The Internecine Project

The Internecine Project
Directed by	Ken Hughes
Produced by	Barry Levinson Andrew Donally
Written by	Mort W. Elkind Barry Levinson Jonathan Lynn
Starring	James Coburn Lee Grant Harry Andrews Ian Hendry Michael Jayston
Music by	Roy Budd
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Editing by	John Shirley
Release date(s)	1974
Running time	89 min.
Language	English

The Internecine Project is a 1974 film written by Mort W. Elkind, Barry Levinson, and Jonathan Lynn, directed by Ken Hughes, which tells the story of former secret agent Robert Elliot who is being promoted to a government advisor. Due to his dirty past, he must invent a plan to get rid of his four helpers. Unfortunately, one of the four has invented a retaliation scheme of his own...

Set in London in the early 1970s, Elliott devises and carries out a clever plan in which his four helpers will unwittingly kill each other. As they are doing so one cold winter night, Elliott waits and follows progress from his apartment.

Elliott's four associates are: Christina: A high-class prostitute who has given Elliott information from her punters. Bert: A masseur who has also given Elliott information from his industrialist clients Alex Hillman: A civil servant who has fed Elliott government information. David Baker: A research scientist who appears to have benefited from Elliott's fund in producing a weapon which uses sound to kill.

The intricate plot is broadly summarised as follows: Christina plants David Baker's own device in his home on a timer. When Baker returns, it goes off before he can stop it - apparently looking like an accident. Earlier in the evening, Baker had substituted Alex Hillman's insulin (Hillman being diabetic) with a lethal dose. Hillman, the last to die, has previously savagely murdered Bert with a hammer, this after Bert has strangled Christina in the shower. With Bert, Christina and David Baker all dead - Alex returns home in a state (having never murdered anyone before) and takes his lethal substituted medication. He dies slowly.

In the film's final scene, Elliott is leaving the country - having apparently cleared his dirty past clean away by disposing of his associates. Shortly before leaving his house, he has received a package through the mail. The package contains a notebook. The pages of the notebook contain a message written to Elliott from scientist David Baker. The message informs Elliott that Baker had never really trusted him - and that this package was only to be sent to Elliott in the event of Baker's death (which has just happened). The pages of the notebook have been saturated with a poison Baker had been working on. The poison is ingested through the skin. Elliott instructs his driver to take him to the nearest hospital - but he is dead on arrival.

Cast

• James Coburn as Robert Elliot
• Lee Grant as Jean Robertson
• Harry Andrews as Albert Parsons
• Ian Hendry as Alex Hellman
• Michael Jayston as David Baker
• Christiane Krüger as Christina Larsson
• Keenan Wynn as E.J. Farnsworth
• Terence Alexander as Business tycoon
• Philip Anthony as Eliott's secretary
• Julian Glover as Arnold Pryce-Jones

External links

• The Internecine Project at the Internet Movie Database