Midnight in Saint Petersburg

Midnight in Saint Petersburg is a 1996 made-for-television thriller film starring Michael Caine for the fifth and final time as British secret agent Harry Palmer.[1]

Midnight in Saint Petersburg
GenreThriller
Based onCharacters
by Len Deighton
Screenplay byPeter Welbeck
Directed byDouglas Jackson
Starring
Music byRick Wakeman
Country of origin
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • Russia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerHarry Alan Towers
Producers
  • Edward Simons
  • Kent Walwin
  • Aleksandr Golutva
  • John Dunning
  • André Link
Production locations
CinematographyPeter Benison
EditorVidal Beique
Running time86 minutes
Production companies
  • Quebec 3099-3018
  • Harry Palmer Productions
  • Lenfilm
Original release
NetworkShowtime
Release14 February 1996 (1996-02-14)
Related
Bullet to Beijing (1995)

It served as a sequel to Bullet to Beijing, which had been released the year before, the two films having been shot back-to-back. Three previous films featuring Caine as Palmer were released in the 1960s, beginning with The Ipcress File.[2]

Plot

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Harry Palmer heads a private investigation business based in Moscow. His associates are Nikolai "Nick" Petrov (Jason Connery), ex-CIA agent Craig (Michael Sarrazin), and ex-KGB Colonel Gradsky (Lev Prygunov[3]). They take on the job of finding 1000 grams of weapons-grade plutonium stolen from the Russian government, though they do not know the identity of their client.

This leads Harry back to Saint Petersburg, where (in Bullet to Beijing) he managed to make enemies of both of the leading rival gangsters, Alex (Michael Gambon) and Yuri (Anatoli Davydov). Nonetheless, suspecting that Alex is involved, Harry talks Yuri into helping him.

As a complication, Nick's ballerina girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) is kidnapped by a gang working for Alex into order to pressure her father, the head curator of the Hermitage Museum, into helping steal valuable artwork for crooked art dealer Dr. Vestry (Serge Houde). Also in the mix is reporter Brandy (Michelle Burke), who turns out also to be working for Alex. Nick is captured when he goes looking for Tatiana, but manages to escape in time to assist Harry, with Yuri's help, to foil both schemes.

Cast

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References

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