CODE 7 VICTIM 5!

Lex Barker

CODE 7 VICTIM 5! ((1964). Director: Robert Lynn.

Private detective Steve Martin (Lex Barker) comes to Capetown at the request of Wexler (Walter Rilla of The Terror of Dr. Mabuse), who owns many copper mines in South Africa. Wexler's butler has been murdered, but Martin has to find out for himself that there have also been other victims. Wexler, who has his own secrets to hide, is sure he is next on the list. While investigating, and exploring the South African scenery, Martin dallies with Wexler's secretary, Helga (Ann Smyrner), and his step-daughter, Gina (Veronique Vendell). He allies himself with Inspector Lean (Ronald Fraser of The Flight of the Phoenix), and meets Wexler's doctor, Paul (Dietmar Schonherr of The Monster of London City), and mine manager, Anderson (Percy Sieff). Barker is okay as the private dick, and the story is not without interest, but this leisurely-paced movie serves chiefly to showcase some interesting Capetown settings, such as during a gun battle inside huge, impressive caverns. A cliff side finale is not as taut as it ought to be, and the wrong person is in danger. However, any movie that features an ostrich stampede (!) can't be all bad. Nicholas Roeg was the cinematographer for this travelogue with spurts of action.

Verdict: Movie 5, Audience 0. **.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1965). Producer/director: Robert Aldrich.

"The little men with the slide rules and computers are going to inherit the earth."

This movie gets right into the action, without taking time to even introduce its characters, as a plane develops problems and then crash lands in the desert with veteran pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) at the helm. However, there's plenty of time to meet the survivors during the rather slow early sections of the film: Towns second-in-command, Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough); by-the-book but admirable Captain Harris (Peter Finch); crazy Cobb (Ernest Borgnine); haughty engineer Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger); and others. During the strangely uninvolving first half of the film you keep hoping that Ursula Andress or Raquel Welch will come parachuting into the scene and all of the men can fight over her, and at least something will happen, but it's not that kind of movie. Instead the film develops an interesting plot line wherein Dorfmann insists that by using the remaining parts of the plane he can build another craft that will take the men out of the Sahara before they die of thirst or starvation. Towns thinks that the plane he'll build won't ever get off the ground. Dorfmann has a rather startling and darkly amusing secret, however. There's a tense sequence involving some Arabs who may or may not be friendly, but the climax when the "phoenix" takes off is surprisingly brief. And there's a lot more that you could quibble about. Stewart seems a bit miscast and out of his element -- although certainly not bad -- as the somewhat defeatist Captain Towns, but Attenborough, Finch, and Kruger are superb, and Dan Duryea, George Kennedy, Ronald Fraser and the others aren't exactly slouches. Like Lifeboat, The White Tower and many other movies Phoenix deals with the cliche of ruthless German efficiency, an aspect that was kind of tiresome, being done to death, by the sixties.   

Verdict: Eventually builds in intensity and interest; some wonderful performances don't hurt. ***.