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Big Game, The
Big Game, The (1973) Movie Poster
USA / South Africa  •    •  94m  •    •  Directed by: Robert Day.  •  Starring: Stephen Boyd, France Nuyen, Ray Milland, Cameron Mitchell, Brendon Boone, Michael Kirner, John Van Dreelen, John Stacy, George Wang, Marie du Toit, Ian Yule, Bill Brewer, Romano Puppo.  •  Music by: Francesco De Masi.
     Two soldiers of fortune are hired by an aging scientist to protect him and his invention, a radar-like mind-control device capable of forcing soldiers to fight. A rival organization kidnaps his son to get the machine.

Review:

Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
Image from: Big Game, The (1973)
This Italian production is a largely unknown film with many surprisingly well-known names, if not major stars. The plot bounces frequently between a couple of story lines for the first half of the film, and can be both boring and complicated at times.

To summarize, a rich American, "Professor Handley" (Ray Milland) designs a machine capable of controlling minds. In order to show how this machine can bring about world peace(?), he goes to the US military(!?) and shows how it can keep peace by making men do a demolition derby before soldiers start blowing up their cars (This display of peacekeeping would satisfy the most devoted pacifists). The professor's assistants, Leyton Van Dyk (Stephen Boyd, in the twilight of his career) and Bruno Carstens (Cameron Mitchell, in one of the 20,000 movies he was in during the 1970's) decide to send this machine to Australia via a fishing boat. Before you scoff at that, consider this: would the soviets EVER have imagined this is what they would do with such a machine? Going along on the cruise are two sons of Professor Handley, Jim (Brendan Boone) and Mark (Michael Kirner, who easily gives the best performance in the entire film). Well, brother Jim happens to be a US diplomat that was seduced by "the other sides" sexy female spy Atanga (France Nuyen).

As you can guess, there is a big battle on the fishing boat, and thanks to Mark Handley's tremendous gun play, the world is safe from oppression. Despite some good action in the finale, the best moment in this movie is when Mark Handley receives golfing lessons from Bruno. Actors Michael Kirner and Cameron Mitchell have a great chemistry in this movie, and that alone is enough reason to check it out! My only warning to anyone viewing this is to prepare to suffer through the first 40 minutes, especially the scenes with Brendan Boone and France Nuyen. The payoff in the film's second half, and any Michael Kirner scene, make the hard parts worth enduring.

I guess the machine has been effective at keeping peace, because to my knowledge nobody has successfully invaded Australia since this movie was made.

Review by bhkittleson from the Internet Movie Database.

 
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