And finally for a bit of fine madness, extremely quirky story (apparently written during filming by Huston and Truman Capote, of all people) involves a typically Hustonian group of disparate characters involved in uranium exploitation in Africa, holed up in Italy (actually Ravello - a name given to one of the characters).
Full of lively characters, dialogue, incidents, cinematically told, a truly entertaining and offbeat yarn, shot with intelligence by Oswald Morris (they collaborated often) and operated by Freddie Francis. Ralph Kemplen edited.
From Claud Cockburn's novel. Featuring Bogie (a Santana co-production), Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Edward Underdown (Chelm), Ivor Barnard (the major), Marco Tulli, Mario Perrone (on board ship), Bernard Lee, Saro Urzi (permanently pissed ship's captain) and Manuel Serano - uncredited as the arab who wants to meet Rita Hayworth. What would you call these characters now? - entrepreneurs!
Film has fallen out of copyright and thus exists in any number of abominable reproductions of which the DigicomTV release is by far the best. Looking forward to the day when it is remastered and rereleased on Blu-Ray (or whatever the next format to come along is called).
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