Jackson Booth-Millard With the 50th anniversary of the James Bond 007 film series approaching, and being a big fan of the third actor to have played the role, I decided to familiarise myself with some of his other film and television work, and I knew about this film he made just after Live and Let Die, from director Peter Hunt (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Basically at the Sonderditch mine in South Africa a tunnel has collapsed, and underground manager Rod Slater (Sir Roger Moore) and his best friend and chief miner Big King (Simon Sabela) go to rescue those injured, the two are friends despite some of the white miners disregarding the black workers. The collapse is identified as not being an accident, there is a plot by a criminal syndicate in London to destroy the mine to profit from the share dealing, with regards to the gold supply distributed, and the mine owner's son-in-law Manfred Steyner (Bradford Dillman) is involved with the plan to flood the mine drilling through the underground dike and releasing the water from the reservoir. Killed in the collapse was the mine's original general manager, and there is a vacancy to be the new one, and Steyner interviews Slater as he knows he has the best qualifications, but he has another candidate in mind, and during the meeting Slater meets Steyner's wife Terry (Superman's Susannah York), who does not return his attraction interests. Slater and Terry meet again so that she may influence the decision for the general manager position to mine owner and her grandfather Hurry Hirschfeld (Ray Milland), and as a result she and he start an affair, Steyner is not happy he becomes general manager, but Slater only continues drilling work after placing a new safety system in the mine, that will block the tunnel in case a flood does happen. Slater has no idea of the plot by the crime syndicate, and aware that his wife is having an affair with him Steyner decides to let this go ahead so that he will be distracted while the mine is collapsed, and soon enough the dike is destroyed and a flood breaks, trapping thousands of workers below. Luckilly though the story is reported on the radio news and Slater hears it while holidaying with Terry, and she is a pilot, so agrees to fly him immediately to the mine to defuse the situation, while Steyner is watching from a hill far and above the scene watching to see the disaster unfold according to plan. Going down the mine shaft and climbing through the flooding tunnels, Slater and Big King struggle against the raging waters and slowly falling rocks, the safety charge is connected and ready to blow and stop the flooding, but Big King sacrifices himself having to detonate the charge. Steyner is murdered by his accomplice Stephen Marais (Tony Beckley) after hearing on the radio that the mine disaster has been averted and their plan has failed, but he also ends up killing himself when the car he uses goes flying off the cliff and blows up, and the end sees a badly injured Slater taken away to hospital with Terry by his side. Also starring Sir John Gielgud as Farrell, Bernard Horsfall as Dave Kowalski, Marc Smith as Tex Kiernan, Norman Coombes as Lemmer, John Hussey as Plummer and a very young Patsy Kensit as Little Girl at Christmas Party. I admit that Moore is a bit wooden in this film, but I can't imagine anyone else in his role, and he assisted by a good cast of stars, even though they don't necessarily do as much, Dillman though is a great choice for the manipulative villain, the story has unnecessary scenes, but the mine scenes just about exciting, especially towards the end, and the title song by Jimmy Helms is catchy, it may look and feel old fashioned, and you don't see much gold, LOL, but it is an alright adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Wherever Love Takes Me" , and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Sound Track. Worth watching!

wes-connors Shirt-shedding Roger Moore (as Rodney "Rod" Slater) works in a Johannesburg, South Africa mine. After a suspicious accident, Mr. Moore gets promoted to General Manager, by nasty non-smoking Bradford Dillman (as Manfred Steyner); then, he meets Mr. Dillman's unfulfilled blonde wife, Susannah York (as Terry). Ms. York is the granddaughter of cigar-chomping mine-owner Ray Milland (as Hurry "H.H." Hirschfeld). Eventually, Moore unbuttons his shirt, then York unbuttons hers. While his wife skinny dips with Moore, Dillman plots to flood Mr. Milland's mine, drive up the price of "Gold", and collect the cash.It's difficult to picture the suave, immaculate Moore spending years in the dirt - he sure cleans up well. But, the main problem with "Gold" lays with the boring romance - Moore and York look good together, but are saddled with a long, unexciting aboveground "who cares?" affair. The less seen Dillman and Milland are better without even kissing. And, frankly, the characters played by Tony Beckley (Stephen Marais) and Simon Sabela (John "Big King" Nkulu) seem more interesting. With at least six degrees of Oscar-connections, Maureen McGovern's non-hit "Wherever Love Takes Me" received "Academy Award" notice.***** Gold (9/5/74) Peter Hunt ~ Roger Moore, Susannah York, Bradford Dillman, Ray Milland

Petri Pelkonen The film takes us to South Africa, Sonderditch mine.Men are working there when the tunnel collapses.Soon we find out it was no accident.The crooks come up with a plan to flood the mine in order to make a killing in the international gold market.Rod Slater, the newly appinted general manager has to deal with this problem.Peter R.Hunt is the director of Gold (1974) and it was written by Wilbur Smith and Stanley Price.Roger Moore plays Rod Slater.There's that certain James Bond feel in this movie.And also Rod has some action with a beautiful woman.She's Terry Steiner, played by Susannah York.The legendary Ray Milland plays Hurry Hirschfeld.Also legendary Sir John Gielgud plays Farrell.This is not a masterpiece as a movie but it has something good in it.Those moments at the mine are somewhat claustrophobic.See this movie if you want some adventurous action.

nrobertb This is not a great film, but it has its moments. In 1974 probably not too many people knew much about South Africa and the gold mining process, so for that reason it was educational. The mine sequences are interesting although undoubtedly filmed on a studio set. For me the most interesting action sequence though is when the hero is trying to land a plane on a tailings pile at a speed low enough to almost stall out. Most interesting of all, thirty years ago it was almost unheard of to see frontal nudity in a major film. When Susannah York's breast appeared out of the suds in the bathtub scene, my jaw dropped open. I couldn't believe I was really seeing it. For sheer surprise it ranks right up there with Charlton Heston kissing a black woman in that science fiction film that I think was called The Omega Man. Today of course such things are commonplace.