The wonderfully handsome Roger Moore was my main reason for sitting down one afternoon, while full of cold and feeling lousy, to watch this star-studded old film.
Roger is his gorgeous, charming self playing a benign German camp commandant on an idyllic Greek island in 1944. His scenes with the sadistic SS Officer, who he clearly despises (Anthony Valentine, well cast) are good.
Lots of big stars populate this film as a small group of favoured POWs are tasked with uncovering valuable treasures from around the island. Elliott Gould and Stephanie Powers are quite corny and annoying as two vaudeville entertainers who end up in the camp after being shot down.
Telly Savalas is a hard man local resistance fighter and David Niven is an urbane POW with a useful expertise in ancient artifacts.
Shallow this may be, but were it not for the lovely setting and my long passion for Roger I would probably not have enjoyed this film as much.
I'm guessing that this star-studded cast had an absolute ball filming this on the island and I can imagine that a brilliant time was had by all off camera!
