Les corrupteurs

OK...it's late and TCM is playing this flic so I decided to check it out. After all I'm house-sitting and don't have cable myself, so I'm taping movies. This movie came on around 1:00AM and I decided to video tape it.

I like Telly Savalas and wondered how he would do in a lead role. David McCallum was known to me visually, but I wondered how he would do as a lead. Stella Stevens looked good from any angle and surprisingly was spirited, not just a pretty face and curvy bod. Ricardo Montalban was known from the TV series, but I don't think I've really seen him in any early movies. In fact, I caught the actor from The Longest Yard and this is what I like about these older movies-you catch glimpses of actors who had roles in larger films.

I thought the movie had a big feel about it despite McCallum's low key delivery. He was acting from the Clint Eastwood school, and Clint can pull that off as few can. This movie reminded me of a big budget film with B actors playing lead roles. The overall plot was decent, but like said previously, there were a lot of holes. I thought the heroin scene with Stevens was pretty advanced for that time period, even if it was the 60's. They charted some risky territory as her character was pinned down and forced to take the needle.

Not the best of flics, but I'm going to keep the tape. I thought it was a decent movie and being 35 years old, there is a lot of grace given while watching. It's a lot better than most of what comes out of Hollywood today!

Petty criminal Harry Mitchell and girlfriend Stacey Woodward (Stella Stevens) split half a million stolen from the mob. He takes off for Aapulco. Mob hitman Dano Villanova (Rip Torn) is sent to retrieve the money. Government agent Sol Madrid (David McCallum) finds Stacey. He hopes to bring down drug lord Emil Dietrich (Telly Savalas) with her help. Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban) is Sol Madrid's local contact in Mexico.

This is inferior James Bond. Maybe they are trying to be more real and failing. There is some brutal stuff in the subject matter. Either way, it's not that good. There are quite a few familiar faces. David McCallum is not necessarily a leading man type although I guess he had a leading role in The Man from U. N. C. L. E. During that time. I still don't see it. I don't get Sol and Stacey. I don't get why she goes with him. She threatens to leave at one point. Non of it seems reasonable. The plot is a bit clunky and simplistic. It's sometimes interesting to see some of the lesser films of an era. They do spend most of their time in sunny Mexico and that's something. Oh, it's also a horrible name even for a can of sardines.

I well remember David McCallum from his Man from U.N.C.L.E. days, enjoy him now on NCIS, and saw him on stage as Emperor Josef in Amadeus on Broadway. At that time I interviewed him. I have never met anyone less like a matinée idol in my life: unassuming, detached, nervous, but very polite and obviously hard-working. Only those my age would know that in the '60s, with his cute blond haircut, adorable face, and accent, he was the object of so much affection.

Here he stars in Sol Madrid, probably MGM's attempt to capitalize on his matinée idol status. He plays undercover agent Sol Madrid who is assigned to destroy drug traffic coming from Mexico, engineered by a man named Dietrich (Telly Savalas) and distributed by a man named Villanova (Rip Torn).

With the help of a U.S. officer working undercover in Mexico, Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban), Madrid uses Villanova's ex-girlfriend (Stella Stevens) to get into Dietrich's home, where he poses as a drug dealer looking for a huge amount of heroin.

This is not a very interesting script, but the Acapulco locations are beautiful, and it's a last chance to see the wonderful Paul Lukas -- this was his final film. Savalas has a showy part and acquits himself well. Rip Torn is appropriately evil, and Montalban very good. McCallum doesn't exhibit much in the way of personality; he underplays, but the character he portrays is clever and can get a job done with a sort of quiet authority, and when he needed to be more demanding, he was. So in spite of some criticism of his performance here, I think his instincts were right. Stella Stevens was a good choice for Villanova's girlfriend - tough and edgy.

Not great, but not bad.

2 out of 10

Why even bother giving names to these plot advancers? It is a reach even to call them characters, since there is zero context, characterization or texture provided. "Supercop" infiltrates "Latin Drug Lord's" operation using "Blonde Moll" who is on the run from "Mob Guy." Who are these people? Apparently the director didn't care either, all he wanted was a few gun and knife fights to occur in front of a camera.

Unfortunately for the viewer, the plot itself is just as underdeveloped. I defy anyone to explain why the Michael Conrad character exists, why Sol Madrid does 3/4ths of the things he does (or how he could be allowed by his superiors to do so), or why "Mob Guy" decides to reenact the desert hotel scene from Touch of Evil.

The "mafia meeting" at the beginning is the silliest I have ever seen. And, no, this isn't supposed to be a comedy.

David McCallum and Stella Stevens believe the best way to deliver lines in an "intense" scene is to yell them, otherwise, any inflection is superfluous.

The only morsels of merit are seeing a completely unbelievable yet interesting way to smuggle drugs play out and Ricardo Montalban, who, despite the decent resumes of the other actors, is the only one who decided to employ his talents instead of pocketing his paycheck simply for showing up on the set.

David McCallum (Sol Madrid) filmed this movie in Mexico during the summer hiatus of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1967 probably to capitalize on his great popularity in the TV series. From information here, it appears that the movie was not released until after The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was canceled in Jan. '68. I recently saw this film for the first time and enjoyed it very much. Great cast of actors who must have been under contract to MGM at the time, great scenery, good story, tight plot and good pacing. I really feel that MGM made a mistake in not making this into an action/adventure series of movies starring McCallum. Although tame by today's standards, maybe the film was considered too "adult" to be marketed to McCallum's teen fans or maybe it had to do with the timing of its release. Whatever the reason, I think MGM missed out and I would have really enjoyed more "Sol Madrid, Interpol cop" movies.