Sept heures avant la frontière

I really wish I could be more enthusiastic about this film. In theory the story of a South American coup and a race against time to get the deposed president to safety across the border looks exciting but in reality this is a deadly dull and dreary affair. Anthony Asquith, indisputably one of our greatest directors, is so quintessentially English as to be totally unsuited to this kind of material. His direction is leaden and the film totally devoid of tension, suspense and momentum. Even the scene in the swamp fails to impress! The script by John Mortimer is weak and Benjamin Frankel's score ineffectual. As for the cast, James Robertson Justice never disappoints, there is a telling cameo from Ian Hunter and lovely Leslie Caron is I'm afraid, rather annoying. David Niven's next film 'Captive City' was even worse than this but all was not lost. Just around the corner were the helping hands of Sir Arthur Robertson and Sir Charles Lytton, the notorious Phantom!

This is well worth watching to see some very good actors playing against type and flexing acting muscles all too sadly wasted in many of their other films.

I was attracted to this one by the presence of David Niven, always a plus, and I was not disappointed. This is by no means a great movie but it's a very good one in all departments - script, plot line, tension, character development, acting and cinematography (gloriously crisp b&w). In addition to Niven, as a flawed idealist, there is Leslie Caron as his long- suffering wife, James Robertson Justice as a cynical manager and David Opatoshu as a deposed president. Events circle around a revolution in a fictional South American country, as a couple whose relationship is foundering get involved with the fate of the wounded, deposed president, and try to spirit him out of the country. There is plenty of tension in the escape sequences, as they are hunted by the federates, but we also see developments in the relationship of Niven's and Caron's couple. The film tried to make the point that the complexities of life do not always make for black and white, idealistic choices, that we are at some level all flawed. All in all a very good film that deserves more attention.

David Opatoshu as deposed President Rivera in a wing collar and goatee perhaps intentionally resembles Harold Gordon as the hapless Madero in 'Viva Zapata!'; while Derek Godfrey is truly mephistophelian as the suavely menacing, Sorbonne-educated Hernandez in this satisfactory chase drama based on Francis Clifford's 1960 novel 'Act of Mercy' set in the fictional Latin American city of Tribulacion. (The title was changed at the last minute to evoke David Niven's recent hit 'The Guns of Navarone'; which had also featured James Robertson Justice.)

As in Cuba three years earlier, the coup is here depicted as taking place on New Year's Eve; while the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were also educated at the Sorbonne, and the reference to the rough justice meted out in sports arenas anticipates what later happened in Chile.

That Niven & Caron didn't get on during filming probably enhanced the film, along with Robert Krasker's photography, Benjamin Frankel's score and the vintage 1957 Ford County Sedan station wagon in which he initially tries to smuggle Opatoshu out of the country.

This low budget thriller finds Tom Jordan (David Niven) and Claire Jordan (Lesie Caron) at a New Years Eve party sponsored by Toms' employer, Napier Plantations, located in a South American country. Covered by the noise from the party, the government of President Rivera ( David Opatoshu) is overthrown by rebels. Unaware of the regime change, Tom goes to work the next day. After seeing a man shot, he returns home. Doctor Swann (Ian Hunter) has been to the Jordan's home to see Claire. When he leaves and opens his car door, he finds a wounded Rivera sprawled in the front seat of his car. Complications ensue.

Caron and Niven are both as good as a couple whose marriage is disintegrating in the middle of a revolution and international intrigue. Opatoshu is also good as the ex-President. The big problem is the script, which has the characters take wildly stupid actions and goes from effective scenes to ones that had me rolling my eyes. Caron and Niven cope with the script as best they can, but credulity is strained to the breaking point.

Anthony Asquith's direction just races through the bad spots, and fashions an entertaining thriller out of the implausible script with the help of Caron and Niven. The film improves as it progresses.