A Maldição do Ouro

Interesting picture based on fictitious events packed with gritty adventure , romance , action , thrills , violence , explosions and spectacular African outdoors. Dealing with a South African gold mine manager discovers a plot hatched by the mine owners and London bankers to flood the mine in order to curb gold production and consequently manipulate its price on the stock markets . There's only one man can stop the complex plan , he's Rod Slater (Roger Moore) the newly appointed General Manager of the Sonderditch gold mine, as he confronts the world's most daring conspiracy against the world's most precious metal. Along the way , he falls in love with the wife (Susannah York) of his nasty boss , Manfred Steyner (Bradford Dillman). Everything they touch turns to pure excitement!

This colorful film packs adventure , romance , large-scale blow-up , flood , plot-twists , routine script and lots of intrigue for the most part . It's a comfortable mix of adventure, thriller and suspense genre with a love story . Grand-scale adventure/thriller/action yarn about a scheming plot to control price of gold on world market by destroying South African mine , being its central plot adequately depicted on film, where a mining disaster would manipulate in recognized commodity the stock market ; in this case, gold shares . It was based on the non-fiction novel, "The Great Gold Conspiracy" by Wilbur Smith, featuring a plot to flood a gold mine and screenplay by Stanley Price and author Wilbur Smith himself. Stars attractive Roger Moore as a foreman become the chief of a powerful company , a stalwart hero who's duped into a twisted conspiracy carried out by the unscrupulous owners to make a set-up in the international gold market. Being one of four Africa set and shot movies in which Roger Moore performed during the 1970s. The others being : Wild Geese (1978) by Andrew V. McLagen , Shout the devil (1976) also directed by Peter R. Hunt , and The spy who loved me (1977) by Lewis Gilbert . Roger Moore is well accompanied by a notorious cast giving fine acting , such as : Susannah York, Ray Milland, Bradford Dillman, John Gielgud, Tony Beckley , Simon Sabela and brief appearance of Patsy Kensit as a little Girl at Christmas Party , among others.

It displays a rousing and thrilling musical score by classic composer Elmer Bernstein. As well as brilliant and breathtaking cinematography by Ousama Rawi filmed in Panavision. The overlong motion picture was professionally directed by Peter R. Hunt, though it has some flaws and gaps . Hunt was a notorious editor and occasionally filmmaker . Hunt had a long career as a cinematic editor . Having started out in the film industry as a clapper boy , by the 40's he was working in the editing department and by the 50's he was an assistant editor then a fully fledged editor. In 1962 as editor on the first James Bond film , "Dr No" . And shooting some films as ¨Shout at the Devil¨, ¨Gold¨, ¨Gulliver's travels ¨, being his biggest hit the only James Bond film starred by George Lazemby titled ¨ On her Majesty's service secret¨. Rating : 6 , this good adventure/thriller will appeal to Roger Moore fans.

Despite the collapse of the gold price in recent months here is a movie whose value is assured. Taken from the novel "Gold Mine" by the one and only Wilbur Smith we get to see just how dangerous the world of mining is. Nerve splitting scenes in the aftermath of a rock fall, explosions, underground amputations, the calamity of an underground flood, deceit, conspiracy, loyalty, betrayl, murder, sex, tribal dance, heroics, more heroics (it was penned by Wilbur Smith) and the lengths to which men will go just to put a charm around a ladys' neck.

I was very surprised when I saw this film. After all, by the time they made "Gold", South Africa was already being roundly condemned by many nations for its apartheid policies. In fact, soon film projects in the country would be a thing of the past and the fact that American and British actors appeared in the film and that much of it was filmed in South Africa surprised me. Perheps, however, they studio chose such a project because it really made the mine operators look like scum...and thereby was a criticism, indirectly, of apartheid.

The bosses at a gold mine in South Africa have a reprehensible scheme. They know that an underground lake is very close to one of their mines. And, if they accidentally drill too close, it will flood the mine and kill a lot of workers. BUT, it will also make the price of gold shoot to the moon...making them even richer! The problem is that the General Manager of the mine is killed in a mining accident and they trust that the new GM, Rod Slater (Roger Moore) will play along with their scheme. As for Slater, what he seems mostly interested in during most of the film is stupping the boss' wife (Susannah York).

To me, a major defect in the picture is spending so much time on the affair. First, it really didn't make a lot of sense. Second, it really had little to do with the plot. Third, it just seemed like a lot of padding. And, fourth, you really don't care about these two...other than, perhaps, seeing it as a chance for Slater to do to his boss' wife what the boss plans on doing to everyone else!

Overall, a rather pedestrian handling of material that could have been a lot better. Not a bad film...but not a very good one either.

By the way, I have been to South Africa twice--spending about a month there. One thing I loved about the country were the lovely accents...none of which I heard during the course of "Gold"!

I saw this film while living in Geneva Switzerland in 1981, courtesy of a borrowed video cassette copy. I was a lot younger then, thirty, and less discerning, but I was utterly enchanted by actress Susannah York, and have been ever since. It had the feel of a good James Bond adventure and I thought that actor Roger Moore was at his best, and in fact was better in this film then in any of his James Bond movies. I've never visited South Africa, but had studied the history of the country, and I enjoyed viewing the on-location scenes of the country. There are great scenes workers in the mines, as well as Zulu warriors in their regalia.

This is not a great film, but it has its moments. In 1974 probably not too many people knew much about South Africa and the gold mining process, so for that reason it was educational. The mine sequences are interesting although undoubtedly filmed on a studio set. For me the most interesting action sequence though is when the hero is trying to land a plane on a tailings pile at a speed low enough to almost stall out. Most interesting of all, thirty years ago it was almost unheard of to see frontal nudity in a major film. When Susannah York's breast appeared out of the suds in the bathtub scene, my jaw dropped open. I couldn't believe I was really seeing it. For sheer surprise it ranks right up there with Charlton Heston kissing a black woman in that science fiction film that I think was called The Omega Man. Today of course such things are commonplace.