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Hard Contract is a 1969 American drama mystery film written and directed by S. Lee Pogostin and starring James Coburn and Lee Remick. It premiered on April 30, 1969, in Panavision.
Ramsey offers one final, lucrative job, or "hard contract" as he calls it, that can allow Cunningham to retire from the business for good. This consists of three hits, two in Spain and Belgium, with the last victim to be revealed after the first two are dispatched.
On his way to Spain to make the first hit, Cunningham meets two women in Tangier who will change his life: American tourist and Sheila Metcalfe, and her naive but good-hearted friend, socialite Adrianne.
He does kill the first two victims, but later, as remorse slowly takes hold over him, Cunningham can't bring himself to knock off his third target, former top CIA hit-man Michael Carson. A more vicious and effective hit-man in his day than Cunningham is now, Carson has become so passive, he wouldn't even defend himself.
Ramsey flies to Spain to persuade Cunningham to complete the job, and promises Cunningham that if he does not do so, he will himself be killed, and so will Sheila. Cunningham drives Ramsey, Sheila, Carson, and everyone else who knows about him back down a mountain, and is close to deliberately causing a car crash that would free him for all time, only to relent at the last moment, telling a confused Ramsey afterwards that murder is obsolete. Ramsey is then romanced by Adrianne, much to his bemusement, and it's unclear if he has also weakened in his resolve.
The ending is enigmatic, with Cunningham and Sheila running off together and beginning to make love, as Cunningham tells her that the worst deeds can be done for the best motives. The final image of them narrows to a circle around their heads, reminiscent of the image one would see in a rifle scope.
Filming began in May 1968. The film was shot in Spain, Belgium and Tangier. "It's an allegory," said Coburn. "It's a very violent film, but the violence is of the mind."
Harlan Ellison declared the film was "that incredible rarity, a film of entertainment that comes to grips with secondand third-level philosophical concepts. A film of meaning."
Sight and Sound called it a "slightly pretentious oddity of a metaphysical thriller" with "limping direction, but a script which lakes its attractive cast out on some rather intriguing limbs." A later review in the same magazine from Tim Lucas said, "Lurking behind its John Woo-like title is a movie that lures people in with the promise of an action thriller but then presents them with a heady talk-fest about love, morality and commitment. It may be the artiest picture produced by a major US studio up to that time." Filmink said the film "sounds like a try-hard commercial project (assassin falls in love) but it’s actually super arty, with lots of chat... Coburn isn’t ideal in a role better suited for Lee Marvin, but the movie gets points for being different."
Sam Peckinpah, who at one stage was going to form a company with Pogostin, said of Hard Contract, "I read the script and I saw the film. I think he’s a very talented writer. But he doesn’t understand making films."
Ster-Kinekor Video and CBS/Fox Video released the film with 20th Century Fox, which was released on VHS in 1990 in South Africa.
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