The Next Man (also known as The Arab Conspiracy or Double Hit) is a 1976 American political action thriller film starring Sean Connery, Adolfo Celi, Cornelia Sharpe, and Charles Cioffi. Critical reaction at its opening was not positive. Music for the film features New York City guitarist Frederic Hand, as well as the film score debut for composer Michael Kamen. Plot The film is set during the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-1974. Khalil Abdul-Muhsen (Connery) is the Saudi Arabian minister of state who proposes to recognize Israel, support Israeli membership in OPEC and sell Saudi oil to needy nations. His plan is to protect Third World nations from the threat of Cold War ideology. Khalil's radical agenda and idealism finds few friends, and he is soon the target of multiple assassination attempts by Palestinian terrorist groups. They send Nicole Scott (Sharpe) to infiltrate Abdul-Muhsen's entourage, seduce him, and await further instructions. However, she actually develops strong feelings for him, and the completion of the plan is jeopardized. Cast Sean Connery as Khalil Abdul-Muhsen Cornelia Sharpe as Nicole Scott Albert Paulsen as Hamid Adolfo Celi as Al Sharif Marco St. John as Justin Ted Beniades as Frank DeDario Charles Cioffi as Fouad Jaime Sánchez as New York Security Production Connery's casting was announced in January 1976. Reception The film on its release was not received particularly well by critics. Roger Ebert on November 17, 1976, criticized the plot, remarking, "When good directors work with bad material." Pauline Kael commented, "[Good directors] shove art into the crevices of dreck. That would do as a description of The Next Man, a movie with an impenetrable plot." Ebert commented that the film had some scenes that worked, particularly those between Sean Connery, as the minister of state for Saudi Arabia, and Cornelia Sharpe, who plays a professional international assassin, although the plot lacked details to understand these characters more fully. Ebert was impressed by Sharpe's performance as Nicole Scott, describing her as a "cool beauty." Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film as a "suspense melodrama made by people whose talent for filmmaking and knowledge of international affairs would both fit comfortably into the left nostril of a small bee." Like Ebert, he identified flaws in the plot, remarking that "The Next Man is obsessed with political assassination but it never really identifies its villains, preferring, instead, to cop out by