De l'or au bout de la piste

"Goldengirl" was one of many attempts during 1979 to transform Susan Anton into a major star. She was everywhere during that year, including television, movies, and magazines. The star-making exercise was unsuccessful, but this film is fairly good despite its obviously intended star-vehicle status.

Goldine (Anton) is raised her entire life by her father Serafin (Curt Jurgens) to be an elite athlete through intensive training and medications. Now that she's an adult, Serafin invites a group of investors to put up big money so she can compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. There's an endless amount of training, talk, and maneuvering leading up to the big race, but will Goldine win?

The investors feature several recognizable faces, including James Coburn, Harry Guardino, Robert Culp, and others. Leslie Caron appears as a sympathetic doctor who tries to keep Goldine from going batty from all the attention. The film is acceptable entertainment...even though the U.S. boycotted the Moscow games! Anyway, Anton is very beautiful (and her acting is good as well) and it's fun to watch so many famous actors in a movie whose plot line is not very demanding.

If the storyline have caught your attention please mind that the neo-nazi superwoman plot is hardly mentioned in the movie.

Actually the movie is just about sport and relationships. And a quite boring one most of the time (to my opinion).

The idea behind "Goldengirl" - a female athlete competing in the Olympics who has been receiving unorthodox training and treatment for years - is an intriguing one. It should have played out a lot better than it does here. The main problem with the movie is that for the most part it's surprisingly boring. There should have been a lot more intrigue and suspense showing this heavily conditioned woman fighting for Olympic gold. This lack of bite might explain why the cast give lethargic performances. There's no heat between James Coburn and Susan Anton, not just because Coburn is old enough to be Anton's father. And while the movie was made for theaters, except for some fleeting nudity and the occasional raw word, the production feels like it was made for television instead. It's no wonder why this movie has been pretty much forgotten.

Goldengirl may not be one of the films of the sport film genre, but it has a great female star - Susan Anton, one of my most beloved actresses and singers. She not only acts in this movie, she also sings (and surprisingly perfect!) - "Slow down I´ll find you" is the title song. I think it´s a brilliant showcase for Susan, especially if you want to see her statuesque body. Sadly this movie wasn´t that great success and although her career was promising, Susan never became a big screen star or even a Superstar at singing. But well she had a Country and Pop Hit with "Killin´time"(1979) , a duet with Fred Knoblock. And many have seen her on "Baywatch". So watch out for her in "Goldengirl" - she´s really sweet!