What a beautiful movie!

Pretty Good

Brilliant and touching

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

An interesting adventure film from the early ' 70s based on a Jules Verne story. Off the bleak location of Cape Horn around 1865,three light-house keepers: jaded ex-miner Will Denton (Kirk Douglas), Captain Moriz (Fernando Rey) and young Felipe (Massimo Ranieri) are confronted by wreckers led by pirate captain, Jonathan Kongre (Yul Brynner). After his companions are brutally murdered, Denton ekes out a passive existence in a cave till he resolves to fight back assisted by Montefiore (Renato Salvatore) a survivor from one of the ships lured to the rocks by the pirates. The desperate situation is complicated by another survivor, a young English woman, Arabella, who is used by Kongre to imitate Denton's former love, Emily Jane. Douglas and Brynner act with flair, Douglas gives another heroic Nietzschean performance vis a vis 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1954) and Ulisse (1955). In appearance he looks like a Nineteenth-Century hippie adventurer - bearded and with straight light brown hair. Brynner is a flamboyant counter-point. Despite some squeamish scenes and some illogical phases the extraordinary Spanish settings - the white-topped rising arches and surreal, psychedelic colours give this film a metaphysical feel.

A lighthouse circa Cape Horn is cared by a keepers(Fernando Rey , Massimo Ranieri, Kirk Douglas). A gang of pirates attacks the lighthouse .The pirates(Aldo Sambrell,Jean Claude Drout, Tito Garcia, among others) are fiercely commanded by Kongre(Yul Brynner). Handsome hero named Will Denton(Kirk Douglas) with only company a little monkey ,suffering misfortunes for the conditions in which unlucky is forced to exist. Denton soon realizes that the island in the base of pirates who lure ships to their doom on the rocky coast and arrange shipwrecks(appear castaways as Samantha Eggar and Renato Salvatori) for profit . Denton discovers the truth and confronts Kongre in a fight to death.This is an enjoyable adventures tale with tension, suspense, thrills and good action scenes. Some fierce hand-to hand combats and pursuits scenes will have you on the edge of your armchair. However the ending is some ridiculous, unconvincing and overblown. Spectacular landscapes shot in Spain : Cadaques and Manga Mar Menor, great location-footage of both locations, the Spaniard coast is the best thing about movie. Duo starring is frankly extraordinary. Kirk Douglas gives vigorous physical performance, he's magnificent as individualist, stubborn hero, such as ¨Spartacus, Vikings,Ulysses and 20000 leagues under the sea(also by Jules Verne)¨. Impressive Yul Brynner, as usual, playing exotic roles, such as ¨Taras Bulba, Salomon, The buccaneer and King and I ¨. The film displays a colorful cinematography by Henri Decae and Cecilio Paniagua , furthermore evocative musical score by Piero Piccioni. The picture is regularly directed by Kevin Billington. This is a highly agreeable movie and suits marvelously . I can recommend this work to everybody who enjoy good adventures and spectacular maritime outdoors, however no for small kids by violent and realistic scenes.

it is a quite slow pace face-to-face Brynner/Douglas...i found there was some pretty heavy violence/gore but you know, seventies giallo style : (maybe some spoiler ahead) a little bit phony and fake but the image is there : the monkey torn apart, the flesh torn from the mechanic, etc...i don't remember if it is alike the novel...but overall i think it is a OK action flick, hero flick : he stands all alone at the end, all the bad guys are out..........and nice images too : a small rocky island, the sun over the seabut not a typical Verne's story-on-cinema : subs, sci-fi; but the adventure seen in a lot of Verne's novels tough

I'd never heard of this Jules Verne story before watching this movie - and after watching this movie, I think I know why. I don't know how closely this movie follows the story, but since there is hardly any action - or dialogue - I'd guess the story is a dull romp as well.Poor special effects, lack of continuity, subplots barely treaded on then abandoned, the worst mannequins-for-bodies you can think of, characters that act stupid (especially Eggar's character) make a movie that you can miss. I have no idea why Douglas was attracted to this movie - maybe he thought lightning could strike twice after the success of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. He even produced this movie - maybe that explains things, including why there are so many close-up shots of his face, and that he seems to be doing all his own stuntwork.