Gold (1974)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

English gentlemanly hero, beautifully kittenish sexy heroine, outrageous, conspiratorial villain with audacious megalomaniac plan, crisp and colourful action-adventure, tribal dancing, grisly scenes, murder, sex, explosions, exotic travelogue locations, light aircraft aerial stunts, and an Oscar nominated score, and, of course Gold, and tonne$ of it. Trusted James Bond director and editor Peter R. Hunt gets the gig and delivers the action.

In between "Live and Let Die" and "The Man with the Golden Gun" - one of my personal favorite James Bond flicks – Roger Moore took a little side trip to Johannesburg in South Africa, in order to star in this routine but nevertheless entertaining action/adventure movie. Rod Slater (Moore) is appointed as the General Manager of the prominent Sonderditch goldmine, but in fact the mine's owner and a couple of rich stakeholders in London have different plans with it. They intend to flood the mine and thus boost up the gold prices worldwide, so that they can profit more from prior investments. If their devious plans, loyally but unknowingly executed by Slater and his teams, succeed in time before Christmas, it will be the biggest mining catastrophe in African history. The basic storyline is quite thin and simplistic, so indeed the vast majority of the film exists of unnecessary padding footage, mainly focusing on the romance between James Bond and the bored wife of the corrupt mine owner. With a running time of two hours, "Gold" is definitely a bit overlong and we certainly didn't need so much "falling-in-love" collages with sappy musical guidance! The first fifteen and last twenty minutes are very exciting and tense, because these are the only times "Gold" actually looks like a disaster film. There are terrific performances from veteran actors Ray Milland (as the elderly and stubborn mining patriarch) and John Gielgud (as the brains behind the flooding conspiracy).

***SPOILERS*** Tremendous yet almost forgotten action thriller set in the gold mines of South Africa involving a devious plan, by members of the world's gold cartel, to have as many as 1,000 miners killed in order to send the price of the precious medal sky high.Not realizing that he's being set up to be the stooge to take the fall for the coming mine disaster Sonditch, one of the biggest gold mining company's in the world, general manager Rod Slater, Roger Moore, is put in charge to break through the 80th level at its major gold mine and hit a mother load, some 5 billion dollars worth, of gold. What Slater doesn't know is that there's water not gold on the other side of the 80th that will flood the gold mine and kill everyone working in it! With the big gold profiteers licking their chops in anticipating in buying up all the world's gold stocks at record lows before the Sonditch Mine blows, together with the 1,000 miners working in it, one of them jumps the gun in getting in on the action and ends up paying for it with his life!Meanwhile Slater is set up by the boss' Hurry Hirschfel, Ray Milland, son-in-law acting Sonditch Mine president as well as clean freak Manfred Steyner, Bradford Dillman, to be out of town when the mine is to be sabotaged by foreman Kowalski, Bernard Horsfall. Kowalski is secretly working with Steyner, without Hurry Hirschfeld's knowledge, to have the Sonditch Mine go under!Unforgettable action packed heroics by both general manager Slater and gold miner Big King, Simon Sebela, in the depths of the flooded Sounditch Mine will leave you breathless and almost in tears, from emotion not the mine dust, in what men of courage can do when the sh*t hits the fan. With Kowalski cutting the circuit breaker cable to stop the water level in the mine from rising and thus drowning the entire work crew Slater and his good friend Big King willingly risk their lives to reconnect the cable to prevent that from happening. The explosive and heart-dropping final sequence is something that even the biggest action hero's in Hollywood would never attempt even knowing that it's all make believe and they'll live to see another day as well as paycheck.Roger Moore as general manager Slater is far better in the movie "Gold" then he ever was in any of the James Bonds movies that he stared in. Even without all the life saving gadgets that he had available, to pull him out of harms way, in them. Susannah Yok as big boss Hirschfeld's granddaughter, and Steyner's wife, Terry is far more interesting as a crack a jack pilot then as Slater's lover. Who was unknowing set up by her creepy husband Manfred to get involved with Slater thus having him be as far away from the Sonditch Mine, when it blew up, in order to keep him from being there and saving it.With out a doubt it was Simon Sabela as Big King who really stole the show with his courage dedication and willingness, without as much as a second thought, to risk his life in order to save others. Despite his supporting role in the film Sabela, as Big King, was who you cared for and remembered most when the film finally ended. Another plus for the movie is its stirring theme song "Gold" sung by Jimmy Helms that will have listening to it even when the movie is over and the final credits are rolling up the screen!P.S During the filming of "Gold" Roger Moore was kicking his smoking habit and in the few scenes where he was to smoke a cigarette he was always able to find an excuse not to light up!

Roger Moore in a neat little thriller about the plot to manipulate the price of gold buy flooding a South African mine with an underground lake. Moore is the new troubleshooter brought in to run the mine unaware that Bradford Dillman has other plans. This film came out during the disaster craze back in the early 1970's. I remember seeing the TV commercials and wanting to see it because the scenes of the flooding mine made it look like another disaster film. I never saw the film and the film pretty much disappeared before it turned up on bargain DVD. Its a shame that the film isn't better known since its a super little thriller. To be certain the film suffers from the casting of Ray Milland and Dillman who seemed to be playing the exact same roles in everything at the time this was made, but other wise this is a tense little thriller with some good action sequences, good performances and a plot that keeps you watching. Its not the best film ever but it is is one that has been wrongly buried in the discount bin. Definitely worth picking up if you run across it.