Cry of the Innocent
Cry of the Innocent
NR | 15 June 1980 (USA)
Cry of the Innocent Trailers

An American insurance executive, who sees his wife and children die when a plane crashes into their vacation cottage on the Irish coast, uncovers a series of suspicious clues indicating that it was no accident after a pretty financial reporter who resembles his dead wife turns up.

Reviews
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
classicsoncall So I'm watching the sabotaged plane go down in the Irish countryside, making a direct hit on a farmhouse where the Donegin family is on holiday, and I have to think to myself - how incredible are the odds of something like that happening? For starters, the plane was supposed to blow up in mid-air if I'm not mistaken, and secondly, on any other given day, the Donegin's wouldn't have been in the house to get wiped out like that. Talk about bad luck, but Steve Donegin's (Rod Taylor) was a gazillion to one shot.I have to second another reviewer for this film, the dialog in it was pretty bad, and in my case it was for over half the picture. Going in I had to rely on a brief synopsis on the DVD sleeve, and coming out I had to read the other reviews here. The main point of the picture being a revenge flick I pretty much figured out on my own, but then there was some other business about a revolutionary new antibiotic and an international enterprise corporation called Intent, which stood for International Enterprise. You can see I'm trying to come up with stuff for this review.So if Rod Taylor's character was a former Green Beret and Viet Nam vet we have to believe the math works for his character who looked every bit of fifty years old that Taylor was at the time. Not buying it. As the investigative reporter looking into the circumstances of the plane crash and industrial sabotage, actress Joanne Pettet's character is written like she might be falling for Donegin. Not buying that one either. The only thing I did buy was this film as part of a two hundred fifty Mystery Movie pack from Mill Creek Entertainment at a cheap enough price that makes the occasional clunker bearable.
thinker1691 Director Michael O'Herlihy took a fascinating novel by famed novelist Fredrick Forsyth and combined them with the super talents of Rod Taylor and created yet another suspenseful thriller. The movie is called " Cry of the Innocent. " The story centers around an American, by the name of Steve Donegin (Rod Taylor) who works for an Insurance company stationed in Ireland. In what seemed like a typical aircraft accident a plane explodes and crashed into a countryside farmhouse, killing Donegin's family. Accepting the incident as an accident, Donegin learns that the crash was caused by a bomb. What the culprits do not know is that the family they killed, belonged to an Ex-Green Beret and they have filled him with deep revenge. The movie begins slowly, but like the novel ends up with great intrigue and exciting drama. With the likes of Rod Taylor, this movie is sure to please his many fans. Excellent movie fare which includes the talents of Cyril Cusack, Nigel Davenport and Alexander Knox. ****
gridoon2018 I've liked Rod Taylor ever since I saw him in Hitchcock's "The Birds" (arguably his most famous role ever) - a sort of "everyman" version of the classic leading men of Hitchcock like Cary Grant. But he must have been going through a dry spell in his career when he agreed to make this little time-waster. Shot in a totally flat style that screams TV-movie, "Cry Of The Innocent" is mostly dull, when it's not unintentionally funny (check out that editing trick near the end to convince us of Taylor's "camouflage" skills!). Taylor himself walks through the film, and Joanna Pettet is not around long enough to help much. Another problem is the very poor sound recording - at least a third of the dialogue is hard to hear. About the only interesting point of the film is that it reflects the post-Vietnam era disillusionment of Americans (though it was shot in Ireland) towards big international corporations. * out of 4.
Hitchcoc While it is set up with an interesting premise, a man losing his family as collateral damage caused by some spy stuff, this starts strongly and then just fizzles. The character played by Rod Taylor is so dull. He seems to recover from an incredible tragedy very quickly, then finds himself embroiled in espionage and a need to avenge the event. There are a series of connections that he must make and finally face the person at the top. This could have been OK but its so tiringly dull. There are encounters, handled so incompetently by the bad guys, that he is allowed to roam free. Anyone who is involved in the upper levels of this type of crime would have taken one of many opportunities to just finish him off. Obviously, there is the ubiquitous briefcase, but we don't even know what that's all about. It's so obvious when a film is made for TV with so little effort to fill in the spaces. Taylor is apparently a Green Beret, but there is so little character development that we don't get in his head at all. Could have been good. Isn't.