You Can't Win 'Em All

This exciting story is set in 1922, Turkish War of Independence, in revolutionary days during fall of the Ottoman Empire . The War resulted the defeat of Greece in Western Turkey (Greco-Turkish war), on the East, Armenian state and Britain, France and Georgia. It begins at the Aegean sea when a shipwrecked of a boat called Achiles is rescued . Then two former US soldiers (Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson) along with a band (Leo Gordon who also wrote the script, Horst Janson, Tony Bonner, among others) and wielding several Thomson machine-guns join forces a group of Turkish revolutionaries. They are contacted by Osman Bey (Gregoire Aslan), to escort his daughters accompanied by a gorgeous servant (Michelle Mercier). They're commanded by the colonel Elch (Hakan), while some rebels pursue them and attack the train. The film is set in 1922 , following the defeat of Ottoman Empire that led Mustafa Kemal, Attaturk (role well played by Patrick McGee), he commanded the Turkish national movement in the war of independence. His successful military campaigns led to liberation of the country and to the establishing of Turkey. He transformed the former Ottoman Empire into a democratic, modern, secular nation-state , his reforms are referred as Kemalism. Ankara became the new capital and Kemal abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate. Later on, the treaty of Lausana ,signed July 24, 1923, established most of the modern boundaries of the country and also led to the international recognition of the new Republic as the successor state of the defunct Ottoman Empire under government of Attaturk.

The picture is packed with adventures, shootouts,noisy action, tongue in cheek , well developed characters, and wonderful outdoors from Turkey. This is an old-fashioned and grand adventure about some mercenaries who travel from a port until Smyrna in order to rob a loot. Splendid characterization from Tony Curtis as joker,sympathetic adventurer and Charles Bronson as tough,two-fisted mercenary. The producers wish to thank the government and people of Turkey without whose help and co-operation this motion picture could not have been made. The entire filming of this production took place in Turkey with the interior of the Osman Bay palace photographed at Said Halim Pasha Manor.

This moving film is well directed by Peter Collinson. Collinson's royal directorial treatment provides it with action, gun-play, humor and majestic sweep. He was an expert on thriller (Sell out, Target on assassin), suspense (Spiral staircase, Ten little Indians, Open season), terror(Straight on till morning), Warlike-adventure(You can't win ém all), his biggest hit was ¨The Italian job¨ , until his early death by cancer at 41.

Set against the backdrop of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) Soldiers of Fortune tells the story of two opportunist former U.S. Army soldiers Adam Dyer(Tony Curtis) and Josh Corey (Charles Bronson). The two joins a group of Turkish mercenaries to protect the daughters of an Ottoman sultan and a train that carries gold. This is the first movie in cinematic history that portrays Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (even briefly by Patrick Magee) who is the founder and the first president of modern Turkey. Believe it or not, the rumor has it that one of the Turkish journalists wanted to interview Charles Bronson after the production of the movie but he was just vehemently rejected by Bronson. So the embittered journalist just started a smear campaign against the movie, that's why the movie has never been available on DVD here and unfortunately the only way that you can watch this movie in Turkey is to get hold of a pirate VHS copy. You Can't Win 'Em All may not have sounded realistic or historically accurate but it would not be fair at all to expect complete historical accuracy from an adventurous western movie. The filming locations do not really follow a logical order either. For instance, the mercenaries set out their adventurous odyssey in İzmir (formerly Smyrna)At first they camp in the Cappadocia region (east-central Turkey) Later on you see them in Ephesus and Didim (which is at the far west)I guess Peter Collinson must have thought he should show a few places that a tourist must see in his/her visit to Turkey. You Can't Win 'Em All may not be the best movie but if you like westerns and if you are real fans of Curtis and Bronson there is not a reason why you shouldn't like this one.

You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)

** (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining action film has former WW1 soldiers traveling to Turkey where they are hired by Osman Bey to help guard a gold shipment but after countless double crossings and twists, the soldiers begin to realize that there might be something more at stake than just gold. It's important to note that the soldiers are played by Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson and those names are big enough to make you want to keep watching even when the film itself starts to unravel and come apart. The movie gets off to a great start as Curtis is stranded at sea in a sinking boat and gets picked up by captain Bronson but before he can get on the two have a nice exchange of words. The first twenty-minutes of the movie are fast, sharp and contain some very funny moments but all of this stuff pretty much goes away once the center story kicks in. I never really could get too involved with the story in Turkey simply because it really didn't feel all that real and I also thought it was rather poorly written. I think there's way too much story trying to go on and there's really nothing behind it because the main goal is just to get to the next action scene. As far as the action goes, we get a couple excellent sequences. The opening bar fight is pretty good but the real highlight comes towards the middle of the film when the train carrying the gold comes under attack. After viewing the movie I had to do a Google search to see how many stuntmen got killed in this sequence but apparently it was none. The physical stunts are extremely graphic and there are a few scenes where horses are tripping off one another and there's one instant that will really stick out because it seems the human riding it gets crushed during all the mayhem. There's another big action piece at the end, which results in another twist in the story that actually works pretty good. The main draw of this movie is going to be seeing Curtis and Bronson together and they actually do a pretty good job. I thought that laid back, smart ass attitude of Curtis worked perfectly well with Bronson stone cold approach. The two are simply so different that when they mix it up they just come off very funny. The banter between the men in the bar at the start of the film is certainly one of the highlights. YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL is far from a masterpiece and in reality it's not even a good movie. With that said, fans of the two stars will probably want to check it out but others will probably not find too much to keep them watching from start to finish.

You Can't Win Them All was directed by Peter Collinson who made the landmark British heist thriller, The Italian Job.

Here Charles Bronson (Josh Corey) and Tony Curtis (Adam Dyer) play two soldiers of fortune who get together after Bronson finds Curtis stranded in the sea and soon constantly try to double cross each other as they see themselves as rivals.

The film is set in 1922 Turkey as the country is undergoing revolution internally and war with its neighbours and the two protagonists see this as an opportunity to make money. They join together and get hired by a local governor for a mission to transport his three daughters and some gold which leads to lots of devious shenanigans along the way.

Bronson and Curtis make a likable pair and work well together. Curtis is positive, amiable and a joker whereas Bronson is meaner, more calculating and colder.

There is some gorgeous Turkish location photography but the film is too stop and start and never truly gets going or engages. There is too much bickering and mutual distrust between Curtis and Bronson which stalls the film at the beginning and then only much later on we get the action sequences which are very well staged but feels like too little or two late

Some of the dialogue is jarring and the politics of the region is not easy to understand but it's an interesting misfire.

This is a competent adventure movie pairing, of all people, Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson. It's setting is an obscure one for Americans: Turkey in its days of revolutionary war following the defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Dynasty in World War I. Bronson and his band of mercs have tommy guns but don't get to use them as much as you might expect. On no best-of list, but this movie is a bit better than it had to be, and worth a look.