Gold (1974)

Whilst this isn't actually very good, it is nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be! Roger Moore ("Slade") is the general manager of an huge gold mine who finds himself caught between the needs to keep his workforce safe, and the avaricious demands of the mine's owners. The conspiracy led by Sir John Gielgud ("Farrell") and the disgruntled son-in-law of the mine's owner ("Manfred") Bradford Dillman is further fuelled by the fact that "Slater" is at it with"Terry" (Susannah York) who happens to be Dillman's wife. The romantic melodrama stuff is all a bit cheesy, but there is some superb local photography giving us a sense of the sheer scale of these huge operations, and the script allows us - coupled with a suitably imperious effort from Gielgud and a feisty one from mine owner "Hirschfeld" (Ray Milland) - to get gripped a little more by this story of greed and power, especially towards the end, than I had expected. Moore has star quality, he was worth his fee and although no, it's by no means a great film - it is quite an entertaining boy's own adventure film.