User reviews

The basic problem with this film was it was simply boring. It did not leave you at all interested in the characters, and there development or to care what was going to happen to them.

The second problem was the superfluous nature of the character played by Honor Blackman, apart from falling over a lot, she did not seem to do anything.

The third problem was the lack of chemistry between the leads.

The fourth problem was the total predictability of the way it ended, there was nothing really to get excited about. The film was not that great, I would not choose to recommend this title to you, reader.

During the War, Richard Johnson was the captain of a submarine. His mission was to track an experimental German super-U-Boat to its secret station on the impenetrable Skeleton Coast off Southwest Africa. He was supposed to destroy the boat; there were to be no survivors. This would convince the Germans to abandon the project.

Nowadays, Johnson is a smuggler in the Mediterranean. He lost his last cargo. He's desperate to get back up when Jeremy Kemp comes to him with an unlikely story. A man ha smuggled raw diamonds out of the mines and hidden them on a ship stranded centuries ago on the Skeleton Coast. His widow, Honor Blackman, knows where the ship is. Peter Vaughn knows where in the ship the diamonds can be found. Johnson can get his ship to the shore. And Kemp wants his cut. Or maybe he wants more than his cut. Maybe they all do.

It's a long, slow slog to the diamonds, with extended flashbacks to the war mission. On the other hand, the shots of the old ships stranded in the middle of the shore are quite striking. The result is a bit longwinded.

Whilst Peter Vaughan does add something as a german who doesnt speak much, its clear from the outset that Jeremy Kemp shouldnt be trusted but oddly enough is, by his former Captain Richard Johnson. Ms Blackman knows where the diamonds are and what could have been a half decent film descends into a very quick and quite pathetic ending hence DONT Bother. We also had the benefit on freeview of LIP movements NOT matching the words coming out. Periodically, most of the time, this is the best freeview have to offer-hardly "great films"!

T his an absurd film. A labyrinthine plot which is very confusing due to the inter cutting of the World War 2 story. The model work is just about the worst I have ever seen. This film deserves to be buried in a deep hole and forgotten.

I started viewing this about half way through ! I was also reading a book whilst easily keeping up with the narrative. Only 7 reviews plus me making 8 !!! WOW that about sums up this dull waste of time ! That said Peter Vaughan was interesting to watch , his facial expressions and body language told me more than any of the good cast , wasted on this bloomer ! Not recommended by me........

This film is like a moral sermon of vanity, but at the same time it's a thrilling adventure constantly getting screwed up. Perhaps the most interesting performance is by Peter Vaughan as the mentally unstable Johann who doesn't speak at all but only mumbles some German occasionally, and his acting is well worth observing carefully, as he is the key to the developing tragedy. Richard Johnson is reliable as usual, he repeats his feat as leader of a miscellanous party risking their lives, like in "The Haunting" five years earlier, but here they are facing all the atrocities of nature in the burning waste of the Kalahari with sand storms and other unexpected terrors of the sands, which brings out the worst in them. The most interesting and thrilling sequence though is the perilous cruise through the shallows of the Skeleton Coast. Honor Blackman is as tough a girl as ever, Roy Dotrice is the most sympathetic of the party and comes to unfairly suffer the most, while Jeremy Kemp is enigmatical and unpredictable as usual. All these five male actors appear to still be living today although they were all above 40 at the time of the film. It's not a bad story, it gives you plenty of reason for afterthought, it's a curiosity of an adventure film with an impressing struggle with destiny, which as always wins in the end over the weakness of human vanity, but.at least there are some survivors.