User reviews

An American sleuth looks into a British case where life insurance policy holders are seemingly killed of one after another by an unknown assassin firing poisoned bullets made of ice. -You gotta love that kind of set up. The investigation takes him all around the globe in a fast paced, and wonderfully illogical Bondesque "krimi", crammed packed with exotic locations, sharp threads, seriously groovy music and jet seting thrills. With names like Ernesto Gastaldi and Sergio Martino involved Duello nel mondo adds up to a proper treat for any fan of 60's euro crime. And keep an ear out for that ferocious Piero Umiliani soundtrack!

There are a number of actors in this world who, in whatever they play, are worth seeing, maybe I will make a list one day. Such an actor is Bernard Blier, I just adore him, talented to the point of his fingers. Thanks to him I decided to see this. The movie has an original scene: two men, the good guy and a bad guy, jumping out of a plane together but, only the bad guy has a parachute. The good guy, played by Richard Harrison, strangle the bad guy and then he is gently falling somewhere in Rio de Janeiro. It's the only good thing in the whole film. Richard Harrison, as eurospy actor, is doing what he can. Giacomo Rossi Stuart, who plays the villain, is more compelling but, because the script is lousy, we get about 90 minutes of wasted life. All the other characters do not have a consistency. A weak film that makes a great disservice to the genre, already full of many other failures, all due to the same reason, the lack of a good script. The scenes shot in Brasilia resemble much like the scenes shot in identical conditions in "That Man from Rio" two years before, in 1964. But they have not by far from the drama of the film with Jean-Paul Belmondo. The great French actor Bernard Blier, only by his presence, he can not save anything.

When a fellow insurance investigator is killed, Fred Lester (Richard Harrison) is asked by his company to take over the case. Lester finds a series of unusually large claims on policies issued just prior to death. Also, in each case, a bank or other business is listed as the beneficiary - not a family member. There has to be a connection. Digging further, Lester discovers that a criminal organization is behind the deaths. Lester must find the killer and the person behind the murderous plot.

The list of things I like about Ring Around the World is brief - the groovy 60s music, Harrison's Clark Kent style glasses, Giacomo Rossi Stuart's performance, and . . . well, I guess that's pretty much the whole list. As for what I didn't like, I'll stick to my main gripe - the plot. It's just so deathly dull. Trying to get through Ring Around the World is a real chore. A perfect example is the film's final shootout between Harrison and Stuart. This should have been one of the most exciting parts of the film, but, in reality, it couldn't get much worse. The two actors play cat and mouse on the side of a small hill for what seems like an eternity. I'm not sure how they actually managed to avoid each other, but somehow they were able to accomplish this nearly impossible feat for more than 10 minutes. How exciting (sarcasm). And when the end finally does come, it's such a letdown. The dual between the two chief protagonists ends in a whimper. To ratchet up the dullness even more - everything in the movie is so utterly predictable. The big reveal in the closing scenes of the head bad guy should come as a surprise to no one. There is no mystery. What a snoozefest!