Certainly not a classic by any means, this Otto Preminger film was released during a period of tons of cold war motion pictures and was instantly divided by critics. Perhaps because over 90% of the reviews I've read of this movie were horrible, it ended up being much better to me, and at any rate, I was intrigued by the story even if it happened to feature a ton of elements I found absurd.
It focuses on the kidnapping of five daughters of very wealthy and powerful men from a group of PLO rebels (with a very non-Palestine leader behind it all), and the investigation by journalist Peter O'Toole that leads to some hair raising and dangerous situations. The first girl released brings instructions to get the others released, and it's made clear that any attempt to alleviate the required methods will result in instant executions.
Pretty solid and direct, yet I can see why this was critically derided at the time. It is frequently without much action, and there are some moments, particularly a quick catfight among the four remaining girls, that are really silly. There also isn't a convincing motivation for the abductions, and that makes for a frequently one dimensional drama. Richard Attenborough, Peter Lawford, Cliff Gorman, Raf Vallone and Claude Dauphin are featured, and a very young Kim Cattrall is one of the kidnapping victims.
Preminger certainly had worse films than this after "In Harms Way", so all I can think of to describe this as is overall rather unremarkable. It should be noted that this was the first Preminger film without Burgess Meredith in years. I guess him mooning the audience in "Such Good Friends" spelled "the end" of their association.
It focuses on the kidnapping of five daughters of very wealthy and powerful men from a group of PLO rebels (with a very non-Palestine leader behind it all), and the investigation by journalist Peter O'Toole that leads to some hair raising and dangerous situations. The first girl released brings instructions to get the others released, and it's made clear that any attempt to alleviate the required methods will result in instant executions.
Pretty solid and direct, yet I can see why this was critically derided at the time. It is frequently without much action, and there are some moments, particularly a quick catfight among the four remaining girls, that are really silly. There also isn't a convincing motivation for the abductions, and that makes for a frequently one dimensional drama. Richard Attenborough, Peter Lawford, Cliff Gorman, Raf Vallone and Claude Dauphin are featured, and a very young Kim Cattrall is one of the kidnapping victims.
Preminger certainly had worse films than this after "In Harms Way", so all I can think of to describe this as is overall rather unremarkable. It should be noted that this was the first Preminger film without Burgess Meredith in years. I guess him mooning the audience in "Such Good Friends" spelled "the end" of their association.