I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

RELEASED IN 1970 and directed by Lewis Gilbert, "The Adventurers" chronicles the life of Dax Xenos (Bekim Fehmiu) who, as a little boy in 1945, witnesses the violent deaths of his mother & sister during a revolution in the fictional South American country Corteguay. Much later, as an ambassador's son in Rome, he's an emotionally cold playboy who marries solely for wealth (Candice Bergen), but he's haunted by Corteguay and maintains relations with the dubious dictator (Alan Badel). Ernest Borgnine plays Dax' spiritual guardian, Fat Cat.The movie's based on Harold Robbins' book of the same title, which was loosely based on the real-life Porfirio Rubirosa, an oft-married wealthy playboy, diplomat and polo player who had a relationship with the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo."The Adventurers" is a curious amalgamation of Hollywood soap opera (e.g. 1967's "Valley of the Dolls") and Italo-Western-like slaughter with a Euro-robot as the leading man. The movie vacillates between starving children in South America, disco-a-go-go fashion shows in Rome or New York, machine-gun massacres, hedonistic sex romps and the disingenuous courting of rich women. It's basically a wannabe "Doctor Zhivago" (1965), but lacking that iconic picture's surreal and compelling artistry.The spectacularly engineered battle sequences were created by the James Bond stunt-genius Bob Simmons, featuring hundreds of real men (played by actual Columbian militants), real tanks, real trains and real planes, all getting blown to pieces before your very eyes with absolutely no CGI.The above reveals many points of interest, but I was well into the second half of the almost-3-hour flick when I realized that none of the characters interested me, particularly the protagonist. I'm not sure if the problem was the script, the story or the actor (Fehmiu), but the drama came across consistently flat. Another problem is the women. While there are several notables besides Bergen (Olivia de Havilland, Leigh Taylor-Young, Delia Boccardo, Jaclyn Smith, etc.) the camera either never captures their beauty or they're too anorexic to fascinate in the first place. On the positive side, the action-packed conclusion is gripping and the message is timeless: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.THE FILM RUNS 2 hours, 57 minutes and was shot in Colombia (Cartagena & Bogota), Puerto Rico, Italy (Rome & Venice) and New York City.GRADE: C

Porfirio Rubirosa was a man of many parts, part time diplomat, part time polo player, part time race car driver, and most definitely full time lover. He's the man on which lead Bekim Fehmiu's part is based. In that lies the tale of The Adventurers.Harold Robbins up to this point had done reasonably well on the screen with successful adaptions of novels like The Carpetbaggers, Where Love Has Gone, King Creole, etc. But Paramount spent a fortune on this film with a few name players in supporting roles, but came up real short with Yugoslavian actor Bekim Fehmiu in the lead. Sometimes casting an unknown works, the best examples being Peter O'Toole in Lawrence Of Arabia and Errol Flynn in Captain Blood. But here the distinctly uncharismatic Fehmiu just had no chemistry with any of the women he was to wed and/or bed. When you're basing the lead character on a notorious lover of the flesh, that's kind of essential.Rubirosa in real life had an on again off again relationship with Rafael Trujillo dictator of his native Dominican Republic. Alan Badel plays the Trujillo figure who did not come to as glorious an end as he does here. Badel was certainly as treacherous as Trujillo in real life.Rubirosa was married 5 times in real life and one of those wives was Barbara Hutton who got around herself pretty good as another of her husbands was Cary Grant. Here her role is played by Candice Bergen who likes a good time, but also wants a family.The girl from Fehmiu's mythical country of Corteguay is Leigh Taylor-Young. Anna Moffo stands in for fellow opera singer Maria Callas. You'll recognize a few other players on the international scene.The climax is the revolution against the duplicitous Badel and the battle scenes are staged well, a lot of the film's budget certainly went there.As for Bekim Fehmiu international stardom was not to be, but it looks like he had a respectable career in his native Yugoslavia.If you like to stargaze and note some of the names that are present in the cast or if you are devoted to the novels of Harold Robbins then I would recommend The Adventurers. Otherwise it's pretty mediocre.

I took my wife to see this one at the drive-in when it came out. I was only making $85 a week at the time, so three bucks to see a movie meant a lot. We left the theater about half way through this mess. Even the World News clips that they showed at intermission were better. My wife really loved the Robbins' novel, but had to admit that Wally Cox would have made a better Dax than the yahoo they had playing the part. The only reason we stayed half way through was because I wanted to see John Ireland...I reached for popcorn and missed his appearance in the film. This one is over-long, badly acted and bloody, extremely bloody considering when it came out. I was REALLY mad because I passed up "Vanishing Point"(1970) to see this klunker.

If I were to subscribe to the notion of 'guilty pleasures', then this film would fall into the category. As a teenager, I enjoyed reading Harold Robbins well written trash novels. After seeing "The Carpetbaggers" and several other adaptations, I'd have to say "The Adventurers" is the closest in spirit to Robbins original. This is in part because it was made in the 'Post-Code' era (after 1968) and is very explicit regarding the sex and violence. The trailer was narrated by Rod Serling and the tag line was 'Nothing has been left out of The Adventurers' which was true.Although they updated the story by a decade (so they could include sixties' pop imagery), it follows the novel closely. Many criticize BenKim's performance but his deadpan libertine is similar to Mastroianni's in "La Dolce Vita" and appropriate for the story. The rest of the cast is fun with Borgnine hamming it up and Candace Bergen sexy. Thommy Bergen was the star of "Elvira Madigan" a few years earlier and Rosanno Brazi the lead in "South Pacific". The production value is excellent and the action scenes well done with Lewis Gilbert's famous flying bodies that he utilized in "You Only Live Twice". Anne Coates was the editor and she repeated her sound overlaps she introduced in "Lawrence of Arabia". The cinematography and music were also top notch. The original prints were in Technicolor and Panavision. Some four track magnetic stereo copies were made along with a 70mm blow up print in Eastmancolor.The original cut ran twenty minutes longer. The cut sequences can be assertained by reading "The Making of the Adventurers" paperback book. The film was released with an R rating and re-issued in a PG version with the nudity cut but violence intact. The video version is the standard 170 minute version but not the Preview cut. The premiere was quite unusual. They showed it on a new supersonic jet to the cast and press as it circles Los Angeles! A 16mm promo film was made of the event and is floating around collector circles. The astonished look on Ernest Borgnine's face and he enters the plane for the 'premiere' is amusing.The film was not a bomb as is usually stated and grossed ten million which was quite good for 1970. Unfortunately, it cost the same amount although I'm sure Paramount is in the black with the network showings and videocasette release.This type of film is an acquired taste but it's one of the best of this genre. I think it's a hoot full of unintentional laughs and great action and imaginative sex scenes.Richard W. Haines