For this effort from director J. Anthony Loma we have a couple of down on their luck American actors teaming up with a slumming Max Von Sydow and a soon to be returning Bond girl. Leading the way is Mexican leading man George (Jorge) Rivero as a jack of all trades mercenary who is enlisted through blackmail by Von Sydow to take down a notorious heroin dealer played by aging George Peppard. Joining him is the sexy Maud Adams who was one year away from teaming with Roger Moore for the title role of Octopussy. For the record that is my favorite of the Moore Bonds.
With plenty of bad dubbing and lame action sequences including a down right inept ski sequence this is one of those titles that turned up at the local video store in the new release section that you just know never played on your home town movie screens. Our other American actor in the mix is the Rifleman himself, Chuck Connors. Here he plays an American diplomat who is involved in trying to bring about the demise of Mr. Peppard. There is plenty to see for the ladies if Rivero is your dream guy as he is constantly flexing muscles and parading around at times in just his briefs. The script doesn’t exactly help him out as he tries to capture the heart of Maud with some moronic dialogue. Once again we’ll blame it on the dubbing. For western fans Rivero once appeared with the Duke in Rio Lobo. Other than that it’s been primarily foreign language films.
As for our cigarette smoking villain Peppard, he was about to make his comeback within the year on television’s The A-Team. Connors was pretty much at the end of his run and our police chief Von Sydow has never really been out of work. Max has primarily remained an A list character actor throughout his career with many memorable films along the way. It’s just that this isn’t one of them. If you happen to catch this one like me you’ll be wondering if someone either lost the shooting script or did the backers run out of money. For fans of dusty VHS tapes hiding rare titles that feature slumming actors only.
Mike's Take On the Movies 
You know, I have a hunch I did see this as a video rental back in the 80s. Still, I can’t be sure – I saw so many bad films that way that eventually they all kind of blend together in the memory.
There were so many coming out every week when the VHS craze kicked in it was hard to keep up.
Never heard of this, but would sit nicely on my shelf next to Highpoint!
That’s one I don’t have but with Harris and Plummer it could easily find a place on mine!
I somehow missed this post the other day, but thanks for the shoutout to my George appreciation. With this cast I would’ve grabbed this movie eagerly too, too bad it doesn’t live up to the promise of the cover.
I know u like Peppard so it was a good fit.