Killer Force

The only thing more pathetic than Peter Fonda's fake beard is that director Val Guest had almost no career after making some of Hammer Films' best work, from horror to science-fiction to (like this) crime thrillers...

And while KILLER FORCE is no Hammer there's Dracula himself, Christopher Lee, within a group of DIAMOND MERCENARIES in a South African desert where the beautiful-vastness of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA meets the jeep-leaping potential of THE RAT PATROL, and, either indoors or out, Lee's the most cold-blooded villain (killing perfectly good hooker Marina Christelis for no apparent reason) in a movie all about villains...

Meanwhile, buried lead Peter Fonda works for Telly Savalas, an uncompromising, office-set security chief (whose scenes were probably shot in a few days between KOJAK episodes) for an impenetrable diamond-mine outpost...

And soon the morally ambiguous Fonda's hired to go undercover into Christopher Lee's gang actually led by square-jawed Hugh O'Brian alongside Lee's 007 moll Maud Adams (as Fonda's girl) and O. J. Simpson, turning in his most natural non-performance since some genuine athletic abilities are used during the busy second and third acts...

That's when the rudimentary semi-complicated heist premise becomes more popcorn mainstream and thus, outright entertaining, and even suspenseful... the latter most likely thanks to director Val Guest...

The underrated British auteur (from QUATERMASS to HELL IS A CITY) does a nifty job with a standard script and meager budget that could have been forgettable without the professional veteran behind everyone, and everything.

Watching Killer Force makes me think that the folks who security at South African diamond mines ought to be the ones running our Homeland Security. As typified by Telly Savalas they are a ruthless but shrewd lot. It wouldn't say much for our civil liberties though, but would we ever be secure from terrorists.

Peter Fonda plays one of the security men at a diamond mine in the Kalahari desert who's given an assignment to go undercover and find some folks who are rumored to be planning a big heist. To do so he has to be caught stealing himself which he is. But when the guy giving the assignment is killed and his ever so lovely handler Marina Christelis is killed Fonda is out on a limb. Time to reassess the situation.

Once the situation is reassessed the heist is on and the last 40 minutes or so is non-stop action. Other members of the heist team are Hugh O'Brian, Christopher Lee, and O.J. Simpson. Most don't make it, but they go oh so spectacularly.

Killer Force is not bad entertainment, but everyone in the cast has done better.

Telly Savalas is the head of security of a major diamond mine. He's convinced that something is up, because no one has tried to steal anything. He's right. A group headed by Peter Fonda, Hugh O'Brian, O. J. Simpson and cover model Maud Adams (because as Preston Sturges noted, there's always a girl in the picture. Haven't you ever been to the movies?) is about to steal a satchelful of rocks and escape in a yellow vehicles pursued by other yellow vehicles, most of which wind up running over rocks and bushes and flying upside down.

It's about forty minutes of Savalas acting threatening, followed by a twenty-minute heist sequence and then forty minutes of chase across the South African desert. How many will die? Will any of them get away, and will they have the diamonds when they do?

In 1976, this must have seemed a reasonable action movie. Today it looks underscripted and although moderately fast-paced, rote.

Or the Magnificent Six...This very surprising action thriller adventures from a director such Val Guest has always enchanted me, but that doesn't make it an excellent, flawless film either. Val Guest will always be more famous for QUATERMASS films or his other features from Hammer Films company, or even war features - CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND, YESTERDAY'S ENEMY- than for this one. Any only good film maker could have been made this tremendous action packed - at least in the second part - film. And I would have never imagined Christopher Lee, Hugh O'Brian and OJ Simpson - plus Peter Fonda - in the same film. Good actionner.

I bought the dvd almost a decade ago only cos of the dvd cover of Savalas, the exciting star cast n the plot.

Never got the time to play the dvd.

In fact, I saw this few days back via online medium due to the sheer laziness of playing the dvd.

Coming to the movie, it has an amazing star cast n an even amazing director.

Telly Savalas is very stylish with his dressing style n sun glares.

And the moment I was about to feel sorry for Christopher Lee's inclusion, Lee's character removes a knife n shows his presence.