The Way to Dusty Death

I have copies of all the Alistair Maclean film adaptations. I was addicted to his books as a boy. I'd heard this was a bad film but a fan likes to make his own mind up. It didn't take long. This is undoubtedly the most poorly executed film I have ever seen. An earlier reviewer wonders whether Director Geoffrey Reeve undertook it as a tax dodge. That made me smile. It certainly feels as though no-one was particularly bothered with the outcome. Reeve was not an experienced film director as it was. The best sequence in his version of Puppet On A Chain - the boat chase sequence - was inserted to give the film the climax it lacked and was written and directed by Don Sharp, who also rescued other sections. Reeve's Caravan To Vaccares was an eccentric piece of direction at best. In Dusty Death he is completely exposed. The production values are laughable. The racing sequences mentioned by other reviewers, appear to be loosely inserted amateur footage. These cut to racetrack conversations between characters who appear to be standing against a studio blue screen. These production decisions aren't even funny in the way that Plan 9 is! The couple of reviewers who thought the film was watchable and that the actors performances were competent clearly have no critical judgment. The performances and everything about it are awful. Criticism may well be subjective, but a plot less, plodding, humourless and incoherent narrative combined with indolent production values and performances cannot be bigged-up, however generous you'd like to be and be seen to be. Actually, I would love to hear from the cast and find out WHY it was so bad. Now that WOULD be interesting!

I don't agree with the above comment. Although it was not a blockbuster like "The Guns of Navarone", "Where Eagles Dare", or "Ice Station Zebra", it is an entertaining movie with a great cast who gave fine performances. Simon MacCorkindale was totally believable as the main character. It's an action packed and intriguing who-dun-it. I will concede that the racing scenes could have been filmed better, but one flaw doesn't negate the whole movie. Most movies are not without flaws. It may have been changed in some respects from the book, but very few films are exactly like the novels they are based on. Definitely underrated.

I've read most of Alistair Maclean's books and while "The Way to Dusty Death" may not be his best novel (but is still one of my favourites), it is much better than this film would have you believe.

The production team have managed to turn an otherwise tense and fast paced novel based around a Formula 1 driver trying to uncover some baddies into a pedestrian weekday afternoon soap opera. The production values are poor and would make some of those aforementioned soap operas look classy and high quality.

Its script is poor and stilted, and the acting is lacking (I think some of the actors look a bit embarrassed at times, and who can blame them with what they have to work with?)

Granted it's not quite a direct translation from the novel, but they really could have done better.

I think I am being generous giving it a 3/10.

This is an extended soap opera, but it isn't atrocious. Not much appears to be left from the original novel, but it is worth watching if you like this sort of thing. If you were expecting James Bond, you'll be disappointed, but there's still a nice mystery underneath, and the acting is okay. Fans of Alistair McLean will find little to recognize here; the action scenes are subdued, the bad guys aren't particularly menacing, and there isn't any sexual tension among the players, except maybe a little between Désirée Nosbusch and Linda Hamilton, which never really comes to fruition. Still, it was significantly better than I was led to believe by one of the other reviews in this forum, and the whole thing tightens up admirably in the last half hour.

Potentially the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to experience. "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is "Citizen Kane" compared to this garbage. Undoubtedly the worst adaptation of an Alistair MacLean novel ever commited to celluloid, a disgrace to an excellent, suspenseful novel. What the hell was Geoffrey Reeve thinking off?. A thriller set in the world of Formula 1 racing cars, an integral part of the books plot, is reduced here to a few amateurish shots of racing cars going around a few bends - and I do mean amateurish footage. No excitement, no suspense, no coherency, no acting, no nothing. Awful and embarrasingly ridiculous. Was this made by Reeve as a tax dodge or something?. Or a home movie". It feels like it. I suppose they were glad to get some lolly to make this dismal effort - I presume that same lolly was spent on some lovely presents for the director and his cronies. As it stands, it looks as though about £50 was spent on this production, if that!.