Trenchcoat (1983)

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During the 1980s, Disney released four films, in particular, that were considered more adult than their usual family-friendly fare: Condorman, Dragonslayer, Tex, and Trenchcoat. This led to the creation of Touchstone Pictures which would allow them to continue releasing more adult fare without jeopardizing the Disney image.

Today we’re taking a look at the last of those four films, Trenchcoat! Is it any good for what it is? Read on to find out!

And remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!

Directed by Michael Tuchner, the film begins with American writer, Mickey Raymond, played by Margot Kidder, aboard a plane heading for Malta. She’s trying to write a crime novel and believes that the way to get inspiration is to actually live, hence her international trip to Malta.

When she arrives at her hotel, there’s some confusion at first as the hotel manager assumed “Mickey” was a man. But no matter, one American’s money is just as good as another’s.

As she gets settled and tries to take in as much of Maltese history and culture as she can, her handbag containing her wallet and passport is stolen. She reports this to the local police inspector, Stagnos, played by a pre-Poirot David Suchet.

While she demands swift action, Stagnos Young Poirot (I’m gonna call him Young Poirot from now on, because that’s what I see him as) informs her that some of her demands aren’t logical such as wanting to see mugshots even though she’s never seen the face of the man who stole her handbag.

When she returns to her hotel room, she uses all this as literary inspiration as she continues writing her draft in her notebook. Later that night, the thief returns to her hotel room and threatens her resulting in her pushing him off her balcony in self-defense resulting in his death.

Young Poirot is later called, but apparently, the body has disappeared by the time he arrives. This plus the evidence of Mickey’s notebook makes Young Poirot believe that this is all in Mickey’s head and she’s getting her fiction mixed up with real life, much to Mickey’s frustration.

The next day while she’s relaxing on the beach, she discovers (well, a random child discovers) a body on the beach. Young Poirot is called and Mickey is taken to identify the body. It’s not the body of the thief, but the thief’s body has also been found which she positively identifies and for which Young Poirot apologizes for doubting her.

The corpse on the beach was a guy named Harry Benjamin, an English ship’s cook, and the thief was an Esteban Ortega, an ex Jai Alai player. Apparently Ortega killed Harry and the two are involved with illegal smuggling of drugs and plutonium.

Young Poirot suspects Mickey of being involved in this racket as well, which she of course denies. She faints after looking at the corpses and later awakens in a police cell. Fortunately, she’s bailed out by Terry, a man she met on the plane ride over to Malta, played by Robert Hays. She’s not particularly fond of him as she’s seen him chatting up women, trying to sell and give away tacky jewelry, and just talk a lot of bull.

But he comes to her aid when he saw her picture in the paper regarding her arrest. Young Poirot allows her to be released and informs her that her stolen items have been found. But, he holds onto her passport as she’s still under suspicion, hence she can’t leave Malta.

The next day, she heads to the US embassy to see if they can help her leave when she’s kidnapped by some Arabs. They drive away with her in their car and demand to know where the plutonium is hidden. Again she denies knowing anything about this, but they give her a truth serum of sorts afterwards.

Fortunately enough, their car crashes and she’s able to escape. Terry finds her although she’s in a dazed, vulnerable state at the moment. He returns her to her hotel room to sleep it off.

The next day she’s back to her normal self and being looked after by a charming elderly Irish couple residing there, Sean and Lizzy O’Reilly, played by P.G. Stephens and Pauline Delaney, respectively. Terry told them to keep an eye on Mickey which they do splendidly, plus they encourage her to marry him as he doesn’t seem so bad.

She then notices in the papers that there was a yacht explosion which killed the Arabs who kidnapped her the previous day. She informs Terry when he arrives at the hotel and wants him to take her to the police. He tells her that she’ll be under more suspicion as she was the last one to see the Arabs alive. She sees the sense in this and decides to do a little snooping on her own complete with trenchcoat and fedora.

She goes around town asking if anyone knew Harry Benjamin and discovers that he was recently aboard a ship that’s in port. As she explores the ship, she finds a picture of a dancer named Princess Aida that’s addressed to him. She decides to go find her to find out more. When she finds Princess Aida, she realizes that Princess Aida is actually a female impersonator, played by Ronald Lacey.

She gets a clue from him that he has a penchant for leaving clues in postcards. That’s when she realizes that Ortega stole her handbag at the hotel after she had bought some postcards there. Ortega had killed Harry at the hotel and stolen the postcard from him. Then, he hid the postcard among other postcards to be sold when he noticed policemen around.

But, Mickey inadvertently bought that postcard before he could retrieve it which was why he then stole her handbag. However, she had kept the postcard in her notebook which was why he couldn’t find the postcard and later paid a visit to her in her hotel room before she pushed him to his death.

By now, Mickey has noticed how dangerous things have become including acquaintances of hers getting killed. She even now suspects Terry of being involved with the plutonium gang which is heartbreaking as she’s started to trust and fall for him. She returns to the hotel and asks the O’Reillys to retrieve her notebook for her from her room as she doesn’t want to be seen by Terry who is waiting for her in the hotel lobby.

When Mrs. O’Reilly returns with her notebook, Terry follows her, but Mickey has a gun aimed directly at him. He tries to get her to put the gun down, but she doesn’t trust him and hands the gun to Mr. O’Reilly to hold. That’s when the truth is revealed that the O’Reillys are actually the bad guys looking for the plutonium. And now with the postcard and the gun, they have Mickey and Terry right where they want them. They tie them up and leave them in the hotel greenhouse alongside a makeshift bomb before escaping.

Mickey and Terry argue, but manage to break free of their ropes and throw the bomb away before it explodes. We then learn that Terry is actually a spy and has been on the trail of the plutonium gang for some time. The jewelry he’s been selling and giving out are actually beacons he uses to track movements of his suspects. Fortunately enough, the O’Reillys are wearing the jewelry he gave them, so he can track them.

He and Mickey are in pursuit of the couple until they accidentally knock the O’Reillys car off a ferry into the water. The police arrive and arrest the couple while Young Poirot apologizes to Mickey and returns her passport. Mickey finishes writing her novel and she and Terry become a bonafide couple.

And that was Trenchcoat! Honestly, this feels like a guilty pleasure to me! It’s not amazing, but I can’t deny that it has a certain charm to it! Margot Kidder especially is such a talented comedic actress and her scenes are always enjoyable to watch! It’s also really surreal to see David Suchet in a pre-Poirot police role! The other actors didn’t really impress me although P.G. Stephens and Pauline Delaney were alright.

The film was definitely more adult-oriented than the usual Disney fare and I’m glad that they made Touchstone Pictures afterwards. I feel any more of these films would have destroyed Disney’s family reputation. Having said that, I still really enjoyed this film more than I thought I would!

So, my final score for this film is 30/35 = 85.71% (B) !

The next review will be posted on June 18, 2024.