completed his novel in 1970, but died shortly before it was published in 1971.
• During filming, author Frederick Forsyth introduced Edward Fox to a real-life hired killer he’d known when he was a war reporter in Africa in the 1960s.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Fred Zinnemann
• Producer(s):
  • Irving Allen … producer (uncredited)
  • Albert R. Broccoli … producer (uncredited)
  • Julien Derode … co-producer
  • David Deutsch … co-producer
  • Claude Perrier … producer (uncredited)
  • John Woolf … producer
• Writer(s):
  • Frederick Forsyth … (book)
  • Kenneth Ross … (screenplay)
• Music:
  • Georges Delerue
• Cinematography:
  • Jean Tournier … (photographed by)
• Editor(s):
  • Ralph Kemplen
• Production:
  • John Woolf Productions (Fred Zinnemann’s Film of, A John Woolf Production)
  • Warwick Film Productions (Warwick Film Productions Limited, An Anglo-French Co-Production)
  • Universal Productions France (Universal Productions France S.A., An Anglo-French Co-Production)
• Distributor(s):
  • Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (United Kingdom, 1973)(theatrical)
  • Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (France, 1973)(theatrical)
  • Universal Pictures (United States, 1973)(Universal, theatrical)
• Release Date: 16 May 1973 (New York City, US) and 14 June 1973 (Charity Premiere, UK).
• Running Time: 143 minutes.
• Rating: A.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

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