Frederick Forsyth is the imaginative author behind this suspenseful and riveting tale concerning the attempt on the life of the Former President of France, Charles de Gaulle. From first to last, the director has embed this dramatic film with the believability of actual fact. Years ago, during his tenure as President of the Republic of France, De Gaulle gave Algeria its Independence. French army veterans felt betrayed by him and the government decide to assassinate him. There were several attempts, all of which were either botched or failed miserably. Thus the basis for this movie. " The Day of the Jackal " is the story of a secret group of retired Agerian officers called the O.A.S. who promised to kill de Gaulle, opt to hire an expert assassin to carry out the deed. That man is an Englishman, Paul Duggan, (Edward Fox) who is given the code name 'The Jackal'. He is a professional marksman with a perfect record of assassinations around the world. Aware that OAS officers want de Gaulle dead, the French police put a 24 hour surveillance on them. They capture and torture one courier who reveals the new attempt and discover the contract killer is little more than a ghost. Nevertheless, they hire the best detective in all of France, Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) to discover the identify of the killer before he kills the president. Derek Jacobi plays Caron his assistant and both men have the impossible task of finding a nearly invisible man. While the police are informed of his task, they do not know much else and therefore allow the Jackal to find a perfect location for the deed. Once in place the assassin waits for his target, who is precisely on time and only a few seconds separates the two cops from their quarry. The entire film is well paced as is the storyline. The acting is superb and contains some well known actors like Cyril Cusack as The Gunsmith, Alan Badel, Tony Britton, Adrien Cayla-Legrand as The President and Maurice Denham as General Colbert. It is easy to recommend this film and the selection of Edward Fox was a stroke of genius. ****