By Lee Pfeiffer
In between filming the James Bond blockbusters The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Roger Moore starred in a largely unheralded action adventure film that afforded him one of the best roles of his career. The movie was released internationally as North Sea Hijack but was retitled "ffolkes" in the all-important U.S. market. The title referred to the character Moore played, an eccentric crank who operates a Navy Seal-like team of daredevils who are periodically enlisted by the British government to combat terrorists. ffolkes may be a cute title for a movie hero but it lead to disappointing boxoffice returns in America, where audiences found it to be rather confusing: "What the hell is a ffolkes?" Nevertheless, this is a crackling good action flick, deftly directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, who was on a roll at the time with The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and this film, all of which, not coincidentally, starred Roger Moore.
The film opens with ffolkes drilling his team of men in a relentless scuba-diving training sessions and casually tossing live grenades into the water as an incentive for them to complete their task within the allotted time. ffolkes is perpetually grouchy. He hates women (the result of growing up in an all-female household), a clever nod to show us that this character may be a man of action, but he's the antithesis of 007. (The script also makes a fleeting mention of the fact that ffolkes' disdain for the fairer sex is also partly due to a failed marriage, 'lest any of Moore's fans might suspect he's playing a gay man of action.) ffolkes also enjoys a more-than-occasional drink and is perpetually in the presence of a bottle of Scotch that he totes everywhere. He also hates smoking (another inside joke, as Moore was an obsessive cigar smoker at the time in real life) but has an obsession with cats. He lives in an old but imposing home on a lake, presumably in northern England or Scotland (though these scenes were actually filmed in Ireland, with interiors filmed at Pinewood Studios in Britain.), where he is comfortable eschewing the company of anyone but his team and his kitties. Topping off his eccentricities, ffolkes does his deep thinking while engaged in the art of crocheting. He's an interesting character and Moore has a field day playing him in some delightfully funny scenes in which he lambastes his men, traveling companions on a train, and lastly, top MPs and British naval brass.
The story quickly kicks into gear when a team of sophisticated criminals hijack a cargo ship that is en route to bring supplies to the two biggest oil rigs in the North Sea. The group is led by the mastermind Kramer (Anthony Perkins), who orders his men to attach mines to both of the oil rigs before taking control of the larger of the two complexes. The gang demands that a 25 million pound ransom be paid to them by the British government or they will blow up both rigs, causing incalculable damage to the world economy, not to mention the environmental disaster that would ensue. The British Prime Minister (Faith Brook, exploiting the new era of Thatcher quite amusingly) reluctantly follows the advise of her military command to use ffolkes and his small team to outwit the bad guys. ffolkes accepts the mission on the proviso that he gives all the orders. He enlists a British admiral (very well played by James Mason) and an oil company executive (Moore's old real life pal and former Felix Leiter, David Hedison) as part of the high risk plot to be held hostage on the oil rig while ffolkes and his men engineer an ingenious plot to save the day. To say any more would spoil the fun. Suffice it to say that the screenplay refreshingly makes the seemingly superhuman ffolkes all-to-human by showing him making some mistakes in judgment that have costly consequences. Most of the laughs comes from Moore verbally sparring with the female PM and anyone else who might foolishly think they can contribute in any meaningful way to his master plan. The supporting cast is very good with Perkins' sarcastic and ruthless villain a scene-stealer, Michael Parks as his top henchman and old stalwart Jack Watson, virtually unrecognizable as the Norwegian sea captain whose vessel is hijacked. It all moves at a brisk pace by director McLaglen and the flick's old style editing and cinematography is downright refreshing in this era of overblown action movies.
The DVD is devoid of extras and has plenty of grain indicating that this fine, but overlooked movie is deserving of a Blu-ray upgrade. (Reader Gerhard Gallian advises that a no-frills Blu-ray is currently available in Germany.)
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