Le Léopard

The tough raider and the old maid in the vast sweep of Zimbabwe,Africa ,doesn't it remind you of an American movie of the fifties?

It probably does;but "Le Leopard " is a dud; the only interesting thing is the landscapes of the exotic country where it was filmed on location ;the screenplay is abysmal, badly written,full of plot holes ;both talented actors go out of their way to salvage something from the wreckage ,but what can they do when confronted to a labored story ,written in a slapdash manner?

A former secret agent ,who wrote a first novel which tells the eventful adventures of his hero "Le Léopard " ,comes back to work in a cock and bull story of coffee and rockets ,fighting against a vague organization whose whereabouts are unknown ;he is reluctantly joined by another writer ,an old maid who has written tons of novels featuring her own hero Nick Denver.This character is based on a real life person ,who was once a true love of hers :he appears in the movie,but the hero has turned into a villain who wants to get rid of his new rival (for,of course,the raider and the spinster have fallen in love ).

The movie constantly hesitates between the adventure movie à la Indiana Jones cum James Bond (the prologue looks like a poor man's "thunderball") and pure burlesque (both heroes riding ostriches -"can they fly" asks the damsel in distress)and loses on both counts.