Grace Quigley is nearing the end of her life, living alone in her New York apartment. On the day she's being evicted, she witnesses a murder being committed by a top hit-man, Seymour Flint. She proposes to blackmail him into killing her, however, she has one or two friends she wants him to get rid of first.
Agenzia omicidi, La última solución de Grace Quigley, Последният шанс на Грейс Куигли, FAUT M'ELIMINER, Grace Quigleys letzte Chance, Um Jogo de Vida e Morte, Çılgın İkili
France
Cannes Film Festival
USAPG
Sweden
France
Sweden
USA
A film which never manages to overcome its inherent bad taste and pathos - a bunch of old people so tired of life that they are willing to pay to be killed - and translate that scenario into charm and dark wit, which its makers obviously believed they could do. Katharine Hepburn and Nick Note make an awkward couple and, though it's nice to observe Kate have fun with the role, it's really beneath her talents. Anthony Harvey, who directed her to an Oscar in The Lion in Winter, is all at sea with the material and, though I watched the truncated version, I can't imagine the full length version will have located the tone that it is so desperately flailing around for.
1984: Filling in the Gaps #9
After witnessing a hit man (Nick Nolte) kill her unpleasant landlord, Grace Quigley (Katherine Hepburn), who had twice before tried to end her own life, decides to blackmail him into killing her. The idea evolves into euthanasia, asking the hit man to kill other lonely old people too.
The Cannon Group reunite Hepburn with her Lion in Winter director Anthony Harvey, for this silly black comedy tale. There isn't really much to say, other than it's poor on most levels. William Duell stands out most as a shy lonely old gentleman in need of Nolte's services, he has a lovely moment that Nolte ruins. Apart from him, there's nothing worth tuning into here.
Apparently there are longer versions of the film, I don't think they'll improve it that much. It bored me.
A Nick Nolte and Katharine Hepburn double act is not something I ever thought I'd see. A bit like a Cary Grant and Eddie Murphy double act. But here it is. And the film is quite good too. It starts off more like a thriller and I kind of wish it had stayed that way with Hepburn teaming up with Nolte to fight crime. But it soon becomes a black comedy about euthanasia. There are a lot of peculiar moments including a mother/son relationship being enacted and the film remains engaging. It's far from perfect but worth trying.
i feel bad for anyone who isn’t Quigleypilled. what a strange, horrible, macabre little feel-good film. just like Harold and Maude if the relationship were even more bizarre and quite frankly offputting. i love this movie with my entire heart
Anthony Harvey’s black comedy. As Grace Quigley (Katharine Hepburn) nears the end of her life, she partners up with a hitman to carry out some final tasks. Also starring Nick Nolte and Kit Le Fever.
Director Anthony Harvey and star Katharine Hepburn are reunited 16 years after their last big screen collaboration, the historical drama The Lion in Winter (which is for December only), going on to win three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Katharine (famously tying with Barbra Streisand for her memorable film debut as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl), while Anthony was nominated for Best Director, his only nomination for a golden statuette.
Grace Quigley is most notable for being the last leading role for Ms Hepburn…
Just out on Blu in only one of its three versions (the 87-minute theatrical cut), GRACE QUIGLEY has some dark shit brewing at its core but is a tonally schizophrenic mess that, in the right hands, could've been a cult classic. That said, it's not every day that you see a pitch-black comedy from Cannon about elder suicide that gives you the oddball buddy-movie teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Nick Nolte with songs by The Pretenders. It's not very good, but I mean, come on, you sorta have to see it once, right?
Full review to come.
Weird black comedy that barely works but it's impossible not to be engaged by the two stars. There seem to be three extant cuts with different running times - don't know which I saw and don't care enough to look into alternatives.
This might have been more interesting if they'd played it straighter and concentrated more on the mummy issues angle (there is a trace of "White Heat"-like intensity even in this telling). The knowledge that Anthony Harvey directed this reminds you of "The Lion in Winter", an infinitely better story of Katharine Hepburn dealing with problematic sons.
Weirdly pleasantly surprised by this one! I expected it to be really terrible, but it's actually so unhinged that it's kind of neat.
Oddly, one of the more sinister movies of Katharine Hepburn's career. Very different in tone to the likes of A Bill Of Divorcement (1932), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) or Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), but beneath the janky comic surface there is some real dark shit brewing!
For about a decade at this point Hepburn's essential tremor had been making audiences assume that she was frail, but even here in 1984 with this weird, below par material she's still one hell of a presence.
I watched this movie on Amazon Prime because I wanted to see Katherine Hepburn's acting skills later in her life. This is a dark comedy film that humorously approaches heavy, controversial, or sensitive subject matter, but I enjoy stories with darker themes. Upon further research, I found out that Anthony Henry directed this movie, as well as two of my other favorite movies, "Lion in Winter" and "The Glass Menagerie". This journey has been great for me to explore more of Hepburn's work.
Here's a little more about my adventures in discovering Hepburn's movies. When I was a young teenager, I saw "On Golden Pond" and was captivated by Hepburn's looks, voice, and acting ability. She was the greatest! I…
The great Katharine Hepburn’s final starring feature is a fascinating mess that should be seen more. A pro-suicide dark comedy in which Hepburn forms a parental-like bond with sexy, neurotic hitman Nick Nolte, and together they kindly kill NYC’s very thankful elderly community. Bone-deep sadness clangs against pratfalls, strip-teases, and a high-speed hearse chase soundtracked by The Pretenders.
Tonally all over the place and edited to ribbons after a disastrous Cannes premiere, I can’t help fantasizing about what could’ve been. It was supposed to be Hal Ashby’s follow up to Harold & Maude and co-starring Steve McQueen! Ashby could be a master at editing and managing wild shifts in tone, as well as directing big personality legends like Hepburn, so I…
