The third teaming of film star Charles Bronson and filmmaker J. Lee Thompson casts Bronson as "Gifford Hoyt", a hotel & bar owner in an exotic locale off the coast of Peru. It's the year 1948, and an ex-Nazi named Gunther Beckdorff (Jason Robards) pretty much runs the show in the area. Newly arrived is a Frenchwoman named Marie Claire Alessandri (Dominique Sanda), who's looking for her old lover. The plot centres around the search for a supposed fortune in gold located in a shipwreck somewhere in those waters.
The story (admittedly, heavily inspired by "Casablanca") is nothing special, but it does entertain reasonably well. It's never truly exciting, or suspenseful (and the ending does leave characters and viewers alike with a dissatisfied feeling), but it holds ones' attention. The real value lies in this exotic setting ("Cabo Blanco" was actually filmed in Mexico), and its sights and sounds. As photographed in widescreen by Alex Phillips, Jr., it looks positively great. And it's supplemented by a majestic Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack.
Bronson does quite nicely in the lead role, showing off a natural charisma that we didn't see all that often; a lot of the time, he was required to play fairly grim characters. He's extremely well supported by an amusingly slimy Robards, and an excellent Fernando Rey (in the films' standout performance) as a morally compromised police chief who's in Beckdorffs' pocket. Sanda is lovely, but comes off as somewhat awkward, having to act in English. There's also a pleasing variety of familiar faces in other roles: Simon MacCorkindale, Camilla Sparv, Gilbert Roland, Denny Miller, James Booth, Jorge Russek, Clifton James, and Aldo Sambrell.
"Cabo Blanco" benefits from a fairly sordid atmosphere, and is violent without ever dwelling too long on unpleasantness.
All in all, it's worth a look for fans of the actors.
Six out of 10.
