Warhead

Workhorse David Janssen and talented veteran Karin Dor couldn't save this poorly directed and over-scripted B- movie. This was John O'Connor's first and last directorial effort, and was made after a 24 year hiatus from a largely uncredited acting career in B movies of the '40s and '50s. The film introduces cheese in the very first shot - a long pan across some portion of Jerusalem, with teleprompter type running across the bottom of the screen. The teleprompter tells us that an experimental nuclear missile prototype has been lost somewhere in the Jordanian desert. Next, we learn that a despicable terrorist has the missile and has used it to destroy a school bus full of children accompanied by an Israeli army officer (Dor). Following the destruction of the school bus, there is a lengthy, gratuitous shot of dead kids disbursed around the burning bus, mixed with flashbacks of the kids singing on the bus a few moments ago.

6/24/07: Fell asleep less than ten minutes into the film.

Dor is then attached to a military attempt to ferret out the terrorist and the CIA reaches out to munitions expert Janssen, on vacation in Israel, to locate, disarm the missile, and destroy the detonator. The Dodge Valiant-driving CIA agent who brings Janssen into the story has a monotone delivery straight out of B noir and the dialog between him and Jannsen is totally absurd.

6/25/07: Fell asleep.

There is very little to spoil, but I won't bother with the rest of the plot. Suffice to say that Janssen gets played like a ping-pong-ball bouncing from one Middle Eastern Stereotype to another while he tries to accomplish his mission. I finally got through Warhead by starting a little earlier, and still managed to doze off 2 or 3 times during the gun fights and other action scenes. Incidentally, the sound effects also deserve special mention for their profound mediocrity.

The film does not even succeed as a propaganda piece. All of the characters are stereotypes of one kind or another, and only Dor's character really warrants any sympathy. Janssen, an intense and very sensitive actor, really did not give this his best effort, and the pervasive misdirection offered him little help.

6/26/07: Stayed awake (for the most part), but slept like a baby afterward.

Not recommended.

Originally, "Warhead" was a television movie called "Prisoner in the Middle" (1974). It was somehow released in some theaters in 1977 as "Warhead".

When the movie began, I could quickly tell it was a movie made on the cheap. For example, a CIA operative (David Janssen) is about to parachute into the desert...and they cut away and suddenly he's on the ground gathering up his parachute. Moments later, a school bus is attacked in the desert...and they show they about to attack and then it cuts to the bus suddenly lying on its side...having been blasted. But you see no blast....it's as if the warning "Scene missing here" should be emblazoned across the screen!

The plot involves Palestinians, Israeli soldiers and a lone CIA operative (Janssen) all scrambling to retrieve a lost US Air Force nuke accidentally dropped in the Jordanian desert(???). Why the USA would only send one guy is confusing, that's for sure! The nuke ends up changing hands repeatedly.

So is it any good? Not really. The acting is passable but the film itself lacks energy and interesting characters...and a decent budget. Overall, it just really looks cheap...incredibly cheap! And, it is also not especially entertaining...which is odd considering the subject matter.

David Janssen was an excellent actor in "The Fugitive" (TV Series). He also starred in another very good film called "Birds of Prey" (1973). His other films are not that good. This "Warhead" (1977) is one of his worst. Karin Dor was a beautiful and convincing actress. But, she too, is lost in this uninspired production, of unlimited boredom.

This is a film about the nearest, knowledgeable nuclear warhead expert (Janssen), on vacation in the Middle East, where such a bomb is accidentally parachuted. It doesn't detonate when it lands in the Syrian desert, slightly north of the border with Israel. Janssen is procured to deactivate it. A radical Arab group interrupts Janssen's mission and claims the weapon as theirs. But a force in pursuit of the Arabs adds further intrigue to the mix. Has Janssen been rescued or simply captured by another faction? Initially he's regarded suspiciously by the Arab-hunters. But, eventually, the contingent's leader - dying from wounds - declares that Janssen shall be his successor. With nothing great - but nothing really bad, either - the vote of 5 seemed appropriate for this.

With the world at odds with itself, our newest danger arrives when some new country acquires the Atomic Bomb. Isreal and the Arabs are enemies making the world less stable than before. In this movie called " Warhead " the United States loses one of it's Neclear weapons in the deserts of Syria. Frantic to retrieve it, or at the very least, locate it, the U.S. sends in a Neclear expert to locate and disarm the weapon. It's bad enough, that our hero Tony Stevens (David Janssen) must find the weapon with the help of the Isreali military, but his plans are compromised when he is captured by the Arabs first. The story, originally written by Patrick Foulk, becomes a high tense drama when audience members are along for what may be an atomic accident triggered by waring nations. The movie has a good plot, but the acting leaves much to be desired. Director John O'Connor allows the action to guide the movie, but the actors seem stiff and cardboard like. Were it not for the excellence of David Jannsen, the whole thing might be relegated to 'B' pictures. As it is, the film becomes a dramatic statement which asks what would happen if two belligerent nation both possess the nuclear deterrent. ***