Vicious, animalistic yet intelligent criminal Harry (Oliver Reed) is visited in prison by his wife Pat (Jill St. John). Hoping for some good news, she instead informs him that she has fallen in love with another man, is pregnant with said man’s child, and wants a divorce. After punching his fist through the glass divider to strangle her, Harry is restrained by prison guards and tossed into solitary. Once released from solitary, him and his cellmate (whose intentions are unclear) break out as Harry tracks down his wife in a single-minded pursuit of revenge. Sitting Target succeeds because although the storyline is fairly route, it is played in such a stylistically dazzling manner. At the center is Reed, British cinema’s greatest lout, turning in a masterful performance and adding a bit more depth to the character than the stripped-down screenplay originally offered. His intensity and charisma more than compensate for the film’s complete lack of sympathetic characters. This is a gem from the golden age of British crime cinema.
Teenage Frankenstein: Cinematic Journeys, Personal Obsessions 