review for Hennessy on AllMovie

Hennessy is a moderately engaging thriller with a stand-out performance by Rod Steiger that almost makes you want to forgive the incredible loopholes in the plot. Unfortunately, those loopholes are far too big for even Steiger's talent to erase from memory. Almost all thrillers of this sort need to stretch credulity a bit in order to ante the tension. Most of the time, we're willing to forgive this, because the pay-off if worthwhile. But the exchange is far too lopsided with Hennessy, which asks us time and again to believe that the main character's plot succeeds due to unbelievable coincidences and because a police inspector doesn't think to pick up the phone and alert others to the fact that a mad man is about to destroy the entire English government. It doesn't work. But Steiger works, and beautifully. This is not one of his "look at me" performances, full of sound and fury. Although it has plenty of big moments, for the most part it's more introverted, more interior. We see a lot more going on inside the character, and it's truly lovely work. The rest of the cast is talented and tries hard, but they don't really register. But Steiger does, and in this case that's enough to push Hennessy -- just barely -- over the mark.