White Fire

Superbly trashy and wondrously unpretentious 80's exploitation, hooray! The pre-credits opening sequences somewhat give the false impression that we're dealing with a serious and harrowing drama, but you need not fear because barely ten minutes later we're up until our necks in nonsensical chainsaw battles, rough fist-fights, lurid dialogs and gratuitous nudity! Bo and Ingrid are two orphaned siblings with an unusually close and even slightly perverted relationship. Can you imagine playfully ripping off the towel that covers your sister's naked body and then stare at her unshaven genitals for several whole minutes? Well, Bo does that to his sister and, judging by her dubbed laughter, she doesn't mind at all. Sick, dude! Anyway, as kids they fled from Russia with their parents, but nasty soldiers brutally slaughtered mommy and daddy. A friendly smuggler took custody over them, however, and even raised and trained Bo and Ingrid into expert smugglers. When the actual plot lifts off, 20 years later, they're facing their ultimate quest as the mythical and incredibly valuable White Fire diamond is coincidentally found in a mine. Very few things in life ever made as little sense as the plot and narrative structure of "White Fire", but it sure is a lot of fun to watch. Most of the time you have no clue who's beating up who or for what cause (and I bet the actors understood even less) but whatever! The violence is magnificently grotesque and every single plot twist is pleasingly retarded. The script goes totally bonkers beyond repair when suddenly – and I won't reveal for what reason – Bo needs a replacement for Ingrid and Fred Williamson enters the scene with a big cigar in his mouth and his sleazy black fingers all over the local prostitutes. Bo's principal opponent is an Italian chick with big breasts but a hideous accent, the preposterous but catchy theme song plays at least a dozen times throughout the film, there's the obligatory "we're-falling-in-love" montage and loads of other attractions! My God, what a brilliant experience. The original French title translates itself as "Life to Survive", which is uniquely appropriate because it makes just as much sense as the rest of the movie: None!

It is important that you watch the big box TWE VHS tape which has a clear vibrant picture instead of the fuzzy washed out DVD put out by Westlake entertainment. Like many old movies, the DVD is made from a far inferior print to the VHS. You really want a nice clear look at Belinda Mayne's body.

There are a couple of scenes that make this movie a classic. The one that comes to mind is Spectacular Belinda Mayne taking a nude swim and providing full frontal nudity view of her spectacular body. Think a Ursula Andress, but better looking and nude. After some playful banter with her brother, Ingrid (Belinda's character) is attacked by a gang and uses martial arts while wearing only a white towel to kill or dispatch them.

The movie is fun, campy and watchable. You might also enjoy the sadistic female villain.

Absolutely fantastic trash....this one has it all: nudity, good fight scenes, gore, action, explosions etc. It also stars the wonderful Belinda Mayne as Ingrid - not Olga as the other reviewer pointed out - although Olga turns into Ingrid later on in the film (you'll have to watch it to see what I mean).

I won't bother to go into the story as it's far too long winded and not very interesting. The relationship between Ingrid and her brother Bo (Robert Ginty) is interesting - watch the towel stealing scene to see what I mean.

The fight scenes were at once quite good and then spoilt by some really shoddy gore effects that looked like they were done by the team who did City of the Walking Dead (i.e. strange coloured blood gushing out of neck wounds).

I'd advise fans of low budget trash to check it out if they can track down a copy - its pretty rare though and I couldn't ever see anyone bothering to re-release it so it'll become all the rarer in a few years.

Anyway I'd recommend it solely for Belinda Mayne's great nude scenes! That lady's a fox!

My review was written in March 1985 after watching the movie on TWE video cassette.

"White Fire" is a crudely-mad action picture, lensed in Turkey in the summer of 1983 and bowing domestically on video cassette. With more filmmaking care, it could have had some domestic theatrical playoff on the action circuit.

Leads Robert Ginty and Belinda Mayne are cast as brother- and-sister diamond smugglers, in cahoots with crooked mines security officer Yilmaz (Gordon Mitchell). A pointless, 20-years-earlier prolog shows their parents killed by soldiers with the kids cared for by Sam (Jess Hahn), who is now a smuggling partner.

The legendary White Fire diamond (2,000 caats and emitting deadly radioactivity) is the main prize, but French filmmaker Jean-Marie Pallardy detours into absurd territroy when Mayne is killed and Ginty picks up a girl in a bar, has plastic surgery convert her into a Mayne lookalike in order to continue the inside job at the mine, but then falls in love with her (incest psychological overtones stressed). Even guest star Fred Williamson, cast as a villain bjut predictably turning into Mr. Nice Guy in the final reel, fails to save this one.

Dubbing is crude, and gore makeup is emphasize over local color.

The plot for White Fire is utterly atrocious, the direction stinks, and the acting is diabolical, and yet there's still quite a bit of fun to be had with this goofy '80s action film starring straight-to-video tough-guy Robert Ginty.

The film opens with a family trying to escape from Russia. The mother is shot and the father incinerated by flamethrower, but the two kids, Bo and Ingrid, are helped by a friendly smuggler called Sam (Jess Hahn), who raises them and teaches them the art of thievery. Twenty years later, and Sam, Bo (Ginty) and Ingrid (Belinda Mayne) are working a racket at a Turkish diamond mine (regulation uniform: red or blue jumpsuit with black and gold accessories), but other parties also want in on the action, especially when the world's biggest diamond, the White Fire, is discovered in one of the old tunnels (although I'm not sure what they intend to do with a highly radioactive diamond that burns anyone who touches it).

So far so mediocre, but the film gets more interesting once a group of Italian criminals led by Sophia (played by the beautiful but not very talented Mirella Banti) enter the picture and try to relieve Bo and Ingrid of their latest haul of gems: a fight breaks out that sees Bo stabbing two men with a knife and picking up a handy chainsaw to slice one guy in the leg and another in the stomach; meanwhile, Ingrid impales a guy with a boat-hook. Our hero and heroine aren't averse to killing when necessary, providing the film with cheapo gore galore, the action accompanied by a really naff theme song: great stuff!

Shortly after, the White Fire is discovered in an abandoned part of the mine, and one-time peplum star Gordon Mitchell (modelling the red jumpsuit) uses a pickaxe to kill the man who found it. Mitchell's acting might even be worse than Banti's.

That evening, Bo is chatting to Sam, who is preparing food while Ingrid takes a naked swim in the pool. When dinner is served, Bo goes to find Ingrid, which is when we get the film's most memorable scene - unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Ingrid is showering naked when Bo surprises her by shaking the leaves of a bush. And talking of bush, Bo makes sure he gets a good look at his sister's by whipping off her towel. As if that wasn't creepy enough, he makes sleazy remarks such as 'You sure don't look like anybody's kid sister any more, do you?' and 'You know, it's a pity you're my sister'. Yes, our hero has an incestuous yearning for his sibling (admittedly, she's got a rocking body, but even so...).

Instead of dropping the dodgy incest angle, the film pursues it further after Ingrid is murdered by bad guys (no, Bo doesn't turn to necrophilia, but what follows is still quite perverted). While drowning his sorrows at a bar, Bo meets a woman named Olga (Diana Goodman) who bears a passing resemblance to his dead sister. When Sam meets the woman, he hatches a plot to steal the White Fire that involves Olga getting plastic surgery to make her look even more like Ingrid. Olga agrees to the operation - she is being hunted by a ruthless criminal called Noah (Fred Williamson), so this is the perfect answer to her problem - and emerges as Ingrid's doppelganger (played by Mayne again), after which she and Bo develop a romantic relationship. Looks like Bo will get to boff his 'sister' after all!

The film's finalé sees everyone converging at the diamond mine for a chaotic gun battle featuring plenty of bloody squibs, explosions, and some injurious stunts (one guy catching fire during an explosion didn't look planned to me). To ensure that his audience is left totally non-plussed, director Jean-Marie Pallardy has the White Fire spontaneously explode, meaning that no-one gets the prize. Well, no-one except for Bo, who walks into the sunset with Olga/Ingrid, no doubt planning to satisfy his incestuous urges.

While White Fire is unlikely to appeal to the average movie fan, those who enjoy trash cinema should find the film's clumsy storytelling and more exploitative elements quite entertaining. Oh, and anyone with a moustache fetish will be in heaven: both Ginty and Williamson sport impressive 'taches, as do most of the male extras. 5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for Ginty's lilac scarf - quite a bold choice for an '80s action hero.