zardoz-13 You've never seen David McCallum play a moRe anti-heroic characer than he does in director Brian G. Hutton's above-average narcotics thriller "Sol Madrid." McCallum appears as the eponymous protagonist who works undercover for Interpol and lives to bust drug dealers. Indeed, he believes that he shouldn't have to play by the rules because the bad guys don't. The biggest heroin dealer of them all here is Emil Dietrich. "Dirty Dozen" psycho Telly Savalas is charming as the cigarette-smoking villain who lives high, wide, and handsome in his estate in sunny Acapulco, Mexico. Initially, our hero doesn't have his sights set on the urbane Dietrich. He learns from his superior that the mistress of a Mafioso kingpin, Dano Villanova (Rip Torn of "Men in Black"), has left him. Moreover, the man with a computerized mind who knows everything about the Mafia's account, Harry Mitchell (Pat Hingle of "Hang'em High") has fled from the Mafia, too. At first, Sol's mission is to find Mitchell and persuade him to testify against the Mafia. Stacey Woodward (Stella Stevens of "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"), joined Mitchell for $250-thousand dollars. but she didn't accompnay him to Mexico. Sol Madrid breaks into Woodward's bedroom, surprises her, confiscates her loot, and they head off to see Dietrich and his guest Mitchell. Madrid works his way into Dietrich's confidence when he manages to smuggle heroin into California by means of an oil pipeline. The Interpol agent reels in Dietrich afterward for $25 million. Meanwhile, another Interpol agent working undercover in Acapulco is a smiling dude known as Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan"), and he works as a cabbie when he isn't crusading for law and order. Eventually, Madrid is able to persuade Dietrich to sell him heroin on the premises of his house, something that Dietrich had never done before. During the big bust scene, our hero gets into a fight with the villain, and you can guess who survives the confrontation. Sol Madrid emerges as one of those cops who doesn't take prisoners and he isn't afraid of anything. Eventually, he is able to rescue Stacey from the mitts of the mafia. Once the evil Villanova ferrets Stacey out, he incarcerates her in a cabin and gets her hooked on heroin.What sets "Sol Madrid" apart from all of McCallum's other films is the savagery of his character. He exposes a double-agent in one scene and shoots the man at point blank range without a qualm and lets him fall down and die. Later, he tangles with a well-dressed Mafioso and drowns the dastard face down in a muddy pool in Mexico. I don't think that I've ever seen David McCallum play a character as brutal of Sol Madrid, and he displays no remorse for his murderous behavior. "Sol Madrid" was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer a year before Hutton made history with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood in the explosive World War II thriller "Where Eagles Dare." Hutton's next film was "Kelly's Heroes. If you want to see David McCallum as you have never seen him before, check out "Sol Madrid."

Pocketplayer OK...it's late and TCM is playing this flic so I decided to check it out. After all I'm house-sitting and don't have cable myself, so I'm taping movies. This movie came on around 1:00AM and I decided to video tape it.I like Telly Savalas and wondered how he would do in a lead role. David McCallum was known to me visually, but I wondered how he would do as a lead. Stella Stevens looked good from any angle and surprisingly was spirited, not just a pretty face and curvy bod. Ricardo Montalban was known from the TV series, but I don't think I've really seen him in any early movies. In fact, I caught the actor from The Longest Yard and this is what I like about these older movies-you catch glimpses of actors who had roles in larger films.I thought the movie had a big feel about it despite McCallum's low key delivery. He was acting from the Clint Eastwood school, and Clint can pull that off as few can. This movie reminded me of a big budget film with B actors playing lead roles. The overall plot was decent, but like said previously, there were a lot of holes. I thought the heroin scene with Stevens was pretty advanced for that time period, even if it was the 60's. They charted some risky territory as her character was pinned down and forced to take the needle. Not the best of flics, but I'm going to keep the tape. I thought it was a decent movie and being 35 years old, there is a lot of grace given while watching. It's a lot better than most of what comes out of Hollywood today!

maisannes 2 out of 10Why even bother giving names to these plot advancers? It is a reach even to call them characters, since there is zero context, characterization or texture provided. "Supercop" infiltrates "Latin Drug Lord's" operation using "Blonde Moll" who is on the run from "Mob Guy." Who are these people? Apparently the director didn't care either, all he wanted was a few gun and knife fights to occur in front of a camera.Unfortunately for the viewer, the plot itself is just as underdeveloped. I defy anyone to explain why the Michael Conrad character exists, why Sol Madrid does 3/4ths of the things he does (or how he could be allowed by his superiors to do so), or why "Mob Guy" decides to reenact the desert hotel scene from Touch of Evil.The "mafia meeting" at the beginning is the silliest I have ever seen. And, no, this isn't supposed to be a comedy.David McCallum and Stella Stevens believe the best way to deliver lines in an "intense" scene is to yell them, otherwise, any inflection is superfluous.The only morsels of merit are seeing a completely unbelievable yet interesting way to smuggle drugs play out and Ricardo Montalban, who, despite the decent resumes of the other actors, is the only one who decided to employ his talents instead of pocketing his paycheck simply for showing up on the set.

aromatic-2 David McCallum plays the anti-Sam-Spade private eye in this wry latter-day film-noir-esque look at decadence in the late 60's. Telly Savallas and Rip Torn both are wonderful as the antagonists. As good a momento of its period as any film you will ever find.