''The Next Man'' (also known as ''The Arab Conspiracy'' or ''Double Hit'') is a 1976 American political action thriller film starring

Sean Connery Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...

Adolfo Celi Adolfo Celi (; 27 July 1922 – 19 February 1986) was an Italian film actor and director. Born in Curcuraci, Messina, Sicily, Celi appeared in nearly 100 films, specialising in international villains. Although a prominent actor in Italian ...

, Cornelia Sharpe, and

Charles Cioffi Charles M. Cioffi (born October 31, 1935) is an American film and television actor best known as Lt. Matt Reardon in ''Get Christie Love!'' opposite co-star Teresa Graves. Born in New York City, he attended Michigan State University, where he ...

. Critical reaction at its opening was not positive. Music for the film features

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

guitarist

Frederic Hand Frederic Hand (born 1947) is a classical guitarist and composer. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, Hand was attracted to the music of Bill Evans, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis in his teens. Most of his career has been spent in classical m ...

, as well as the film score debut for composer Michael Kamen.

Plot

The film is set during the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-1974. Khalil Abdul-Muhsen (Connery) is the

Saudi Arabian Saudis ( ar, سعوديون, Suʿūdiyyūn) are people identified with the country of Saudi Arabia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. The Saudis are composed mainly of Arabs and primarily speak a regional dialect ...

minister of state Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

who proposes to recognize

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, support Israeli membership in

OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headquart ...

and sell Saudi oil to needy nations. His plan is to protect

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

nations from the threat of

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

ideology. Khalil's radical agenda and idealism finds few friends, and he is soon the target of multiple assassination attempts by Palestinian terrorist groups. They send Nicole Scott (Sharpe) to infiltrate Abdul-Muhsen's entourage, seduce him, and await further instructions. However, she actually develops strong feelings for him, and the completion of the plan is jeopardized.

Cast

as Khalil Abdul-Muhsen * Cornelia Sharpe as Nicole Scott * Albert Paulsen as Hamid *

as Al Sharif *

Marco St. John Marco St. John (born Marco John Figueroa, Jr.; May 7, 1939) is an American actor who has appeared in films and television programs. He is known for his role as the horny truck driver in the 1991 film '' Thelma & Louise'' and for playing Sheriff ...

as Justin *

Ted Beniades Theodore Cleanthis Beniades (November 17, 1922 – October 24, 2014) was an American character actor of screen and stage who was best known for appearing in Brian De Palma's '' Scarface'' as the undercover police officer Seidelbaum. Beniades wa ...

as Frank DeDario *

as Fouad * Jaime Sánchez as New York Security

Production

Connery's casting was announced in January 1976.

Reception

The film on its release was not received particularly well by critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

on November 17, 1976, criticized the plot, remarking, "When good directors work with bad material."

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

commented, " ood directorsshove art into the crevices of dreck. That would do as a description of ''The Next Man'', a movie with an impenetrable plot."Chicago Sun-Times review by Roger Ebert
, November 17, 1976, Retrieved on July 7, 2008 Ebert commented that the film had some scenes that worked, particularly those between Sean Connery, as the minister of state for Saudi Arabia, and Cornelia Sharpe, who plays a professional international assassin, although the plot lacked details to understand these characters more fully. Ebert was impressed by Sharpe's performance as Nicole Scott, describing her as a "cool beauty."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the film as a "suspense melodrama made by people whose talent for filmmaking and knowledge of international affairs would both fit comfortably into the left nostril of a small bee." Like Ebert, he identified flaws in the plot, remarking that "''The Next Man'' is obsessed with political assassination but it never really identifies its villains, preferring, instead, to cop out by playing on natural paranoia that assumes that everyone everywhere is on the take from someone somewhere. This attitude is too easy to represent true cynicism." Canby also criticized locations in the film that added to the confusing nature of the plot, commenting "''The Next Man'' moves rootlessly around the world like a fretful tourist, from

to the Middle East, the south of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, though nothing much happens in any one of these places that couldn't as easily happen somewhere else." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' was not impressed, commenting, "''The Next Man'' emerges more a slick travesty with political overtones than the cynical suspense meller it was designed to be." Producer Martin Bregman received an official protest from the Saudi government after the film was released. The film opened the same week in the United States as ''

Two-Minute Warning In most levels of professional American football, the two-minute warning is a suspension of play that occurs when two minutes remain on the game clock in each half of a game, i.e., near the end of the second and fourth quarters, and overtime. It ...

'' and came third for the week at the U.S. box office behind it and ''

Car Wash A car wash, carwash, or auto wash is a facility used to clean the exterior, and in some cases the interior of motor vehicles. Car washes can be self-service, full-service (with attendants who wash the vehicle), or fully automated (possi ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Next Man, The 1976 films 1976 action films 1970s action thriller films 1970s English-language films 1970s spy films Allied Artists films American action thriller films American spy films Films about terrorism in the United States Films directed by Richard C. Sarafian Films produced by Martin Bregman Films scored by Michael Kamen Films set in New York City Films set in Saudi Arabia Films shot in New York City 1970s American films