Reviews & Ratings for
Dark Holiday (TV) More at IMDbPro »

9 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
aka Passport to Terror, 24 February 2002
Author: petershelleyau from Sydney, Australia

Lee Remick is Gene LePere, an American imprisoned in Turkey accused of smuggling antiquities. Whilst much is made of Remick's blonde hair in a country of dark women, and her fear is believable, she isn't the heroic type, so her repeatedly being told how admirable she is, is unintentionally funny. The teleplay by Rose Leiman Goldemberg based on LePere's book Never Pass This Way Again presents Gene's purchase of the items as by street thug intimidation, as a clue that something bad will come of it, though Gene's experience in prison isn't as horrific as it might have been. It's a pity Goldemberg doesn't give us anything about Gene's previous life in New York, since the narrative begins with Gene on the cruiseliner, since the only family connection she appears to have is an ex-husband. Director Lou Antonio uses the music score of Paul Chihara well, and provides a conversation between Gene and her lawyer Isha (Norma Aleandro) in silhouette. The ending isn't a surprise, particularly when you cast Remick, but at least it's not too easy.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Not bad at all, 9 October 2007

Author: birck from Philly

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This got two stars on the late night film channel, so I wasn't expecting to like it. But I did. Kim Hunter was believable, the story was unpretentious, believable and engrossing, and it appeared to be shot on location somewhere, either Greece or Turkey. The story is preordained-we know she gets out of the pickle she's in or there wouldn't be a story-so it's mainly a howdunnit, and it succeeds at that, IMHO. Since it's set in a woman's prison, there's less testosterone floating around, and even the ubiquitous guards are pictured as relatively benign (even though they are armed with an unlikely mix of Uzi's AND Kalashnikovs-!), and it starts out a bit like Midnight Express, passes through Little Women (but with lawyers), and winds up in Not Without My Daughter territory. By citing those other films I don't mean to disparage Dark Holiday, aka Passport to Terror-just to give some idea what it's like. Although most of the speaking actors are not Turkish, most of the faces were unfamiliar- which is a plus as far as I'm concerned. So it's about a 40-ish American woman tourist who unintentionally commits an offense that the Turks take seriously, and she winds up in the Istanbul slammer. How she adjusts and finally gets out is the meat of the story, and it's well- done.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Innocent Woman Suffers Bravely., 8 February 2008

Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

If you've seen "Midnight Express", you've pretty much seen "Dark Holiday." There are a few differences. The victim in the earlier "Midnight Express" was a young man trying to smuggle some dope out of Turkey before being tried by a corrupt court and thrown into a Turkish prison for the rest of his life. The victim here is an innocent woman tourist (Lee Remick) who, after buying some stone souvenirs from street peddlers, is accused of trying to smuggle antiques out of the country, is tried by a vengeful court, and thrown into a Turkish prison.

It's a terrible experience. When she's first incarcerated, the other women prisoners crowd around her, plucking at her hair and clothes, breaching her American concept of personal space, standing close enough to spit in her face when they speak gibberish in their barbaric tongue. And the bathroom! Not only no privacy, but the "commodes" are nothing more than holes in the floor. Savages! At least in France, as I recall, even low-class dives provide tin footprints on each side of the hole to promote proper positioning. The food -- ugh. It looks like muddy water and Remick does one of those almost comic takes at her first mouthful. It's no help that she demands to know, "What kind of country is this?" And, "Do they discriminate against women here too?" (Reply from the American Embassy, "No -- not if they're wealthy and educated.") We get the message quickly. The Holiday Inn, this ain't.

The rest of the film, as far as I could bring myself to watch it, consists of prison intrigues, the attempts of friends and lawyers from outside to help her, the gradual individuation of the other prisoners into victimized and victimizers, tears, hysteria, greasy looking guys (every one of them with a mustache), petty theft, bureaucratic bungling of passports, indignation in assorted but stylish varieties, and -- well, you can fill in the rest.

No doubt the victim was innocent, or at least she seems to have been, and five to twenty years is rather a long sentence, even if she's guilty, for trying to finesse an old, fist-sized marble head past customs. My guess is that this is "based on a true story." I don't envy Gene Lapere her suffering. I wish, though, that the film had had loftier ambitions than reinforcing the xenophobia that so many Americans already feel. A film like this is a great chance to learn something about another culture, which is not really all THAT crummy when judged in the context of second-tier nations. ("Topkapi" gives us a slightly different picture of Turkey, police included.) What an opportunity to learn to speak Turkish, for one thing.

It's curious that for a few years there, Turkey was held up as an exemplar of corruption and olive oil. It was rather a short run, beginning with "Midnight Express" in the 1970s. Then Hollywood cast around for other villains, coming up with some curious mixtures (Russians speaking with German accents or whatever). Arabs ought now to be good enough for a whole generation.

I'd already seen "Midnight Express" so I didn't stick with this to the end. Also, I don't see much point in people's suffering for no particular point -- without somehow growing because of the pain -- unless the point of the film is that suffering is pointless. I doubt that Gene LaPere is still suffering in a Turkish jail.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Its basically a "happy " Midnight express, 2 March 2008

Author: DaveDude12 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Midnight Express was exciting and interesting, this movie was boring, and not very interesting. Just imagine all the buildup in midnight express taken out, that would be this movie. There was no band throughout the movie, Midnight express had Giorgio Morodo. Its basically lets find an actor that with stick out like a sore thumb, and put her in a Turkish setting. The prison part was not well played either. Its seems like they tried to redo Midnight Express, but make it so you didn't figure it out. The film ends without knowing if she indeed make it back. At least in Midnight Express there was a extremely emotional reunion with his parents, this just ends with Turkish sounding music and a picture of an airplane.

Add another review

Related Links