Les baroudeurs

YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL is an unusual American adventure film with a European feel. The story is heavily indebted to the usual spaghetti westerns made during the era, with a couple of ne'er-do-well characters getting caught up in a good cause and gradually realising that more is at stake than making money. This time around, the characters have to guard a gold shipment from various renegade factions, leading to plenty of stock action scenes and gung-ho adventure staples.

The film wins plaudits for casting a couple of decent actors as the leads; there's Charles Bronson, acting all tough and stoic as usual, while Tony Curtis in contrast brings plenty of laid-back charm to his character role. The supporting cast is largely made up of ethnic Turks, although eagle-eyed viewers may spot CAPTAIN KRONOS himself, Horst Janson, in a minor role. YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL is a relatively fast paced and action-packed adventure film, but I felt oddly unconnected to it throughout, like I didn't really give two hoots about what was going on; it's not one I enjoyed.

You Can't Win 'Em All (AKA: Soldiers of Fortune/The Dubious Patriots) is directed by Peter Collinson and written by Leo Gordon. It stars Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Michele Mercier, Fikret Hakan, Leo Gordon and Salih Guney. Music is by Bert Kaempfert and cinematography by Kenneth Higgins.

1922 and the Greco-Turkish War is coming to a close, and two soldiers of fortune meet and find themselves on a deadly mission that will either make them rich, get them killed or something else entirely…

Marauding machismo under the burning Turkey sun, You Can't Win 'Em All is good on intentions and two fisted action quotas. That the script is poor is a shame, because although it's hardly grade "A" as an actioner, it is a whole bunch of fun and Curtis and Bronson are great company to be in.

Collinson constructs the action in a competent manner as he fills out the plot with gunfire, explosions, barroom brawls, biplane attacks, speeding train, foxy women and a picturesque location. Bronson gets to flex his muscles while Curtis deals out the quips, and the narrative has the two men spun into a world of double crosses, bluffs and dubious motives. Their chemistry is solid, they make for a good buddy-buddy pairing.

Weak on the page for sure, but enough guts, gusto and grins to ensure it's worth spending the time with. 6.5/10

Not many people know that Hollywood actor Leo Gordon was also a noteworthy screenwriter. In point of fact Mr. Gordon wrote the script for this motion picture called " You Can't win them all. " He tells the the story of two traveling mercenaries Adam Dyer (Tony Curtis and Josh Corey (Charles Bronson) who arrive in Turkey in 1922. It was a turbulent time and the government was in the mists of a civil war. Our heroes arrive and sensing an opportunity to get rich, join which ever side will pay the most. This includes hiring on to guard a valuable shipment which includes members of a royal family, bars of gold and several million dollars worth of jewels. Throughout this movie which is filled with action, physical confrontations and exciting drama, our heroes try to stay one step ahead of they who would keep them from their treasure, only to realize it's not that easy. Michèle Mercier plays, Aila, a woman dedicated to the cause and proves a worthy adversary and ally for a Turkish General who is played by Patrick Magee. Leo Gordon who plays Bolek is in the film, but has a very brief role, still, with guns blazing, he does make his character exciting. Despite the movie's inability to make it at the box office, it has become a Classic in it's own right. Recommended. ****

This exciting story is set in 1922, Turkish War of Independence, in revolutionary days during fall of the Ottoman Empire . The War resulted the defeat of Greece in Western Turkey (Greco-Turkish war), on the East, Armenian state and Britain, France and Georgia. It begins at the Aegean sea when a shipwrecked of a boat called Achiles is rescued . Then two former US soldiers (Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson) along with a band (Leo Gordon who also wrote the script, Horst Janson, Tony Bonner, among others) and wielding several Thomson machine-guns join forces a group of Turkish revolutionaries. They are contacted by Osman Bey (Gregoire Aslan), to escort his daughters accompanied by a gorgeous servant (Michelle Mercier). They're commanded by the colonel Elch (Hakan), while some rebels pursue them and attack the train. The film is set in 1922 , following the defeat of Ottoman Empire that led Mustafa Kemal, Attaturk (role well played by Patrick McGee), he commanded the Turkish national movement in the war of independence. His successful military campaigns led to liberation of the country and to the establishing of Turkey. He transformed the former Ottoman Empire into a democratic, modern, secular nation-state , his reforms are referred as Kemalism. Ankara became the new capital and Kemal abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate. Later on, the treaty of Lausana ,signed July 24, 1923, established most of the modern boundaries of the country and also led to the international recognition of the new Republic as the successor state of the defunct Ottoman Empire under government of Attaturk.

The picture is packed with adventures, shootouts,noisy action, tongue in cheek , well developed characters, and wonderful outdoors from Turkey. This is an old-fashioned and grand adventure about some mercenaries who travel from a port until Smyrna in order to rob a loot. Splendid characterization from Tony Curtis as joker,sympathetic adventurer and Charles Bronson as tough,two-fisted mercenary. The producers wish to thank the government and people of Turkey without whose help and co-operation this motion picture could not have been made. The entire filming of this production took place in Turkey with the interior of the Osman Bay palace photographed at Said Halim Pasha Manor.

This moving film is well directed by Peter Collinson. Collinson's royal directorial treatment provides it with action, gun-play, humor and majestic sweep. He was an expert on thriller (Sell out, Target on assassin), suspense (Spiral staircase, Ten little Indians, Open season), terror(Straight on till morning), Warlike-adventure(You can't win ém all), his biggest hit was ¨The Italian job¨ , until his early death by cancer at 41.

Another reviewer has called this "better than it had to be", which I think is right on the money. This is not a history lesson, nor is Shakespeare, but it uses an obscure period of history to tell an adventure story without insulting anyone's intelligence.

It is a remake of "Vera Cruz", the 1952 Western with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. Except Curtis' character is much wittier than Cooper's, and Bronson's character is not a psychopath. Both changes make it easier to watch, although not as dramatic. Both movies have anachronisms, but I think many of the anachronisms in "You can't Win 'em All" are sardonically recognized.

There are easy parallels between the chaos of 1867 Mexico and 1922 Turkey. In both there were uncertain loyalties at the end of an Imperial rule and a major conflict had ended nearby, leaving a pool of unemployed killers. In both a nationalistic regime replaced the Old Order, and neither Juarez nor Attaturk were choirboys. But the movie is neither history lesson nor moral polemic, just a cheerful adventure story.