Golden Rendezvous (1977)
Directed by Ashley Lazarus, Freddie Francis

Film Review

One of the less successful adaptations of an Alistair MacLean novel, Golden Rendezvous is high on gory spectacle but fails to deliver anything more substantial than a bland comicbook-style heist thriller.  A prestigious cast is largely squandered in a far too mechanical reworking of MacLean's novel, which leaves no place for character development and is content merely to rehash every cliché of the action-thriller genre under the sun.  Whilst the film is competently directed, making effective use of its confined setting, the script is abysmal and you have to pity the poor actors as they struggle hopelessly to make their homespun dialogue ring true.  Richard Harris is unconvincing (or just uninterested) as the unlikely action hero with an unfetching Jimmy Savile hairstyle, Ann Turkel looks constantly surprised (no doubt on account of the dialogue she is forced to utter) and John Vernon looks suspiciously as if he is auditioning for the part of the lead villain in a Christmas pantomime.   If you are not bothered by little things such as character depth or plot credibility, Golden Rendezvous just about passes muster as entertainment, otherwise give it a very wide berth.

Film Synopsis

Chief Officer Johnny Carter senses something is wrong as soon as his luxury cruise ship sets sail for the Caribbean, with a passenger list made up exclusively of millionaires.  Certainly, the sight of coffins being loaded aboard the ship is a bad omen and Carter's fears are confirmed when members of his crew start to go missing.  Violence suddenly flares up when machine-gun wielding mercenaries appear from nowhere and take control of the ship, killing anyone who gets in their way.  Carter is horrified to find that one of the coffins contains a bomb powerful enough to destroy an entire ship.  The mercenaries' leader, Carreras, assures the surviving passengers that no harm will come to them.  They will be moved onto another ship as part of his well-laid plan to steal a fortune in gold bullion.  Carter knows that Carreras intends murdering everyone on board but the odds of defeating him are ludicrously low - just the odds he enjoys most...