The Hessen Conspiracy [DVD]

This film is based on a true story, but you do get the feeling that a lot of artistic licence has been taken. It stars Billy Zane as Jack Durant a high ranking American officer who has fought from Omaha beach through to the war's end, and has landed up in Frankfurt to be stationed at the palace of Princess Sophie - who of course was not a Nazi. There he meets femme fatale Lt. Kathleen Nash (Lynne Renee). Together with a red neck sergeant they discover a cache of vintage wine and then more encouragingly, the German crown jewels, hidden behind a bricked up wall.

Zane narrates the whole time in the style of classic noire, but classic this sadly is not. It is very stylish, with lots of matinee idol looks and music that tries too hard to tell us what to feel and what is about to happen. The clichés come faster than a freshman on prom night, and I actually found some of them bordering on comedic, which as this is a thriller I am sure was unintentional. There is `jazz club' sax whenever Ms Renee even gets close to a bedroom for instance. Whilst there is good acting through out, it still fails to engage, the characters are just all too unlikable for us to gain any empathy. They are all motivated by naked greed and lust in a way that would make the yuppies of the 1980's salivate with envy.

The plot is to smuggle the stones back to New York and then sell them for huge amounts of cash. The double crosses then start piling up like lemmings in mating season, and the one liners become ever more obvious -"she played me like a violin", for instance. This then is a triumph of style over substance and seems to out stay its welcome, even though it is only 106 minutes long. It is hard to recommend this to anyone, it is a sort of `Oceans 11' noire, without the pace, charm, or good lighting to really fulfil either role. Whilst the ending is not that predictable, you sort of don't care by the time it happens, so really only good for a rental if you like Mr Zane or want to see his co star stylishly draped over him in various positions of bedroom scenarios and that is only a few seconds, so not much of a pull either. Sorry this is just slow, uninteresting and not really that true a story either, but I did not turn it of f, so it gets an OK from me and I did like the attention to period detail which is always appreciated.

Loosely based on a true story this film tells the story of a group of American officers stationed in a German castle post WWII.It's within these walls that they find a cache of hidden gems that the previous occupants stashed for safe keeping before fleeing the ever advancing American army.Of course the four officers decide to keep them for themselves and smuggle them into America to fence at the earliest opportunity.The four involved are Col Durant(Billy Zane),Lt Kathleen Nash(Lyne Renee),Sgt Tarlton(Rudolph Segers)and a Lieutenant who seems to be an army clerk and whos name and character i have forgotten.What ensues is double cross after double cross with Durant and Nash getting involved in a predictable romance.Throw in a mob boss who wants the gems without paying(the cheek of him)and a U.S Army hot on their trail and you have all the ingredients for a thrilling film.
It is fairly entertaining but it doesn't really cut the mustard and thats largely down to the lack of any real spark between Durant and Nash.Lyne Renee has only four credits to her name on IMDB and lets face it when did Billy Zane last put in a good performance(Dead Calm maybe).I found the nude scenes in this film rather unnecessary and with a more alluring actress these could have been avoided.The plot twist and turns were largely predictable,there was the odd surprise which does get explained in the last third of the film(the best third).To top all this off i found the direction rather week and with no edge to it.Where it does succeed is in the production,with a relatively small budget it does just about enough to lift an otherwise flat film.
I couldn't help but think back to the old noir films of this ilk and imagined what we might have got with Hitchcock in the directors chair.Filmed in black and white and with Gable and Bergman cast in the roles of Durant and Nash(wishful thinking i know).Overall an average yet mildly entertaining film but one that doesn't really stand out.
Theres not a lot on the disc either with just the option to watch the film in 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 Surround and scene selections.In English with a runtime of 106 mins and filmed in an aspect ratio of 1.78.1 Anamorphic Widescreen.

Apparently, this movie is based on a true story, which I didn't know before, but it was interesting to see a part of history taking place where I'm from. It confused me a little towards the end, but it wasn't bad. I liked it.