Half Moon Street (film)
Half Moon Street | |
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Directed by | Bob Swaim |
Written by | |
Produced by | Geoffrey Reeve |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Hannan |
Edited by | Richard Marden |
Music by | Richard Harvey |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release date | 13 August 1986 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $2.3 million[1] |
Half Moon Street is a 1986 British-American erotic thriller film directed by Bob Swaim and starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Caine, Keith Buckley, and P. J. Kavanagh. The film is about an American woman working at a British escort service who becomes involved in the political intrigues surrounding one of her clients.
Half Moon Street was the first RKO Pictures solo feature film produced in almost a quarter-century. The previous one was Jet Pilot, made in 1957.
The film was based on the 1984 novel Doctor Slaughter by Paul Theroux. Despite the source material, the film and book have distinct endings.
Plot[]
Dr Lauren Slaughter is an American academic living in London, where she holds a prestigious but low-paid position at a Middle East policy institute. Her superiors take credit for her work and she struggles to pay the rent on her dilapidated flat.
After an anonymous individual mails her a video tape promoting the financial rewards of prostitution, Slaughter signs up with the high-end Jasmine Agency and begins moonlighting as a paid escort to rich men. These include a Palestinian businessman called Karim, who gifts her his apartment on Half Moon Street, and Lord Bulbeck, a trusted member of the House of Lords with a key role in diplomacy and national defence.
Slaughter and Bulbeck strike up a relationship that goes beyond sex, each enjoying the other's conversation and intelligence. However, Bulbeck's work on a delicate Middle East peace process forces him to miss a series of dates, causing Slaughter to feel rejected.
Slaughter briefly takes up with a playboy called Sonny, who later shows up at her apartment. He attacks her and threatens her with a gun, but she tricks and kills him. Karim arrives and also holds her at gunpoint, revealing that he was the one who sent her the video tape. Karim and Sonny are part of a conspiracy to destroy the peace process by murdering Bulbeck while he is with a prostitute, thus killing both the man and his reputation. A special forces team led by Bulbeck storms the apartment and kills Karim. Slaughter and Bulbeck rekindle their romance.
Cast[]
- Sigourney Weaver as Lauren Slaughter
- Michael Caine as Lord Bulbeck
- as General Sir George Newhouse
- as Lady Newhouse
- Ram John Holder as Lindsay Walker
- Keith Buckley as Hugo Van Arkady
- Ann Hanson as Mrs. Van Arkady
- as Julian Shuttle
- Niall O'Brien as Captain Twilley
- Nadim Sawalha as Karim Hatami
- Vincent Lindon as Sonny
- as Madame Cybele
- Michael Elwyn as Tom Haldane
- as Mrs. Haldane
- as Rex Lanham
- Donald Pickering as George Hardcastle
- Maria Aitken as The Hon. Maura Hardcastle
- as Colonel Hassan Ali
- as Mrs. Hassan Ali
- Angus MacInnes as Bill Rafferty
- as French Businessman
- as Japanese Businessman
- Togo Igawa as Japanese Waiter
- Rupert Vansittart as Alan Platts-Williams
- Anne Lambton as Sidney Platts-Williams
- Philip Whitchurch as Plainclothesman
- Robert Lee as Chinese Ambassador
- Janet McTeer as Van Arkady's Secretary
- Carol Cleveland as American Wife
- as Overdressed Lady
- Siobhan Redmond as Institute Secretary
References[]
- ^ "AN EXPATRIATE IN PARIS GETS THE HOLLYWOOD BUG" Taylor, Clarke. Los Angeles Times 16 Aug 1987: C42.
External links[]
- English-language films
- 1980s thriller drama films
- 1986 films
- American films
- British films
- Films shot at Elstree Studios
- 1980s erotic thriller films
- Films directed by Bob Swaim
- American thriller drama films
- British thriller drama films
- Films set in London
- Films based on American novels
- Films about prostitution in the United Kingdom
- RKO Pictures films
- Films scored by Richard Harvey
- 1986 drama films
- Paul Theroux
- Erotic thriller film stubs