Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Scorpio Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 5, 2015

How bad is Scorpio? One indication might be the less than glowing “reviews” the film gets on the commentary track included on this Blu-ray, where even Twilight Time’s Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, along with regular cohort Lem Dobbs, struggle at times not to reel off a litany of negatives, many centering around the film’s director Michael Winner. Winner has been a regular punching bag for many through the years, something Dobbs acknowledges while also stating that perhaps it’s time for at least a minor reassessment of the director’s oeuvre (though utilizing that term may seem seriously out of place given some of Winner’s filmography). Though Winner is probably at least arguably best remembered for Death Wish, he did a number of relatively interesting pieces through the years, films as disparate as The Cool Mikado and The Jokers. But anecdotes are legion about various less than pleasant interactions casts and crews had with Winner through the years, though it’s also evident based on some commentaries by Winner (check out The Nightcomers or The Sentinel) that the man, while obviously a handful, was also frequently hilarious and quite the raconteur. Maybe Winner had some good stories to tell about Scorpio, but the film itself is a pretty predictable slice of early 1970s espionage fodder, suffused with that Watergate era paranoia that made folks feel like they couldn’t trust anyone, especially those who worked in government.

One element that Winner typically had covered was with casting, even in pictures that otherwise might be met with yawns or downright brickbats, and that’s certainly the case here. In fact the prospect of seeing The Leopard’s Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon and The Train’s Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield reunited might be enough to generate excitement in some prospective audience quarters, but it’s perhaps only partly a joke when Dobbs suggests that the film’s real casting enticement is that supporting roles are filled by Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1’s first ever Klingon John Colicos and Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3’s guest Romulan Joanne Linville. That piece of trivia may suffice better than anything else to detail the often turgid and predictable proceedings that take place in Scorpio.

There’s a certain pedestrian quality to Scorpio’s screenplay by David W. Rintels and Gerald Wilson that tends to fritter away whatever inherent intrigue is present in the tale of an aging CIA agent named Cross (Burt Lancaster) who suddenly finds himself on the wrong end of an Agency hit—i.e., Cross himself is the proposed victim. There’s very little nuance on hand in this presentation, as Cross’ acolyte Jean Laurier (Alain Delon), who goes by the top secret (yeah, right) moniker Scorpio turns out to be the assassin tasked with the job. The overly literal approach toward this subject matter might be contrasted with another Twilight Time release about a hit man whose days may be numbered, the fascinating film maudit from 1977 The Disappearance. If the Stuart Cooper helmed film is purposefully opaque almost to the point of being maddening, the Winner film takes the opposite tack, at times not even bothering to flesh out certain plot points in order to trot out the predictable cat and mouse game that ultimately evolves between Cross and Scorpio.

There are a number of plot holes both large and small scattered throughout the film, something that gives the proceedings a haphazard quality which tends to suck some of the momentum out of some admittedly well staged set pieces. Lancaster doesn’t really register as an overly believable romantic lead here, seeming forced in his scenes with Linville, who plays his long suffering wife. The emotional tenor is a bit more realistic with regard to the interactions with Delon’s Scorpio, especially once it becomes clear that Cross’ training may have come back to bite him. The most shocking waste here is probably Paul Scofield, who appears in a kind of glorified cameo as a possible lifeline for Cross, albeit one with its own inherent dangers.

The fact is, Scorpio may in fact not be that bad, which is not to say that it’s all that good, either. This is a film that has a decent enough set up (albeit one that even in 1973 was tired) and an extremely accomplished cast, but which simply can’t overcome limitations in the writing and Winner’s sometimes off putting directorial choices (Winner was one of that era’s directors who evidently never met a zoom lens he didn’t love). The film lumbers along and achieves a few bursts of intermittent energy, but unlike the arachnid from which the Zodiacal sign and this film take their names, it simply doesn’t have much sting.

Scorpio Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scorpio is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Culled from the Metro Goldwyn Mayer archives (by way of United Artists), this has the same somewhat dated look of other releases from this catalog coming from this same era, with some variabilities in sharpness, clarity and (most noticeably) grain structure. Elements are in generally decent condition from any damage standpoints, but colors look slightly anemic, with flesh tones skewing toward the pallid side of things and nothing ever popping with much immediacy. Still, Winner's penchant for extreme close-ups (often at the end of those aforementioned zooms) offer abundant fine detail, as can be seen in various screenshots accompanying this review. That said, when comparing sharpness and grain fields between various moments (as exemplified by screenshots 18 and 2 on the "fuzzy" end of things, and screenshots 5 and 13 on the clearer end of the spectrum), there's a noticeably wide difference in evidence.

Scorpio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scorpio features a decent if narrow sounding DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track, one which capably supports the film's sometimes silly dialogue, a number of sound effects and the well done score by Jerry Fielding. The sound design of the film isn't overly ambitious, even given some of the opportunities of some of the chase scenes, but things are rendered cleanly and clearly with excellent prioritization and no issues of any kind to warrant concern.

Scorpio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Audio Commentary features Lem Dobbs hosted by Twilight Time's Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:23)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

Scorpio Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Michael Winner may ultimately be remembered as something of a hack, a capable actor wrangler who typically brought his films in on schedule and under budget, which, as this Blu-ray's commentary mentions, was "good enough" for the programmatic sensibilities of a certain niche of seventies' filmmaking. The sad thing is that with a little retooling Scorpio really could have been an exciting if undemanding film. Technical merits are generally very good for those considering a purchase.