Some fine performances from James Coburn and some of the rest of the cast, plus picturesque Greek locations, can't provide the thermal that would lift this out of the abyss of the gimmick movie.
At heart, it's a routine film of a millionaire's family being kidnapped and then rescued by Coburn and half a dozen hang glider pilots from a circus troupe. We get to know the millionaire, Robert Culp, and the kidnapped wife, Susannah York, because they are familiar figures. We also get to know the local chief of police, Charles Aznevour, a Greek with a French accent. Except for John Beck, who heads the circus troupe and teaches Coburn how to fly and whose chin seems to be a granite massif, the other flyers are faceless and nameless, although they too are risking their lives in a daring assault on the ex monastery where York and her two kids are being held.
The opening scene has the villains bursting into Culp's Greek mansion and shooting down all the servants before making off with York and the kids. The ransom is five million dollars. Culp, a nice cooperative guy, is willing to pay but hasn't got five million bucks. No matter because the whole ransom business is dropped from the plot anyway, eclipsed by a long and chaotic shoot out at the monastery.
The editing really is execrable. So is the screenplay. Coburn seems to learn how to fly a hang glider in five minutes under Beck's tutelage. York doesn't get any lessons at all but can still take the controls during the escape when her companion is wounded. Oddly enough, the movie is built around the use of the hang gliders, which were a novelty at the time. (Earlier novelties included wet suits and Scuba diving; viz., "The Wreck of the Mary Deare," "Thunderball." Later, there were sky divers.) Yet the shots of the hang gliders aren't thrilling, as they should be. Much of it is at night. And the images of mountainous landscapes are jumbled and rolled about carelessly.
After the escape is effected and the monastery is under assault from a horde of Greek astynomia, led by Aznavour, who has even given Robert Culp a rifle and dragged him along, some of the hang gliders circle back to the monastery, when they could easily head straight away from the area of danger. The gliders are unarmed but they keep flying around and providing convenient targets for the villains' machine guns.
However, for all its flaws, it's a thought-provoking film. The thought it provokes is that no power on earth could ever get me to leave the ground in one of those flimsy contraptions.
At heart, it's a routine film of a millionaire's family being kidnapped and then rescued by Coburn and half a dozen hang glider pilots from a circus troupe. We get to know the millionaire, Robert Culp, and the kidnapped wife, Susannah York, because they are familiar figures. We also get to know the local chief of police, Charles Aznevour, a Greek with a French accent. Except for John Beck, who heads the circus troupe and teaches Coburn how to fly and whose chin seems to be a granite massif, the other flyers are faceless and nameless, although they too are risking their lives in a daring assault on the ex monastery where York and her two kids are being held.
The opening scene has the villains bursting into Culp's Greek mansion and shooting down all the servants before making off with York and the kids. The ransom is five million dollars. Culp, a nice cooperative guy, is willing to pay but hasn't got five million bucks. No matter because the whole ransom business is dropped from the plot anyway, eclipsed by a long and chaotic shoot out at the monastery.
The editing really is execrable. So is the screenplay. Coburn seems to learn how to fly a hang glider in five minutes under Beck's tutelage. York doesn't get any lessons at all but can still take the controls during the escape when her companion is wounded. Oddly enough, the movie is built around the use of the hang gliders, which were a novelty at the time. (Earlier novelties included wet suits and Scuba diving; viz., "The Wreck of the Mary Deare," "Thunderball." Later, there were sky divers.) Yet the shots of the hang gliders aren't thrilling, as they should be. Much of it is at night. And the images of mountainous landscapes are jumbled and rolled about carelessly.
After the escape is effected and the monastery is under assault from a horde of Greek astynomia, led by Aznavour, who has even given Robert Culp a rifle and dragged him along, some of the hang gliders circle back to the monastery, when they could easily head straight away from the area of danger. The gliders are unarmed but they keep flying around and providing convenient targets for the villains' machine guns.
However, for all its flaws, it's a thought-provoking film. The thought it provokes is that no power on earth could ever get me to leave the ground in one of those flimsy contraptions.