Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent, a Must See

Blistering performances.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Since it is virtually impossible to determine what parts of "The Uranium Conspiracy" were directed by either of its two co-directors (Gianfranco Baldanello of "Colt in the Hand of the Devil" and Menahem Golan of "The Delta Force"), it is difficult to praise the appropriate person for the parts of this Israeli-German-Italian movie that succeed. The first two-thirds of this scenic, picture-postcard lensed, travelogue thriller qualify as straightforward espionage boilerplate. Unless you watch the widescreen version of this movie, you cannot properly appreciate cinematographer Adam Greenberg's impressive pictorial compositions. The final third bristles with machine gun violence as the heroes make sure that 'crime doesn't pay' for the villains. Five scenarists collaborated on the screenplay, unless each had a hand in rewriting it. Again, it is hard to tell who is liable for the good, the bad, and the ugly in this lightweight crime thriller about a terrorist attempt to ship uranium to evil foreign powers. Basically, this European actioneer pits the Mossad, a.k.a. Israel Intelligence, against villains who display little regard for human life. Renzo (Fabio Testi of "Gang War in Naples") is a hired troubleshooter, and Israel Intelligence has infiltrated him into a uranium mine in Zaire that resembles a prison. Renzo is out to learn as much as he can about the Baron's (Siegfried Rauch of "The Eagle Has Landed") efforts to export the key ingredient for atomic bombs. The Mossad agent who serves as Renzo's go-between, Dan (Assaf Dayan of "The Day the Fish Came Out"), has more faith in him than his superiors. Renzo is good with his hands in a tight spot, and he is suave enough to seduce ladies. Eventually, Renzo goes to bed with Helga (Janet Agren of "Seven Dangerous Girls") who works as a secretary for the Baron at a Salzburg, Austria, chemical processing plant where she answers phones, performs simple typing duties, and is pretty much left alone to do her job. She falls for Renzo and furnishes him with enough incriminating information to raise the Baron's hackles. The Baron and his plug-ugly henchmen take Helga in for questioning. They want her to identify Renzo. Renzo and she cross paths and Renzo manages to rescue Helga from the Baron. A lively little boat chase through the canals of Amsterdam, comparable to a similar chase in "Puppet on a Chain," ensues. Renzo is captured, but Helga suffers a far worse fate. Helga's departure about half-way through "The Uranium Conspiracy" endows this thriller with more depth than it would have been otherwise. She is like the sacrificial lamb in the James Bond movies. One of the two girls that 007 stands between usually dies at the hands of the villains. Furthermore, Renzo doesn't get the girl at fadeout, and he remembers her after she has passed. A surprise like this is as radical as this movie gets, and it imparts greater dramatic weight to the film. Our heroes team up after the Baron has taken Renzo hostage aboard the freighter carrying enough uranium to make 25 plutonium bombs. Israel Intelligence attaches electric mines to the hull of the ship. Everything is set to go boom when Dan refuses to let Renzo die in the process. Mind you, Dan's superiors lack Dan's faith in Renzo. Dan sneaks aboard the ship, rescues Renzo, and a firefight breaks out for control of the ship. Unfortunately, the villains overwhelm our protagonists, but Israel Intelligence is on the ball. After almost detonating the explosives on the ship's hull, the Israel send in a team to wrest control of the ship from the Baron. This part of "The Uranium Conspiracy" moves much faster with the shootout. The Mossad masquerade as Spanish Customs to board the ship. This final firefight delivers griping action. Again, the fuse in this explosive thriller burns slowly in the first two-thirds of "The Uranium Conspiracy" until it ignites the fireworks in the final third.

Altogether not a bad action thriller if you don't mind wading through all the filler spots including boat, car and foot chases, underwater mining sequences and a meaningless ship search for a supposed murderer. Thirty some plus years ago this would have played like a fantasy with it's plot involving a clandestine business group buying up two hundred tons of yellow cake uranium. Today, who knows? Fabio Testi and Assaf Dayan portray a couple of hunky secret agents on the trail of the deadly cache, taking them to various scenic locales in Europe, among them Amsterdam and Milan. Janet Agren shows up for the first half of the film as a love interest for Testi's Renzo, and if there's a twist moment in the picture it's what happens to her character about midway through. Although we're set up for a grand show with all those explosives planted on the Scheersburg, it comes to naught when the good guys make the save at the last moment. My question is, if the boss handing out assignments to Renzo and Dan (Dayan) wasn't too concerned about blowing up the ship with just Renzo on board, why did it matter if Dan went looking for him - the stakes were the same. Oh, and there's a character named Ulrich in the cast whose real name makes me wonder why he didn't change it for professional reasons. Seriously, you have to look it up.

This is another movie that was just put up on YouTube that I decided to watch. This film, whose English title is The Uranium Conspiracy, is the first time I've watched a Yoram Globus-Menahem Golan production directed by Golan in its entirety. As a spy thriller involving nuclear weapons, this was quite an exciting flick especially during the boat and car chase scenes. Filmed in many European locations and some sea locales, there were many intrigues that got me hooked throughout the picture. Fabio Testi is the Italian agent Renzo who does assignments for Israeli Dan (Assi or Assaf Dayan) for a price. Despite that, they're actually friends. Helga (Janet Agren) is the Swedish woman who works for a German company that makes nuclear weapons. She falls for Renzo. That's all I'll say except this is one exciting movie that I'm glad I watched on YouTube!

Hi, Everyone, Fabio Testi as Renzo is a handsome secret agent, more or less. His buddy, Dan, played by Assi Dayan is maybe cuter and cleverer. Helga is the girl who Fabio woos with a stolen salt shaker. She is played by Janet Agren who shows us her upper body endowment in some scenes.Good scenes of the streets and canals of Venice or some other city with streets and canals. The boat chase is much like what we saw in Gator and Swamp Girl. The car chase scenes are done nicely but nowhere nearly as good as Bullitt or The French Connection. The foot chase scenes on rooftops and city streets are well done. The music throughout sucks.Assi Dayan is the son of the famous Israeli General Moshe Dayan. Both Assi Dayan and Fabio Testi are still active in film-making. They both have likable personalities and nice faces with interesting accents. Think of Daffy and Donald Duck with better eyelashes.The story is far more applicable to today's world than it was to the 1970s world of moviegoers. It has a plot that incorporates terrorists seeking nuclear weapons.The bad guys look very bad. If you have ever found yourself annoyed with an organ grinder's music, there is one scene in this film you will enjoy.An old cargo ship becomes a nice setting for target practice late in the movie. The bullets hit everything except the good guys.With the two lead guys being so good looking at that time, the director was somehow not able to insert a scene that had any real sex appeal. Even when Fabio is in bed with a girl it does not become intimate or interesting. The director should have stuck to the acting and plot development and left the nudity and sex scenes for better directors. Blake Edwards could have found much better music. J. Daniel Cadinot could have done the buildup to the nude scenes.Not a bad movie, especially in today's world.Tom Willett