Der Leopard und die Lady

The tough raider and the old maid in the vast sweep of Zimbabwe,Africa ,doesn't it remind you of an American movie of the fifties?

It probably does;but "Le Leopard " is a dud; the only interesting thing is the landscapes of the exotic country where it was filmed on location ;the screenplay is abysmal, badly written,full of plot holes ;both talented actors go out of their way to salvage something from the wreckage ,but what can they do when confronted to a labored story ,written in a slapdash manner?

A former secret agent ,who wrote a first novel which tells the eventful adventures of his hero "Le Léopard " ,comes back to work in a cock and bull story of coffee and rockets ,fighting against a vague organization whose whereabouts are unknown ;he is reluctantly joined by another writer ,an old maid who has written tons of novels featuring her own hero Nick Denver.This character is based on a real life person ,who was once a true love of hers :he appears in the movie,but the hero has turned into a villain who wants to get rid of his new rival (for,of course,the raider and the spinster have fallen in love ).

The movie constantly hesitates between the adventure movie à la Indiana Jones cum James Bond (the prologue looks like a poor man's "thunderball") and pure burlesque (both heroes riding ostriches -"can they fly" asks the damsel in distress)and loses on both counts.