Il trafficante di Manila

Burt Reynolds plays a leader of a salvage team attempting to recover gold treasures in corregidor hidden by the Japanese in world war II. Now in modern day, the ex-soldiers are sent to the Philippines to assist Reynolds in finding the gold. A lot of setbacks, kidnapping, blackmail occurs.

The movie was actually filmed in 1968 to be released the following January for a TV audience.

This movie isn't the greatest Burt Reynolds movie but hey its brother Burt so how bad can it be? Bit boring but love Anne Francis so i stuck it out

Look, I admit the hippie girl being accepted by her is a crazy subplot. It was the times in movies for crappy ideas like that (see my other reviews). But Francis shines brightly in every scene she is in. She was a pro who had been in films since like the early 50's. She and Burt Reynolds would later also work on his 'Dan August' series.

During the late 1960s and into the 70s, the Philippines was the site of quite a few ultra-cheap movies....and some of the most famous were the 'girls in chains' exploitation films. But they were not restricted only to this cheesy genre....and "Impasse" is proof there were more movies made there than just exploitation.

Burt Reynolds stars as Pat Morrison, the leader of a group of men who are in search of lost gold. It seems that as the country was falling to the Japanese in WWII, the US Army hid valuables...including gold. Well, a friend of Pat's knows where the gold might be...and so Pat organizes a group of men to help in retrieving it.

This is a decent adventure film and in spite of its humble location, Reynolds has a decent cast supporting him. The script also isn't bad. Overall, one of Reynolds' better films.

This movie isn't that bad as it is confusing. One wonders why three people were needed or why they didn't do it earlier in the first place. Do Indians really say "Ay Chihuahua?" This film doesn't even have the pleasures of a caper film, because of all the loose ends. The ending was pretty anti-climatic as well. I wonder why screenwriters allow these plots to be so flimsy. Watch only if you enjoy Far East scenery.