Le grand risque

Except for the beginning which takes place in a chic wealthy sullen family -which does not fit well in the main plot-,"linear" best describes this movie.A minor movie for highly talented Richard Fleischer who had already directed Juliette Greco in "crack in the mirror" the year before.Greco has some lines in French with her compatriots Fernand Ledoux as a customs officer and Jacques Marin.Which is very useful to her Irish husband Stephen Boyd.

It's the story of the odyssey of a lorry through the jungle and its fevers ,its thieves ,its precipices and its rivers in spate .A critic called it " a cross between "African Queen" and "Le Salaire De La Peur" (wages of fear).Some of the scenes were more or less "inspired" by HG Clouzot's work (1953)but "Gamble" never reaches its level of intensity.Boyd ,Greco and David Wayne team up for better of for worse,and armed up with three hundred boxes of canned beer,they struggle against a hostile nature.

Saw the original release in 1962 and thought Stephen Boyd should have been in a better film since his was post Ben Hur. Fast forward to 2020 and I loved Stephen in this film. Beyond tragic that he died at age 45. He was a very compelling screen presence. This one is for Stephen's fans to remember him. Always.

Not one of Richard Fleischer's happiest projects, (he complained Producer Darryl F. Zanuck insisted on coming to Africa with the crew and kept interfering). It's a romp that doesn't really romp; an African adventure that's played too broadly and in desperate need of a script, (Irwin Shaw did the screenplay and it wasn't his finest hour). Stephen Boyd is the brash, arrogant Irishman who heads to the Ivory Coast with French wife Juliette Greco and Irish cousin David Wayne in the hope of starting up a trucking business. Needless to say, things don't go too well. There are a few good set-pieces as well as too much local colour and the opening scenes in Dublin are now of some historical interest in showing how a city can change in fifty years. Ideal for a wet Saturday afternoon is about the best you can say for it.

This movie about the struggles of a crew of three to get a lorry filled with a cargo of beer to it's final destination was a favorite late-night movie of my sister's (and mine). The story, at times, left something to be desired...but the acting was good, and the emotions of the characters really came through. (Imagine how you would feel if you were stuck delivering a truck full of beer to some remote village, and everything that could go wrong, did.) I gave it a ten. (Nostalgia probably played a part in that rating.) Definitely worth the watch... if you can find it, that is.

The story of three people (Stephen Boyd, Juliette Greco and David Wayne) that go all the way from Ireland to the Ivory Coast in Africa to put on a truck business there.

Real action is supposed to start when they take a cargo of beer by truck through half the dark continent, but it never quite does; in fact the film recalls one of those current PC games for kids where they mustremove lots of obstacles in order to reach a final goal; here they have to free the truck from the Custom house, put aside a huge down tree across the road, go backwards in a thin pass with a mountain and an abyss on each side, avoid a crook who wants to steal their cargo, cross a wide growing river with the vehicle and go down full speed on a narrow road without brakes, but in fact powerful action and thrills never appear.

Stephen Boyd does well as the leader of the group but doesn't add much to his acting career with this one. Juliette Greco looks sensual and interesting as his wife and David Brian just goes along.

Definitely not one of prolific and versatile director Richard Fleischer's best products, perhaps "The Big Gamble" stands a watch but no much more than that.