Poseidon-3 One of countless heist films that came out in the 60's, this one throws in the added kink of a homosexual mastermind (Portman) who's married to a much younger woman (Ralli) as they recruit Caine to pilfer diamonds from a millionaire's mansion. Portman sends Ralli to Caine as his emissary, knowing that her charms will be more likely to win him over to their cause than if he did the task himself. Before they will even attempt to steal the diamonds from millionaire Buck, they make Caine do a trial run on another wealthy victim. In an elaborately presented (and a bit over-long) sequence, a guitar concerto rages on, inter-cut with scenes of Caine breaking into an estate and dismantling a wall safe. (Hilariously, the rich couple gets all dolled up and is escorted to a concert hall where, after ONE NUMBER, the audience filters back out and the couple returns home! No dinner. no drinks. No dancing. Nothing!) Various implausibilities crop up during this sequence which are covered up in some cases by cutting to the concerto at key moments. Legendary film composer John Barry appears as himself as the maestro at the concert hall. Keen eyes will note that he steps on the guitarist's dress as they come out to bow. After this admittedly interesting scene, the film devolves into a lot of mishmash and sketchy ruminations as Caine starts to fall for Ralli and Ralli begins to discover that there's far more to her husband than the fact that he's older than her and gay. Some of this is veiled and some of it is spelled out. All of it is pretty tedious. The film suffers from lack of focus and overly generous editing. Inexplicably thrown into the mix, though she does have a couple of entertaining moments (perhaps some for the wrong reasons!) is Newman as a flirty woman who happens to worm her way into Buck's mansion the night of the big steal. The film is full of "arty" directorial touches, one being the increasingly annoying habit of putting inanimate objects in the foreground or otherwise obscuring the participants of the scene through rails or grates. Caine does what he can with a mediocre script. Ralli has a striking look, not that dissimilar from Natalie Wood at times, but without Wood's charisma. Portman speaks with such a garbled accent that not too many of his lines come out intelligibly. Apart from some nice settings and a few arresting sequences, this has to count as a misfire. It does, however, have a hooty "faux" James Bond theme performed by Shirley Bassey and composed by John Barry, who collaborated on three real Bond themes over the years.

Darryl Cox (DD-931) It's a shame this movie was such a failure, because subsequently one of the greatest 60's film scores I've ever heard has been buried along with it. John Barry has never done finer work, and even appears on-camera to conduct one of the brilliant pieces he composed. If you ever get a chance to see this film on TV, and you get bored by it, just leave the sound on. You'll get quite a treat.

NEIL-213 This may not be Michael Caines worst film,but it is almost certainly his worst performance.It has to be said the writing does not help him ,he comes across as a charmless cad with little to no humanity in evidence.Eric Portman as the sexually challenged partner in crime tries hard,but can find nothing in the script to help make a rounded character.Although caine was only in his 30s when he made this some of the physical abilities required in this crime movie would be beyond the efforts of a professional athlete.All in all a really bad movie with a dreadful if not deserved ending.Most movies have something going for them in this case it is the music.

tyburn Watched this film tonight on the BBC for the first time. What an unusual film! Written and Directed by Bryan Forbes it certainly added some new twists to the usual thriller plotline. Some odd mixing of plotlines, particularly mixing up sexuality with perversion, which maybe didn't come off too well, but with some brilliant music by John Barry and a belting Shirley Bassey opening titles song this does deliver great entertainment with good direction from Bryan Forbes.