Ashanti1979

I am now 74 + & counting. I saw this movie when it first came out. It is still as good if not much better [ really excellent }I give it 5 stars. It will stay in your mind forever. You may not remember the title but you will remember it as soon as you see it in a list of films or somebody says the title. it is in my opinion one of the actors finest roles. I myself think it was the best. I base films on weather the film remains in my memories throughout all my years as fresh as if I saw it only yesterday. If you follow any of my other ratings lease remember how I rate things It saves me writing all of this again. If you forget all or most of the scenes in a film they were just so so and not worth buying or recommending. Enjoy, I did!

Interesting as a throwback to the sort of international production that had its heyday in the '60s when guys like Holden and Harrison would wing in and shoot a couple scenes for a stack of cash. Omar Sharif commits wholly to his suave/creepy, evil, oil-rich Arab princeling, as do most of the cast to their parts. Peter Ustinov's career is filled with... uhhh, how to put it... 'ethnically challenged' roles like this one and he's giving his all doing what character actors used to do all the time. One of my favorite "oh, it's that guy" performers Marne Maitland appears in the same vein as well. Poor Michael Caine seems to be having a miserable time - hardly surprising when Kabir Bedi comes in to swashbuckle away with the whole thing halfway through.

I was surprised to see Akosua Busia (had to verify it was her in the credits) in what must have been a very early role indeed. She would make an impression in "The Color Purple" some years later but she was in loads of TV shows and stuff in between.

I wonder whether the film began as a serious exposé on modern day slave trading and ended up more of an adventure tale or vice versa? Certainly things got a bit scrambled somewhere along the way. The bizarre duel between Beverly Johnson's enslaved American-educated doctor and the witch doctor kid was certainly something I did not expect to see in this. Adds a moderately diverting chapter to the back end of the thing, if nothing else. Perhaps I gave this an extra star for this sequence alone - not sure.

Unlike the other reviewer I have a different take.

Really bad acting. pathetically amateurish script, ridiculous casting. The only part worth watching is in the very beginning where Beverly Johnson is swimming naked.