Two men play out a giant personal vendetta

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 18

Two men play out a giant personal vendetta

The New Zealand actor Sam Neill stars with the Emmy Award-winner Peter Strauss in “Kane and Abel,” a seven-hour mini-series based on the Jeffrey Archer best-seller, which takes over the 8 p.m. slot on Wednesdays on One for the next three weeks.

When "Kane and Abel” was published in 1980, critics hailed the novel as "a blockbuster” and “the novel of the decade,” and Jeffrey Archer was acclaimed as a master storyteller. His compelling tale of ambition, power, jealousy and revenge promptly soared to the top of “The New York Times" best-seller list, where it remained for eight months. The paperback edition, published in 1981, is now in its tenth printing and has sold more than 4 million copies. “Kane and Abel” has been translated into 21 languages. The story, which spans the first six decades of the twentieth century, concerns two men — one bom with everything, the other with nothing — who seemingly have nothing in common, but who eventually become destructive influences on one another’s lives.

In the mini-series, the concurrent plots begin on April 18, 1902. In Poland, Abel is born penniless, without a home or family, out of wedlock to a peasant woman who dies in childbirth. On that

same day in Boston, William Kane is born into an insular life of comfort, privilege and affluence.

As a child, Abel is imprisoned throughout World War I, then is forced to stand by helplessly as those closest to him become victims of the war. He quickly learns that, in order to survive, he alone must be responsible for his destiny.

Young Master Kane’s destiny was determined before ,he was even bora. With the war a distant continent away, he is groomed to follow in the family banking tradition. When his father dies aboard the Titanic and his mother remarries to a scoundrel, Kane soon learns how to use his wealth and privilege to create a self-reliant world in which he is not dependent on

anyone. The two men first become aware of each other during the Depression, after Abel has emigrated to the United States and begun a meteoric rise in the hotel industry. When his request for a major loan to save his Chicago hotel is refused by Kane’s Boston bank, Abel vows revenge. The two men become bitter enemies, in relentless pursuit of each other’s failure.

Their personal vendetta escalates into a passionate obsession, more important than their careers or even their families. This titanic clash is played out during the next three decades amid the quiet opulence of exclusive executive suites and leather-uphol-stered boardrooms that are the seat of power in the United States until it finally reaches its climax on a dark, empty, New York City street. Peter Strauss portrays Abel Rosnovski, the passionate Polish immigrant who becomes a driven and ruthless hotel magnate. Sam Neill is William Lowell Kane, the Boston Brahmin who innocently and inadvertently arouses the wrath of Abel, but who is prepared to use all the means at his disposal to combat it. Veronica Hamel of “Hill Street Blues” fame, plays Kate Brooks Kane, a beautiful young widow from Boston who becomes Mrs William Kane.