This is , to all intents and purposes , a Western although set in post Boer War South Africa rather than in the American West . The year is 1901 and the Boer War is over -two Boer soldiers , Brandt (Jack Hawkins ) and Hendrik ( Peter Hammond ) are returning home when Brandt stumbles across a body with a fortune in diamonds on his person
He conceals the treasure -fearing he may be waylaid by the British and on returninbg home finds his fiancee is now married to the worthless Clive Hunter (Dennis Price ) a former British officer now scrounging a bare existence from petty crime and card sharping . Brandt organises an expedition to locate the diamonds -Hendrik and Hunter go along as does the saloon owner " Dominic " who is funding the venture
Bitter rivalries soon break out and one of the party fails to return -it is believed he was murdered and the last section of the movie turns on who did the deed .
The plot has overtones of the vastly superior " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre " in its highlighting of the conflict between expedition members but is too limply directed and staged to really develop this in any striking way
All the actors did better work and the whole enterprise seems tired and under budgetted
Just about passable time filler on a rainy afternoon when you dont feel like doing much beyond slumping in front of the television set
