Gold (1974)

Thanks for the memories!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

With the 50th anniversary of the James Bond 007 film series approaching, and being a big fan of the third actor to have played the role, I decided to familiarise myself with some of his other film and television work, and I knew about this film he made just after Live and Let Die, from director Peter Hunt (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Basically at the Sonderditch mine in South Africa a tunnel has collapsed, and underground manager Rod Slater (Sir Roger Moore) and his best friend and chief miner Big King (Simon Sabela) go to rescue those injured, the two are friends despite some of the white miners disregarding the black workers. The collapse is identified as not being an accident, there is a plot by a criminal syndicate in London to destroy the mine to profit from the share dealing, with regards to the gold supply distributed, and the mine owner's son-in-law Manfred Steyner (Bradford Dillman) is involved with the plan to flood the mine drilling through the underground dike and releasing the water from the reservoir. Killed in the collapse was the mine's original general manager, and there is a vacancy to be the new one, and Steyner interviews Slater as he knows he has the best qualifications, but he has another candidate in mind, and during the meeting Slater meets Steyner's wife Terry (Superman's Susannah York), who does not return his attraction interests. Slater and Terry meet again so that she may influence the decision for the general manager position to mine owner and her grandfather Hurry Hirschfeld (Ray Milland), and as a result she and he start an affair, Steyner is not happy he becomes general manager, but Slater only continues drilling work after placing a new safety system in the mine, that will block the tunnel in case a flood does happen. Slater has no idea of the plot by the crime syndicate, and aware that his wife is having an affair with him Steyner decides to let this go ahead so that he will be distracted while the mine is collapsed, and soon enough the dike is destroyed and a flood breaks, trapping thousands of workers below. Luckilly though the story is reported on the radio news and Slater hears it while holidaying with Terry, and she is a pilot, so agrees to fly him immediately to the mine to defuse the situation, while Steyner is watching from a hill far and above the scene watching to see the disaster unfold according to plan. Going down the mine shaft and climbing through the flooding tunnels, Slater and Big King struggle against the raging waters and slowly falling rocks, the safety charge is connected and ready to blow and stop the flooding, but Big King sacrifices himself having to detonate the charge. Steyner is murdered by his accomplice Stephen Marais (Tony Beckley) after hearing on the radio that the mine disaster has been averted and their plan has failed, but he also ends up killing himself when the car he uses goes flying off the cliff and blows up, and the end sees a badly injured Slater taken away to hospital with Terry by his side. Also starring Sir John Gielgud as Farrell, Bernard Horsfall as Dave Kowalski, Marc Smith as Tex Kiernan, Norman Coombes as Lemmer, John Hussey as Plummer and a very young Patsy Kensit as Little Girl at Christmas Party. I admit that Moore is a bit wooden in this film, but I can't imagine anyone else in his role, and he assisted by a good cast of stars, even though they don't necessarily do as much, Dillman though is a great choice for the manipulative villain, the story has unnecessary scenes, but the mine scenes just about exciting, especially towards the end, and the title song by Jimmy Helms is catchy, it may look and feel old fashioned, and you don't see much gold, LOL, but it is an alright adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Wherever Love Takes Me" , and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Sound Track. Worth watching!

'Gold" is a well-crafted and entertaining film, with the positive taste 'Gold' is like a "who's who"for James Bond-fans lead star Roger Moore, there's a director Peter R. Hunt (e.g. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)" ) and editor/second unit director John Glen (who directed 5 Bond-films later on). the mine sequences are very effective and quite realistic. The claustrophobic feel of the dark, underground mine is well achieved and the sequences are tightly edited. John Gielgud, who gives a very stereotyped - even forgettable, performance (surprisingly so) Moore plays the usual, charismatic and handsome ladies man (it takes roughly 30 minutes before his character has a woman in bed and champagne at the bedside) and that he does always well. Moore is just Moore, and that's why we like him. The actor did "Gold" in-between his first Bond-films ("Live and Let Die (1973)" and "The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)").

Interesting action-thriller concerning a private syndicate conspiring to influence the price of gold on the stock market, by flooding a mine under the control of one its members. Roger Moore plays Rod Slater the newly appointed mine GM, enlisted by owner Bradford Dillman to ostensibly carry out a plan to drill into an underground reservoir in which there are untapped gold deposits. Of course, Moore isn't in on the ruse to affect the stock market, and both he and his employees risk becoming collateral damage unless Dillman's plan can be foiled.Top-notch cast features Ray Milland as the mine's board director, his daughter played by Susannah York is Dillman's neglected wife who finds comfort in Moore's embrace, and Sir John Gielgud is the scheming syndicate boss, ruthless and double crossing in the extreme. Although Gielgud's role takes place in the boardroom back in London, his presence permeates the entire movie, such is his cold, sinister dominance. Gielgud's callous greed is shockingly immortalised in the scene in which he arranges for a Christmas 'present' to be sent to a betraying syndicate member that ends with catastrophic results. Long but relatively taut thriller has the ingredients for success, with realistic looking set design, commanding score, competently handled action sequences and stunt-work, and a plot that weaves an engaging tale of sinister ambition and double cross. Considering all its elements (brassy theme tune, comic book villains, Maurice Binder's title sequence), "Gold" is something of a Bond surrogate, leveraging off Moore's alter ego at the time, and incorporating all the villains and motifs appropriate for a 007 adventure - by any other name. Great cast, highly entertaining.

This is not a great film, but it has its moments. In 1974 probably not too many people knew much about South Africa and the gold mining process, so for that reason it was educational. The mine sequences are interesting although undoubtedly filmed on a studio set. For me the most interesting action sequence though is when the hero is trying to land a plane on a tailings pile at a speed low enough to almost stall out. Most interesting of all, thirty years ago it was almost unheard of to see frontal nudity in a major film. When Susannah York's breast appeared out of the suds in the bathtub scene, my jaw dropped open. I couldn't believe I was really seeing it. For sheer surprise it ranks right up there with Charlton Heston kissing a black woman in that science fiction film that I think was called The Omega Man. Today of course such things are commonplace.