User Reviews

It's the classic "girl is too poor to pay her bills so she becomes a hooker" story in Half Moon Street. Sigourney Weaver is a highly respected researcher with a low-paying job, but instead of getting an extra roommate or applying for another research position, she gets in touch with an agency and becomes a high-class call girl. Since a lot of her clients are dignitaries, and a lot of them know each other, she also furthers her legitimate career with her contacts.

While Sigourney Weaver might not be the first actress who comes to mind that you would cast as a prostitute, her cool, detached attitude works for the character. During her first appointment, she gets all dolled up, only to look at herself in the mirror, realize she's not being herself, and scrub her makeup off. She shows up in a skirt-suit, glasses, and no make-up. She doesn't use a fake name and actually tells all her clients who she is and where she works during the daytime. It's a very unusual story, since all the other hooker movies you'll watch will feature a completely different character in the lead. If this sort of interpretation appeals to you, you might like Half Moon Street.

Also, while there are quite a few topless scenes, there are no sex scenes. It doesn't glamorize prostitution, but it also doesn't really portray it accurately. Sigourney is never in any danger, or afraid that she might be, and she never alludes to being abused or degraded by her clients. She says to Michael Caine, one of her regulars, that she likes casual sex so she doesn't mind her night job. It's a bit of an offensive statement, since that's never the reason women resort to prostitution. Still, if you like political conspiracy movies, with a bit of sex thrown in, give Half Moon Street a try and see what you think.

Dr Lauren Slaughter is an American academic who comes to London to work for a foreign-affairs think-tank. Her work is prestigious but badly paid, and Lauren decides to supplement her income by moonlighting for an upmarket escort agency, mostly catering for the needs of wealthy foreign businessmen. The set-up is not officially a prostitution ring, but sails fairly close to being one; the idea is that the man pays for the girl's company and it is then up to her whether she goes to bed with him. Lauren proves a success in her new line of work and is able to leave her downmarket flat for a much more exclusive residence in the Half Moon Street of the title. The film explores what happens when she falls in love with one of her clients, Lord Bulbeck, a Government foreign office minister involved in negotiations towards a Middle East peace settlement.

This is not really one of Michael Caine's best films. Most of his best performances have come in films where he has played characters who are, in one sense or another, outsiders or rebels against the system- the down-at-heel spy in "The Ipcress File", the Cockney womaniser in "Alfie", the gangster in "Get Carter", the cynical, disillusioned academic in "Educating Rita" or the drunken minor diplomat in "The Honorary Consul". Admittedly, his first starring role was in "Zulu", where he played the upper-class Lieutenant Bromhead, but I have never thought he was the best thing about that film. Here he plays a high-ranking establishment figure, but never seems completely convincing in the role, even though Bulbeck, a working-class trade union official raised to the peerage, is a co-opted member of the British establishment rather than one born to the purple.

Sigourney Weaver, however, is better as the heroine. She was, along with the likes of Meryl Streep, Kim Basinger, Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer, one of the bright new generation of Hollywood actresses who came to prominence in the late seventies and eighties, and gave some great performances in films like "Alien", "Gorillas in the Mist" and "Working Girl". Here she captures the various, often conflicting, aspects of Lauren's personality,- her intelligence, her outgoing nature and a hint of an underlying mercenary ruthlessness, which nevertheless co-exists with a genuine capacity for love.

For most of its length the film is a psychological romantic drama, like a romantic comedy without the jokes, and as such it works reasonably well. Towards the end, however, it morphs into a political thriller as Lauren discovers that she has become embroiled in a conspiracy by opponents of the Middle East peace process to assassinate Bulbeck, and as a thriller it does not work well at all, failing to generate any real tension. Despite a promising beginning, this sudden switch from one genre to another means that "Half Moon Street" is one of those films that fall between two stools. 6/10

This starts off quite well, with some interesting ideas about traditions, rituals and values in different societies, however about halfway into it, the film starts to fall down, triggered by the introduction of thriller elements that just do not quite work. Sigourney Weaver delivers a strong performance throughout though. The rest of the performers do not do much out of the ordinary, but Weaver manages to bring a sense of credibility to her part, although she is too often topless. The partial nudity involving her is excessive for the film's story, but otherwise, she is great to have on screen, and her attractiveness does not hurt. There is not much of a directing vision to the material, the story is only half-good and there are probably a few other minor problems to be found. Sigourney Weaver certainly enlivens the material however, and the film is not bad to start with. For Weaver fans, it is definitely worth a look, however even for others it is satisfactory enough film-making to be perhaps worth checking out.

The original story, a novella by Paul Theroux, was turned into a screenplay, also by Theroux (he wrote several). It was terrific. You couldn't put it down. It was a highly-atmospheric work with complex characters. We struggled to find the right director, who could give it the right kind of film noir look at which Theroux was clearly aiming. We ran into early problems when few actors we approached for the female lead were willing to play this kind of a role. The nudity was not an issue; they just didn't "identify" with Dr. Slaughter.

Signing Sigourney Weaver was a blessing but also a problem since she's taller than most leading men but fortunately, so is Michael Caine. We got lucky in that combination. We had long conferences with the director, who seemed to understand exactly what Theroux's concept was all about.

During shooting in London, the RKO team (in New York and Los Angeles; our post-production group was based in London) kept asking the head of production how things were going, how the dailies looked, etc. He told us they were on time and under budget, which was true.

When the film was finished, I went to London with the President of RKO Pictures to look at an assemble edit. It was almost unwatchable. I began to wonder if there was a good way to edit around the female lead. But it wasn't really her fault. Who could possibly undress Sigourney Weaver and make her look unsexy? That took a special kind of talent. We walked out of the screening room into the daylight of Dolphin Square and contemplated the end of our careers.

Fortunately we were able to make other pictures and have the time to spend the rest of our lives wondering exactly how to apologize for this one.

The premiss may be a bit far-fetched but this screen version of Paul Theroux's novel "Doctor Slaughter" is surprisingly robust and very enjoyable. Sigourney Weaver is the underpaid American working for the Middle East Institute in London who decides to supplement her income by working for an escort agency. However, things get murky when one of her clients turns out to be Michael Caine's diplomat charged with brokering an Israeli/Arab peace deal. Has Sigourney been set up and if so, by whom? It's hardly believable, of course, but the director, Bob Swaim, ensures it moves at a fair clip though he does play down the thriller aspect to beef up the love story that develops between Caine and Weaver. He also keeps you guessing as to who is doing what to whom. It wasn't a success but it's also a lot better than its critical reputation might suggest.

The film talks about a young woman called Lauren Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver) who works as a lecturer and researcher at the Arab-Anglo Institute in London during day and sophisticated escort serving to VIPS by night at the Jasmine Escort Service . To supplement her income , she has a special client to British diplomatic (Michael Caine) who is acting as ambassador in the conflict amongst Jews and Palestines . He's trying to create an important peace treaty but the various confronted factions want to shatter the pacification project .

The plot isn't narrated with agility and seems to be a little forced and artificial . It's quite unsuccessful but there're pretty dialog and not much action with exception on the final reel that's fast movement and is funniest . The picture obtained lukewarm reception by the public in spite of the magnificent starring duo and was a flop and barely made monetary box office . Although technically well realized is mediocre and doesn't offer surprises . The motion picture is classified ¨R¨ as abounds the nudism in charge of Sigourney Weaver as an escort becomes a pawn in some very dark politics , violence when the murders happen , sexual themes and profanity . The support cast though unknown is very secondary , the film is mainly interpreted by two exceptional actors : Weaver and Caine . The movie was regularly directed by Bob Swaim . The film will appeal to excellent protagonist pair fans . Rating : Mediocre and entertaining .

Half Moon Street is basically an average film with some good talent in it. From the reviews this is a movie people either love or hate, but I think the elements balance each other out and the end result lands it in the middle of the film quality spectrum. Sigourney Weaver comes across totally convincingly as a Mid East scholar who becomes an escort by night to make ends meet (anyone who is a fan of hers will probably appreciate her many nude scenes!). Michael Caine also gives a good performance as an English lord trying to broker a secret Middle East peace deal. Where this film falters is in the script, which is too talky and it seems to take a long time for the story to get going. The last twenty minutes is well filmed and exciting, but there is a lot of plodding to go through before the good part arrives. Fans of Caine and/or Weaver will probably love it; for everyone else, not really a bad film, but not really great either.

The researcher of the Institute for Middle East Study Strategy, Dr. Lauren Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver), is facing economical difficulties since her paltry scholarship of 150 pounds per week is insufficient to live in the expensive London. Lauren is Harvard PHD and had lived in China for many years, and now is working in the institute that seeks a special relationship with the Arab World.

After a dinner in the house of the banker Hugo Van Arkady (Keith Buckley), Lauren receives a videotape from the Jasmine Escort Service at home. When her chief, General Sir George Newhouse (Patrick Kavanagh), publishes her research without any reference to her name, Lauren becomes upset and decides to moonlight at the escort service to raise money to move to Half Moon Street and have casual sex with eventual clients. When Lauren meets the prominent Lord Sam Bulbeck (Michael Caine), who is negotiating peace treaty between Arabs and Israelis, they become lovers. However, Lauren does not know that she is being manipulated by powerful politicians to jeopardize the work of Lord Bulbeck.

In 1986, when I saw "Half Moon Street" for the first time, I liked this film a lot. Yesterday I watched it again and I still found it a good movie without being special. The story of a Harvard PHD researcher that moonlights as a call girl is absolutely unusual and this is the good point. However, the result of her romance with the conspicuous politician is predictable and the conclusion does not surprise the viewer. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Intriga International" ("An International Intrigue")

From the title and what little I knew about its subject-matter, I was expecting a BELLE DE JOUR-meets-JACK THE RIPPER kind of thing but imagine my disappointment when, after an intriguing start, this is forsaken for boring political machinations which ineffectively breach thriller territory towards the end. Actually, it gets sillier by the minute: from having Sigourney Weaver (playing a researcher in Anglo-Arab relations moonlighting as a high-class escort) chatting up an Arab playboy's cinematic banter at a society party with "Am I supposed to say 'Your place or mine?'" to which he retorts, "No, these days you say "Betamax or VHS?'"; to seeing Michael Caine (as a celebrity British diplomat) standing in the rain holding out a bouquet of flowers for Weaver - whom he has fallen for in the course of her extra-curricular activities and with whom he has had a minor falling out! Still, the often-nude Weaver is nevertheless quite good in her role but the film is certainly no BELLE DE JOUR (1967) and it is easy to see why Bob Swaim's career went downhill very quickly after having made the excellent French policier LA BALANCE (1982).

This tale of an American academic confronting sexism, snobbery and so on while getting mixed up in Middle East politics because she becomes an expensive escort seemed very with it when it was released but now seems very dated. Its view of feminism is pretty narrow. Michael Caine plays Michael Caine and Signourney Waver stands around talking about pretrodollars. The film does not aim for eroticism, but despite that shows plenty of Ms Weaver semi-naked. The ending is a cop-out, and also features an unbelievably incompetent hit man.

There was something about this film that intrigued me deeply. The day after watching it I paid a visit to my local Waterstones to try and solve the mystery once and for all. I wanted to know if Paul Theroux had written all that awful, stilted, clichéd dialogue (I actually laughed involuntarily at a couple of exchanges) or was it some sort of set up? Was the screenplay for Half Moon Street a literary mugging of the acclaimed authors' work (he has his enemies you know), or was the original story (Dr Slaughter) just as unbelievable, unsubtle and irritating as the film?

I was puzzled by something else too. I knew the dialogue was bad but why did Sigourney Weaver's part seem so much more wooden than Michael Caine's? Were her lines being tampered with while she was having her hair done? Was Sir Michael somehow involved in the whole intrigue, or is he such a fine screen actor that he is able to rise above bad writing and deliver a reasonably believable performance in the most adverse of circumstances? I felt a pang of sympathy for Sigourney. She certainly had had a tough job on her hands not only having to spout forth such hackneyed drivel but also having to give depth to a thoroughly unappealing and one-dimensional character. I started to formulate a theory that perhaps Jackie Collins was somehow involved in rewriting the part of this supposed independent and intelligent women, so ham-fisted was it; but who had hired her? Who had it in for Sigourney so badly? As I neared the counter to pay for my copy of Dr Slaughter I began to realise that I was falling prey to the kind of half-baked conspiracy theories that often pass for the plots of films like Half Moon Street. What's more, it started to dawn on me that perhaps I had been lured into watching it by the prospect of seeing the beautiful Sigourney in various (often gratuitous) states of undress; these included a shower scene and a scene where she pulls on a tight white cotton singlet; were the producers cynically cashing in on the whole Alien/Ripley thing?. I was starting to feel exploited and vaguely sullied (pretty much like Sigourney Weaver must have felt). The DVD had been free, but upon discovering that the book was not, I made my excuses and left.

I can't advise anyone whether or not to watch this film; I suppose it really depends on how valuable your time is. It's not an erotic film though, if that's what you're expecting - psychological depth is conspicuous by its absence. If you're a Sigourney fan then I think you'll be so disappointed by her wooden performance that her charisma and sheer physical allure won't compensate. The film is dated (if nothing else was amiss with Half Moon Street then the soundtrack would kill it single-handedly), the plot is confused and boring, and the characters lack depth.

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

Truly underrated film that easily deserves at least full passing and indeed something more because it combines a truly original story with maximum entertainment efficiency. The story is very particular because it combines a political espionage film with one where a researcher has to do everything to survive because she doesn't have enough money from the university, and this plot works very well because the viewer becomes passionate about both things without leave out neither of the two stories as both are very important.

Weaver plays a character, that is very smart, looks very good naked, apparently speaks every language under the sun, a very strong personality, she's obviously super educated with her PhD from Harvard, yet she earns next to nothing while working in London, because "she likes living abroad". Oh, OK then.

She lived and worked in China, but now she's an expert on Middle East relations. Same difference, I guess...?

Despite being brilliant at everything, and despite living in London (not exactly unimportant city) and mingling with people from her field and lots of important people, there's no universities or colleges she could work for, no magazines or newspapers worldwide, she could contribute to, that could save her from living in a dumpster (not a literal dumpster, but not exactly a desirable location, with a shared bathroom down the hall) and be more appreciated. Na-ahh, she becomes an escort, as you do.

Then she complains, that men use her as an object. Oh well, here you are, strong, very very self assured, charming, educated lady, expert on the Middle East, and the only way you can move ahead in one of the top capital cities in the world in the 80s, is to be a prostitute.

She turns some men down at first, after dinner, she doesn't seem to turn down anything or anyone after that.

She even uses her real name including her "Doctor" title as her escort name. Guess it's handy, since you're hanging out with the exact same people during your day job and at your second job.

Michael Caine plays the usual (this time a Lord/diplomat), but he's also kind of....he's got this thing going on, for this lady being used by all the other men - it turns him on, when she talks about them and if she doesn't talk about them, he'll ask.

There's this secret plot going on, the Doctor finds out she's being used in more ways than one and seems surprised. A gullible genius with a hot body indeed.

I had no idea what this film was going to be about, but Caine/Weaver combo seemed very interesting. It's a bit disappointing, to see both the lordship/important diplomat and the hot Harvard genius, being played like a fiddle by some very weak (although somehow also very cunning) wannabe assassins.

The only people, who seemed to be on top of things in the end, are the secret service and the police.

This movie could have worked, I guess, if Weaver wasn't portrayed as brilliant at almost everything. How about she's not a Harvard graduate, how about she's just a young (yeah, I know) foreigner, trying to get her foot in the door. Her character is already standing in the doorway, has no flaws, no morals, no clue. Or is that her weakness? A clueless expert?

A bored woman decides to become a whore to break the monotony. One of her clients falls in love with her and draws her into a web of inner-city political intrigue. This 'story' meandered about like the Colorado River. Boring dialogue, confusing story, no entertainment value. I'd rather watch golf.

This movie is so bad, it is fascinating. It starts out very promising, I was expecting an intrigue on the scale of a David Mamet script. In the end it turns out to be a kind of an anti-feminist phantasy by the author who is world famous for having written some really good stuff. It is basically about a beautiful and smart woman who is not as smart as she thought she was. And about Arabs and the Middle East. But it takes a long time and a lot of senseless dialogue until they get to the point. All the surprises fall flat and there is little suspense. I feel sorry for the cast which is certainly not to blame for this mess.

It's difficult to love a film when its main character is a 'Mary Sue'. This is a nickname given to characters who are flawed because they have no flaws and are seemingly perfect...and are thus difficult to believe. In the case of Dr. Lauren Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver), she is Harvard educated and CONSTANTLY being referred to as 'gorgeous' and 'brilliant' and she's so dazzlingly smart that nearly every man who meets her is captivated by her magnificence! Oh, and did I mention that she understands every language she comes in contact with in the film?!

Dr. Slaughter is also a brilliant research fellow at the Arab-Anglo Institute in London...but she's also frustrated because her superiors have no idea how awsometastic she is...so there's a limit to how far this job will take her. So, to make a few extra bucks and to feel more wanted and appreciated, she moonlights with the Jasmine Institute...an organization that provides call brilliant girls for rich and successful blokes. But she's no ordinary call girl. Aside from being brilliant and gorgeous, she also is so stunning and amazing that she gets to decide whether or not she puts out for any of her clients. Eventually, however, because she is hanging out with so many rich, powerful and successful folks, she ends up getting pulled into some dirty and deadly politics.

Whether or not I liked the movie seems pretty obvious. Yes, I really disliked the film due to the writing...in particular Dr. Slaughter's character. It seems more like a work of fan fiction than a credible story...and the film manages to waste the talents of Weaver and Michael Caine. I guess you can't blame Weaver too much...it was one of her very first starring roles and she couldn't be too choosey. Fortunately, she has rebounded nicely from this disappointing film and she apparently never needed to look back.

Before I give you my opinion of this movie, I must tell you that I bought it just for the fact that Sigourney Weaver was in it. Back in late '93 - early '94, I was just becoming one of Ms. Weaver's fans. I bought the video from a little video store close to my house. When I watched it, it was (and still is!) a real treat to see a topless Ms. Weaver. Not only is she topless in more than one place in the film, the whole "famous exercise bike" scene has to rank as one of the top ten seduction scenes in my book! That having been said, as the years have passed, I've grown to like the rest of the movie for what it is: a romance/political suspense movie. I have yet to read the book, but I hope to sometime. All in all, a great movie!

Even though their is a lot of people who say this and the book are dull, I disagree. Adapted from Dr. Slaughter, this is a fairly well written, well photographed, and very well acted movie. The premise is original and the film really does score (no pun intended). Respectable 8/10.

1) Sigourney Weaver's character: she's rude, arrogant, smug, completely unlikeable.

...and yet we're constantly being told how beautiful, intelligent and desirable she is. Every man she comes into contact with seems to fall in love with her. Um, no.

2) Sigourney Weaver is woefully miscast. This role MIGHT have worked with another actress. I kept thinking what other 80's actress might have been able to pull it off. Jessica Lange? Michelle Pfeiffer perhaps? Not sure. But not Sigourney.

If you want to see Sigourney au naturel a lot, you might like this. Thankfully, Sigourney went straight from this set to another little film called "Aliens," which much, much better suited her abilities.