North Sea Hijack (a.k.a. ffolkes) (1980)

Directed by Andrew V McLaglen; produced by Elliott Kastner

When a small group of murderous extortionists take over a North Sea oil rig and threaten to destroy it unless paid a huge sum of money, the British Government call in a private anti-terrorist team headed by the eccentric Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (Roger Moore) to recapture the installation. But ffolkes’s intelligence and preparation come up against the cunning and instinct of the gang’s leader (Anthony Perkins), and it’s an open question as to who will prevail.

In the midst of his run as James Bond, Moore took time for this light-weight and light-hearted adventure film. It’s a contrast to the Bond movies in many ways, most notably in the principal character. The action makes the picture a bit of a throw-back. In the age of bigger-and-better, just getting under way in the early ‘80s, the action in North Sea Hijack is on a small-scale. This of course does not make it bad; the short, sharp application of violence is as effective in the cinema as it can be in real life.

The direction is good, and provides some tense moments. The writing is adequate: it has some good lines, almost all delivered by Moore, and the story will keep the viewer interested. It throws some spanners into the plans of both the heroes and the villains, which is always nice to see: chance can be the most realistic turn of events in fiction, yet it can also come across as unrealistic. Here it is well handled. The main stumbling block is that the bad guys’ scheme seems half-baked, or at least only half conceived. With no apparent escape plan, one wonders what the villains intend to do once they have their money.

In terms of acting, this is Moore’s show. Perkins adds his usual nervousness to his role; in this case, it suits his character, a ruthless, loud, violent man with a hair-trigger temper. He tends to over-do the part at times, however, and there is no third dimension to any of the villains. Likewise, the supporting good guys (James Mason as an admiral, David Hedison as the manager of the oil rigs and Jeremy Clyde as a cabinet minister) have little to do but react to Moore.

Moore’s Rufus ffolkes is an interesting character, a hard-drinking misogynist cat-fancier who doesn’t suffer fools happily, and doesn’t really like smart people, either. His contempt for women comes from his own neuroses rather than from women themselves and, to be fair, he appears to have an equally low regard for men.

His characteristics are clearly additives, those traits that make ‘quirky’ characters, a description beloved of publicists who want their movies or tv series to stand out. These are contrivances, clearly, but Moore puts life into them, and, while I usually find irascibility and ego tolerable only in very small doses, they are entertaining here, perhaps because ffolkes seems genuinely to dislike evil-doers even more than he does everything else, and takes the situation seriously. Besides, it’s hard for me to dismiss entirely someone who says, “I like cats, and I don’t like people who don’t.”

While it may be easily ignored as drama, North Sea Hijack is nonetheless a fun, uncomplicated adventure flick, driven principally by the star.