The FINAL PROGRAMME

(vt The Last Days of Man on Earth)

   Film (1973). Goodtimes Enterprises/Gladiole Films/MGM-EMI. Dir Robert Fuest, starring Jon Finch, Jenny Runacre, Sterling Hayden, Harry Andrews, Hugh Griffith, Julie Ege, Patrick Magee, Derrick O'Connor. Screenplay Fuest, based on The Final Programme (1968) by Michael MOORCOCK. 89 mins. Colour.

   In this first film to feature Moorcock's polymorph protagonist, Jerry Cornelius, style triumphs over content. Originally a set-designer, Fuest is best known for The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971), an extravagantly theatrical horror-filmspoof, and for the many episodes that he directed of The AVENGERS . TFP looks impressive, but not much of Moorcock's creation remains. Cornelius's father has died, leaving a hidden microfilm on which is the final (computer) programme of the title. Those involved in the hunt for the filminclude Jerry (Finch), his evil brother (O'Connor), and the awesome Miss Brunner (Runacre), who has a tendency to consume her lovers, bones andall. The Moorcock original was not as strong as the other three books of his Jerry Cornelius tetralogy, but none the less was sophisticated in its ironies, which Fuest here reduces (literally in one case) to a series of knowing winks. When Moorcock defines his characters in terms of their personal style, this is often a form of criticism; for Fuest, by contrast, strong style is apparently to be admired. The apotheosis of the book is rendered farcical in the film, which substitutes a grinning Neanderthal for Moorcock's original hermaphroditic MESSIAH.

   PN/JB