La espalda contra el muro

International crime thriller, that's how I could describe this movie from a director who, after this one, will give us two pieces of sh.... WHERE EAGLES DARE and KELLY'S HEROES, twp big, juicy, fancy pieces of crap. So let's enjoy this one at least, it is tense, with a good paced script, a surprising lead David McCallum - I suppose his only lead role for the big screen. And the supporting characters such as Telly Savalas and Ricardo Montalban are also effective. Good production design, atmosphere so typical from the late sixties. To find another good Brian G Hutton's film, you'll have to wait till 1973 with NIGHT WATCH and eight years later with FIRST DEADLY SIN. Forget the rest. Good bittersweet ending, and cynical too.

This film should have gone by the source title "Field of the Poppy." David McCallum is wooden and emotionless. Rip Torn and Stella Stevens more than make up for it with powerful dramatic performances.

Petty criminal Harry Mitchell and girlfriend Stacey Woodward (Stella Stevens) split half a million stolen from the mob. He takes off for Aapulco. Mob hitman Dano Villanova (Rip Torn) is sent to retrieve the money. Government agent Sol Madrid (David McCallum) finds Stacey. He hopes to bring down drug lord Emil Dietrich (Telly Savalas) with her help. Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban) is Sol Madrid's local contact in Mexico.

This is inferior James Bond. Maybe they are trying to be more real and failing. There is some brutal stuff in the subject matter. Either way, it's not that good. There are quite a few familiar faces. David McCallum is not necessarily a leading man type although I guess he had a leading role in The Man from U. N. C. L. E. During that time. I still don't see it. I don't get Sol and Stacey. I don't get why she goes with him. She threatens to leave at one point. Non of it seems reasonable. The plot is a bit clunky and simplistic. It's sometimes interesting to see some of the lesser films of an era. They do spend most of their time in sunny Mexico and that's something. Oh, it's also a horrible name even for a can of sardines.

David McCallum plays the anti-Sam-Spade private eye in this wry latter-day film-noir-esque look at decadence in the late 60's. Telly Savallas and Rip Torn both are wonderful as the antagonists. As good a momento of its period as any film you will ever find.

OK...it's late and TCM is playing this flic so I decided to check it out. After all I'm house-sitting and don't have cable myself, so I'm taping movies. This movie came on around 1:00AM and I decided to video tape it.

I like Telly Savalas and wondered how he would do in a lead role. David McCallum was known to me visually, but I wondered how he would do as a lead. Stella Stevens looked good from any angle and surprisingly was spirited, not just a pretty face and curvy bod. Ricardo Montalban was known from the TV series, but I don't think I've really seen him in any early movies. In fact, I caught the actor from The Longest Yard and this is what I like about these older movies-you catch glimpses of actors who had roles in larger films.

I thought the movie had a big feel about it despite McCallum's low key delivery. He was acting from the Clint Eastwood school, and Clint can pull that off as few can. This movie reminded me of a big budget film with B actors playing lead roles. The overall plot was decent, but like said previously, there were a lot of holes. I thought the heroin scene with Stevens was pretty advanced for that time period, even if it was the 60's. They charted some risky territory as her character was pinned down and forced to take the needle.

Not the best of flics, but I'm going to keep the tape. I thought it was a decent movie and being 35 years old, there is a lot of grace given while watching. It's a lot better than most of what comes out of Hollywood today!