''Golden Rendezvous'' is a 1977

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Ashley Lazarus and starring

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in ''This Sporting ...

, Ann Turkel and

David Janssen David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer) (March 27, 1931February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series '' The Fugitive'' (1963–1967). Janssen also ...

. It was based on the 1962 novel '' The Golden Rendezvous'' by

Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean ( gd, Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a 20th-century Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, most notably '' The G ...

Plot

The ''Caribbean Star'', a combination cargo ship and floating casino is hijacked by terrorists led by Luis Carreras (

John Vernon John Keith Vernon (born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz; February 24, 1932 February 1, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada. He was best known for playing Dean Wormer ...

), who installs an atomic bomb, holding both the passengers and the bomb hostage, hoping to exchange them for the gold bullion on a U.S. Treasury ship. However, First Officer John Carter (

), Susan Beresford ( Ann Turkel), and Dr. Marston ( Gordon Jackson) join forces to foil the plan.

Cast

– John Carter * Ann Turkel – Susan Beresford *

– Charles Conway *

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

– Van Heurden * Gordon Jackson – Dr. Marston *

– Luis Carreras *

Dorothy Malone Dorothy Malone (born Mary Dorothy Maloney; January 29, 1924 – January 19, 2018) was an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years, she played small roles, mainly in B-movies, with the exception of a supporting role ...

– Mrs. Skinner *

Leigh Lawson Allan Leigh Lawson (born 21 July 1945) is an English actor, director and writer. Life and career Lawson was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire. He initially studied at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts before training further at the Royal Aca ...

– Tony Cerdan *

John Carradine John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later Jo ...

– Fairweather *

Robert Flemyng Benjamin Arthur Flemyng (3 January 1912 – 22 May 1995), known professionally as Robert Flemyng, was a British actor. The son of a doctor, and originally intended for a medical career, Flemyng learned his stagecraft in provincial repertory th ...

– Capt. Bullen * Keith Baxter – Preston *

Robert Beatty Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK. Early years Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, O ...

– Dr. Taubman *

Chris Chittell Christopher John Chittell (born 19 May 1948) is an English actor, known for his role as Eric Pollard in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. He has portrayed the role since 1986, making him the longest-serving cast member in the soap's history. ...

– Rogers *

Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

– Benson *

Ian Yule Ian Yule (1933 — 3 December 2020) was a British born South African actor and soldier. He had a film career that commenced in the late 1960s and lasted to around the early to mid 2000s. Many of the roles he has played are that of a soldier. T ...

– McCloskey *

Larry Taylor Samuel Lawrence Taylor (June 26, 1942 – August 19, 2019) was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of Canned Heat from 1967. Before joining Canned Heat he had been a session bassist for The Monkees and Jerry Lee Le ...

– Attacker

Development

The novel was originally published in 1962. Film rights were bought almost immediately;

Laurence Harvey Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in th ...

announced he would star and produce along with

Daniel Angel Daniel Morris Angel (14 May 1911 – 13 December 1999) was a leading British film producer who was responsible for several notable British films during the 1950s, such as ''Another Man's Poison'' (1952), ''The Sea Shall Not Have Them'' (1954), ''R ...

. "I think it's easily as exciting as '' Guns of Navarone''", said Harvey. However the film was not made until 1977. It starred Richard Harris and Ann Turkel, who were then married, and who had just appeared in ''

The Cassandra Crossing ''The Cassandra Crossing'' is a 1976 disaster thriller film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson about a disease-infected Swedish ...

'' together. Harris praised Turkel for encouraging him to cut down on his drinking. "Now my creativity is flowing again", he said. "Now in the middle of the night I must suddenly get up and write. I'm not going to end up like ylanThomas, lonely and misunderstood."

Differences from Novel

The basic film plot follows that of the book for almost the entire story with only a few differences; for example, in the book Captain Bullen is wounded by gunfire during the taking of the 'Campari'(Caribbean Star) whilst in the film, Bullen is shot dead. As the book character spent the remainder of the story incapacitated, the plot continued in much the same way without him. Similarly Dr. Taubman's character possessed a wife who was absent from the novel, as were David Janssen's character of Charles Conway, and Burgess Meredith's character Van Heurden. However a different ending was scripted for the film in order to increase plot tension and create something far more dramatic and spectacular. The final fifteen minutes of the screenplay led to a conclusion that bore little resemblance to the book plot. Perhaps because of this deviation from the original story, and any resulting disagreements following its release, the film was later renamed 'Nuclear Terror.'

Production

The film was shot in South Africa. The film was started by

Freddie Francis Frederick William Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer. He started his career with British films such as Jack Cardiff's ''Sons and L ...

but completed by Ashley Lazarus. The film went $1.5 million over budget. This was blamed on Richard Harris who, it was alleged, held up production with his drinking and rewriting of the script. Producer

Euan Lloyd Euan Lloyd (6 December 1923 – 2 July 2016) was a British film producer. Biography He began his career directing short travelogue documentaries, starting with '' April in Portugal'' in 1954 (not released until 1956). He worked in publicity ...

later discovered this was not entirely true – however, it made it difficult for Lloyd to cast Harris in his next film, ''

The Wild Geese ''The Wild Geese'' is a 1978 war film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambit ...

''. Harris admitted rewriting the script but says he was invited to do so. "I worked 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping to get them out of a hole. And at the end I got slammed for it. Worse – found myself uninsurable. Even after the film opened in Europe, I still didn't give up. I said 'Let me take 10 minutes out and put back some stuff and I promise you it'll work.' But they weren't interested. And so we're left with another Harris flop."

Release

After the European release, a six-minute prologue was shot to make the plot more explicable. The movie performed poorly at the box office. The ''Guardian'' called the film "nothing but dross".

Scandal

The film was tied up in a South African political scandal after a Supreme Court judge made public evidence of corruption and the misappropriation of millions of pound of public funds. Mr Justice Anton, Mostert was undertaking a one-man Commission of Inquiry into exchange control conventions, when he announced he had uncovered corruption, mostly the using of US$13.8 million (£8.6 million) in government funds to set up ''The Citizen'', an English-language newspaper that would support the government. The scandal led to the resignation of Prime Minister

John Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; also known as John Vorster; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983) was a South African apartheid politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state presid ...

. In addition, $5 million was transferred from a Swiss bank to a South African company called Thor Communicators, some of which was used as security for loans to make ''Golden Rendezvous''. Prime Minister Pieter Botha set up an official inquiry to investigate the allegations. Producer Andre Pieterse admitted that 825,000 rand (£475,000) was transferred to him to create a film industry for blacks in South Africa. This would involve the production of ideological films, the distribution of films from abroad acceptable to South African blacks, and the construction chain of cinemas for blacks. However, due to difficulties with other government departments, the project was never realised and the money instead wound up in ''Golden Rendezvous''. Money for the film had been raised in South Africa but backers dropped out shortly before production had begun. Pieterse had already sold the distribution rights to the as-yet-unmade film in thirty two countries for a total of 2.5 million rand; if the film was not made he risked being sued and being stuck with a bill for wages for the cast and crew. So Pieterse refinanced the project through an American bank, Chemical, under stringer terms which resulted in another million dollars being added to the budget. Pieterse was allowed to use the government money to secure finance for the loan for ''Golden Rendezvous''.

Eschel Rhoodie Eschel Mostert Rhoodie (11 July 1933 – 17 July 1993) was a South African civil servant, public relations officer and spin doctor most famous as being one of the key players in the 1978–79 Information Scandal, also known as "Infogate" or ...

was the head of the Department of Information at the time and a friend of Pieterse's. Pieterse:

I explained to Rhoodie the situation, the fact the I would be personally ruined, that the industry could be badly damaged, and talked him into employing 825,000 rand which at that stage was on fixed deposit with Barclays Bank — to allow me to employ it as security for the production loan. I was convinced, and I put it to him, that this situation would not be called, because the film was properly insured against completion, and when we completed it, we were certain that the foreign, American rights would be sow for at least enough money to meet the obligations of production, then this 825,000 rand would serve only as security till that time. Unfortunately for me the production got further out of hand, and the film far exceeded the budget.

Pieterse says filming ran into trouble because of difficulties involved in shooting on a ship, and because Richard Harris drank a bottle of vodka a day. Pieterse alleged that these things caused filming to be delayed by 44 days and meant that the producer was unable to raise capital abroad, and make a sale to North America. Pieterse later sought $1.5 million in damages from Harris. Harris was then making ''

Game for Vultures ''Game for Vultures'' is a 1979 British thriller film starring Richard Harris, Joan Collins and Richard Roundtree. It was directed by James Fargo and based on a novel by Michael Hartmann set during the Rhodesian Bush War. Plot During the late ...

'' in South Africa and a warrant was issued for his arrest by a Johannesburg court. Harris responded, "Mr Pieterse owes me money, not I him", claiming he was owed $50,000, and that Pieterse's comments were "totally untrue and completely defamatory." Sheriffs failed to serve a warrant of arrest on Harris and it was reported that the parties were working on a settlement. "I don't believe that in a country like South Africa that they will arrest a gentleman like me", said Harris. "I'd be a fool to deny I had a drink", said Harris. "But when I was drinking I never let it get in the way of my work. Everybody on that film was drinking, we were all so fucking miserable." Harris threatened to sue for defamation and the matter never went to court. Pieterse did succeed in selling the film to Time-Life for syndication for 525,000 rand.

References

External links

* * *
Review at Time Out London
{{Alistair MacLean 1977 films 1970s action thriller films 1970s crime thriller films 1970s action drama films Films about murder Films about ship hijackings Films about terrorism Films based on British novels Films based on crime novels Films based on works by Alistair MacLean Films set on ships 1970s English-language films English-language South African films Films about hostage takings Films with screenplays by John Gay (screenwriter) South African crime films South African action thriller films 1977 drama films