The Day of the Jackal, Forsyth - B

     Frustrated by their inability to assassinate de Gaulle with their own people, the OAS turns to a hired hand. An expert assassin is retained and given the code name Jackal. He begins his preparation by obtaining three alternative passports, a French identity card and has a rifle custom built in Brussels. He makes a ten day trip to Paris to begin to scout out the possible venues, and selects the Place du 18 Juin 1940 where de Gaulle will bestow the Order of Liberation on six men on a specific date in August. The French authorities, while monitoring the OAS and kidnapping and torturing one of them, learn of the mission of the Jackal. By a stroke of luck on the part of the British, they actually learn one of the identities the Jackal will assume and begin to search throughout France for him. He goes from English gentleman to Danish cleric to American student to disabled French veteran, and adjusts his appearance for each. The beleaguered French detective charged with finding him does so at the very last minute. I believe the fact that I've seen the movie in the last fifteen years takes away some of the thrill of this fifty-year old thriller.