Golden Rendezvous

Terrorists kidnap a nuclear scientist. Later a strange passenger and strange cargo are loaded aboard a tramp steamer which will pass within a few miles of a ship loaded with gold bullion. Coincidence?

THE GOLDEN RENDEZVOUS is one of those films which evokes "what ifs..." What if the producers had attached the prelude filmed when the show was broadcast on network TV? What if they had hired someone other than the thoroughly soused Richard Harris? What if Ann Turkel had been costumed in sexier outfits? And what if the producers hadn't hired a very overweight (and, at that time, very well known) Dorothy Malone for a throwaway role?

The prelude, added for TV does wonders for the films exposition. The film sans the prelude is much truer to the Alistair MacLean novel, but what is clever in novels is sometimes simply baffling on the screen. The ending is actually better than the novel; and, it would have been great if Harris hadn't resorted to some silly derring-do with dual submachine guns; and even better if he hadn't forgotten his lines in the denouement?

The best thing about this movie is the terrific (and I mean TERRIFIC) score by Jeff Wayne. The music adds a sense of urgency one never feels from what is up on the screen.

John Carter (Richard Harris), First Officer on the Caribbean Star, finds himself in trouble when terrorist Luis Carreras (John Vernon) and his men overtake the ship. Carreras has smuggled a nuclear bomb on the ship and plans to detonate it after stealing some gold bullion from a US cargo ship they plan to draw to them. Carter takes matters into his own hands and teams with the ship's doctor (Gordon Jackson) and beautiful passenger Susan (Ann Turkel) to take on the terrorists and save all of the passengers.

Adapted from an Alistair MacLean novel, this action-suspense flick was unleashed with posters promising, "The action of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE! The suspense of ICE STATION ZEBRA! The drama of WHERE EAGLES DARE!" I don't think it came through on any of those. The script is muddled with the first 40 minutes trying for suspense but getting brain twists. Also, the blooming romantic relationship between Harris and Turkel will leave you going, "Huh?" as she slaps him and then he kisses her. Director Ashley Lazarus just can't seem to get things to work and, if the IMDb is correct, some extra work was done by Freddie Francis. The abrupt ending would suggest a troubled production. Too bad as this has one of those ensemble casts that only a 70s disaster epic could secure and they are all game. In addition to Harris, Turkel and Vernon, you get supporting roles by David Janssen, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Dorthy Malone and Robert Beatty. The film also has one of the most ill-fitting synthesizer scores I've ever heard.

Poor old Alistair MacLean. With a few exceptions, movie makers the world over have managed to turn his very well written stories into not-so well written movies. In this attempt, a tired looking Richard Harris plays Ships Officer Carter, trying to deal with odd passengers, strange coffins and even stranger outfits as worn by the lovely Ann Turkel. Toss in a couple of not so great cameos from David Janssen and Dorothy Malone, a not so scary John Vernon, assorted plot "twists" (I use the term in it's broadest possible sense), and you get a movie that has all the pieces but never actually works out where they go.

What does it have going for it? A good basic storyline, some magnificent music (a great score from Jeff Wayne), a couple of quite good stunts and Ann Turkel. However, against this you have several examples of very ordinary acting, a plot that doesn't so much unfold as explode, the slowest "5 minute countdown" ever to take place in Hollwywood and the travesty of having MacLean's wonderful last "plot twist" (as read in the book) ignored so that Harris can go running around armed with a submachine and a determined look.

*sigh* The Guns of Navarone, Force 10 from Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra (despite it's flaws) were examples of how to make a MacLean come alive on the screen. Golden Rendezvous does not make the grade.

Rafe Nottage Sydney 16 May 2005

Alistair Mc Lean was definitely the true and authentic DNA provider of the action action packed movies huge, gruesome wave that we saw in the nineties and till the late twenties, and which many folks told it was all DIE HARD rip offs. You also had Walter Wager - whose 58 MINUTES inspired DIE HARD 2 - and Colin Forbes, who gave us tremendous novels about terrorists and spies, action thrillers that riveted you to your sofa. Well all those stories were not always top but worth though. This one is not the worst, far from that. Worth and not the worst. And I would add that film takes advantage of the disaster movie 'fashion" of the seventies to mix it up with the scheme of terrorists and hostages. One last thing, no one seems to have noticed that Dick Harris gives here a performance very close to the one he pulled in another sea thriller, about another terrorist plot, the terrific JUGGERNAUT, where he faced David Hemmings.

Action-packed suspense thriller finds innocuous-looking purser Carter (Harris) the unlikely hero when the floating casino on which he works is hijacked by a heavily armed group of mercenaries, led by John Vernon, the pirates en route to a rendezvous with another ocean liner, loaded with gold bullion. A cast full of supernovas, dazzling set & stunt work, and a catchy theme tune by Jeff Wayne create a pleasing audio-visual experience light on logic but fast paced and entertaining nonetheless.

While Harris clearly has centre stage, Jackson, Vernon and Meredith benefit from key supporting roles in this somewhat bloody thriller. Vernon in particular, is sadistically ruthless and calculated as a business-like assassin, cool, methodical and neither fooled nor intimidated by Harris' faux bravado. Turkel (Mrs Harris at the time) affects inane dialogue without displaying much acting talent, while capable cast including Janssen, former leading lady Malone, Beatty and horror maestro Carradine are wasted in frivolous supporting roles that look as though they were edited down to virtual bit parts in post production; in point of fact, some key plot development is conspicuously absent, and the narrative can at times, lack cohesion.

But in spite of the obvious flaws, this remains an easy viewing nonsense, with an attractive international cast, pulsating sound and plenty of graphic action - the scene in which the mercenaries first rappel through the casino windows is sure to catch a few off guard, and sets the tone for the remainder of the movie. Not the best translation of an Alistair MacLeanthriller, gratuitously violent (lots of claret), and yet somehow, irresistibly entertaining.