''Cuibul salamandrelor'', also known as ''Oil!'' and ''Oil - The Billion Dollar Fire'', is a 1977 Romanian-Italian action film directed by

Mircea Drăgan Mircea Drăgan (3 October 1932 – 31 October 2017) was a Romanian film director. He directed 23 films between 1955 and 1992. His 1961 film ''Thirst'' was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Silver Prize ...

Plot

An International

petroleum company The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...

called Consolidated Oil covertly sets fire to an

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...

in the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

because the government of the North African nation won't comply with their demands. Due to the extent of the damage, oil prices rise sharply. The company's president Mr. Stewart (

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...

) assigns John Carter (

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

) to deflect suspicion. However, when Carter arrives on location, a company representative hinders his efforts and implies to him that the fire was started on purpose. Consolidated Oil hires a Romanian

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

crew with little experience in oil well fires, but the Romanian specialists team up with Carter and find proof of

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

. Eventually they succeed in putting out the seven fires. Consolidated Oil tries to sabotage the

but their efforts fail. The international

news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and th ...

exposes the conspiracy and Stewart is unmasked as one of the driving forces behind the scheme. He learns that he is to be a scapegoat and is then murdered. His secretary is not only unsurprised when she is informed of his death, but she has already written his

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

. Meanwhile, the Romanian firefighters are publicly celebrated in the unnamed Arab country.

Cast

as John Carter *

Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. Aft ...

as Ben *

as The Boss (Mr Stewart) *

Gheorghe Dinică Gheorghe Dinică (; 1 January 1934 – 10 November 2009) was a Romanian actor. Career Dinică showed an early interest in acting, being part of different amateur theater troupes since he was 17. In 1957, he entered The National Institute of Thea ...

as George Oprișan aka "Salamander" * William Berger as Peter Mann * Tony Kendall as Ahmed (or ''Tony'' in the German version) *

Radu Beligan Radu Beligan (; 14 December 1918 – 20 July 2016) was a Romanian actor, director, and essayist, with an activity of over 70 years in theatre, film, television, and radio. On 15 December 2013, confirmed by Guinness World Records, the actor receiv ...

as Professor Luca *

Gordon Mitchell Gordon Mitchell (born Charles Allen Pendleton; July 29, 1923 – September 20, 2003) was an American actor and bodybuilder who made about 200 B movies. Biography Charles Allen Pendleton was born in Denver, Colorado, and began working out in hi ...

as Joe *

Florin Piersic Florin Piersic (; born 27 January 1936) is a well-known Romanian actor and TV personality. He is particularly famous for his leading roles in ''The White Moor'' and the ''Margelatu'' series films. He has a reputation, often parodied in popular ...

as Dan *

Jean Constantin Jean Constantin (; born Constantin Cornel Jean; 21 August 1927 – 26 May 2010) was a well-known Romanian comedian of Greek ethnicity. Constantin was born in Techirghiol, and died in Constanța. Filmography *' (2010) .... Agârbiceanu *''Vin ...

as Jean *

Paola Senatore Paola Senatore (born 9 November 1949) is an Italian retired film actress. Biography Born in Rome, Paola Senatore worked in Italian genre films during the 1970s, including poliziotteschi, commedia sexy all'italiana and giallo films. These include ...

as Diana Astor *

Valentin Plătăreanu Valentin Plătăreanu (; 15 November 1936 – 16 April 2019) was a Romanian actor, Theatre director, director and drama teacher. Biography From 1958 to 1980, he played more than 30 parts at the Theatre of Youth (Teatrul Tineretului) in Piatra Nea ...

as Ionescu *

Mircea Diaconu Mircea Diaconu (; born 24 December 1949) is a Romanian actor, writer, and politician. First appearing on stage in 1970, and on screen two years later, Diaconu pursued a lengthy career in both formats, working with a series of prominent directors ...

as Grigore

DVD release

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

version has been released as ''Fireforce (Brennendes Inferno)'' by a company called Elfra. It includes an English and a German-language version as well as filmographies.

References

External links

* * 1977 films 1977 drama films English-language Italian films English-language Romanian films 1970s English-language films 1970s Romanian-language films Films directed by Mircea Drăgan Films set in the Middle East Films about firefighting Works about petroleum Italian drama films Romanian drama films 1977 multilingual films Italian multilingual films Romanian multilingual films 1970s Italian films {{1970s-Italy-film-stub