Caboblanco [Cabo Blanco] * (1980, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Dominique Sanda) – Classic Movie Review 8316

Director J Lee Thompson’s 1980 Charles Bronson vehicle Caboblanco [Cabo Blanco] is a faintly absurd, ineptly made romantic adventure thriller, remotely based on Casablanca apparently, but without properly understanding its appeal.

One-time Nazis, fleeing post-World War Two trouble, are holed up in a Peruvian village, where Bronson’s American bar owner Gifford Hoyt is trying to avoid trouble but of course getting embroiled in greedy goings-on,

The village’s uneasy calm is broken by the arrival of lovelorn Gallic gal Marie Claire Allesandri (Dominique Sanda) looking for $20 million in sunken gold and her old flame, who was  lost when the gold ship sank.

It is potentially interesting, but Bronson’s regular director Thompson (the man who made the original 1962 Cape Fear) cannot do much to make it go. Certainly he cannot make it exciting or even very involving. But at least he has a very decent cast to flesh out the stereotypes, headed by Jason Robards Jr as a nasty Nazi fascist named Gunther Beckdorff, Fernando Rey as town top cop Police Captain Terredo and Simon MacCorkindale as a British sailor Lewis Clarkson.

Camilla Sparv, Denny Miller, Gilbert Roland, James Booth, Jorge Russek, Clifton James, Ernest Esparza III, José Chávez, Carlos Romano, and Martin LaSalle are also in the cast.

The story is by Víctor Andrés Catena and Jaime Comas Gil, with the screen story by Milton S Gelman and James Granby Hunter.

Caboblanco is directed by J Lee Thompson, runs 91 minutes, is made by Arco Films, Cabo Blanco Production and MVS Televisión, released by Avco Embassy, is written by Mort Fine [Morton S Fine] and Milton S Gelman, is produced by Lance Hool and Paul A Joseph, is scored by Jerry Goldsmith and is designed by Alex Phillips.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8316

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com