The Big Gamble

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.

Stephen Boyd and bride Juliette Gréco go to his family in Ireland, where matriarch Sybil Thorndike persuades the family to finance their scheme to start a trucking firm in Africa. The catch is they have to take along bank clerk David Wayne lest they do anything foolish or get into trouble. There is foolishness and trouble, of course, a lot of it provided by Wayne.

There's loads of nice scenery, and Africa looks good too. The movie was shot in Ireland and Côte D'Ivoire. Cinematographer William Mellor shoots the trucking scenes in the countryside to make the landscape look threatening, old lovers and Gregory Ratoff turn up; if the trials and tribulations make it look like THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT written very big, there's still meat on e bones of this story.

It's the fourth movie Miss Gréco appeared in for producer Darryl F. Zanuck in his European wanderjahr after handing over 20th Century-Fox to others. He would return after the disaster of CLEOPATRA, and be kicked out himself after TORA! TORA! TORA! bombed, the last of the old-line moguls. He would die in 1979, aged 77.

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.

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.

This is an entertaining movie about the trials and tribulations, and there are many, of an Irishman, his wife and his cousin, as they decide to travel to the Ivory Coast to start a trucking business. For all you Stephen Boyd fans, in this one, he's young, handsome and Irish and has just the right rambling, pioneering spirit needed for the part. He's fun to watch! Juliette Greco is charming and amusing as his wife and David Wayne contributes well to some of the best scenes in the film.

The characters love, fight, get drunk, sing Irish ballads, and meet up with many out-of-the-ordinary local characters during this cross-continent global trek from Ireland to Africa.

There's never a dull moment! It's an enjoyable little film.