Who?
It was an accident near Brunswick, the car carrying four people, scientist Lucas Martino, his associate Doctor Newman, their security guard and their German driver forced off the road, a matter which itself should have prompted investigation, the car exploding and killing all but Martino who has undergone six months of experimental surgery and rehabilitation, now released into the care of FBI agent Sean Rogers.
His face hidden behind a metal mask with only his eyes visible, his voice changed by the damage, his left arm replaced with a mechanical prosthesis, who is to say that the man who has emerged from behind the Iron Curtain really is the originator of the Neptune Project, that he has not been brainwashed, replaced with a duplicate, or carries devices to monitor and report back all that he sees in his top secret work?
The production possibly inspired by the success of the previous year’s television version of Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg which ultimately served as pilot for The Six Million Dollar Man, Who? was released in 1974, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Algis Budrys and starring Elliott Gould as Rogers, Joseph Bova as the masked man who may or may not be Martino and Trevor Howard as Russian spymaster Colonel Azarin.
Gould an established star from M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye, John Gould’s script does not play to his strengths, his smirking belying what should be a grave situation with implications for national security, nor does the repetitive structure of the first half build tension, a back-and-forth of the present and flashbacks which act as call and response, the answers to every question provided immediately rather than festering as growing doubts.
Martino garrulous rather than suspicious that he is being interrogated by those who hold him hostage, The Medusa Touch director Jack Gold is reliant on composer John Cameron to add excitement to the flat car chase assassination attempt at the airport, and it is only in the later scenes as the mystery man visits a former girlfriend who posits that to him she was less a person than a problem to be solved, much as he now is to Rogers, that it breaks through dull intellectualism to question the humanity behind the mask.
A film which questions identity and the burden of evidence but never really finds a voice of its own, known variously as The Man in the Steel Mask, Robo Man and Prisoner of the Skull, the new edition of Who? is supported by an audio commentary from Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw, interviews with actor Edward Grover who plays suspiciously fragile ill-fated security agent Finchley, makeup artist Colin Arthur, sound editor Colin Miller and a gallery.
Who? is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 88 Films
