A cautionary tale. A plane carrying a weapon more dangerous than a nuclear weapon goes down near Greece. To prevent panic, the officials go in dressed as tourists (who are dressed so casually that the pilots assume that they are all gay). The pilots are not to make themselves known and can't contact the rescue team. The secrecy causes a comedy of errors including the desolate Greek Isle deciding that since tourists have now arrived, they have to become touristy.
viewer's comments:
- I've even tried to contact Candice Bergen to get this movie.
It was the dancing scene that did me in. Everybody was dancing in sandals, Leather Roman type with one strap around the big toe types. The dance, the beat to the music, it seemed so futuristic. Who can I contact to set the wheels in motion to get this motion picture? I'll even take 8 mm.
I was 15 when I saw this movie, and it really got to me. I remember well the paranoid fears it set into my teenager mind, as making me aware of the annihilation danger we were all living in, if only... Definitely, it became one of THOSE "warning-movies" that prevented the disaster to happen (same as Stanley Kramer's "On the Beach", for instance) - what we could call: "An anti-fulfilling prophecy" (by contrast with the "self-fulfilling" ones).
By all means, it's a very subtle and intelligent piece of work. The harsh humor, with black and erotic overtones, the pointed satire, the sharp accents of social criticism, all contribute to build up that kind of deliberately deceit that eventually becomes all the more efficient. The perverse fun builds up with a well mastered precision, until the final frenzy that precedes the radioactive poisoning - a well deserved bow for Cacoyannis, in this sense, as he proved to coordinate such an exact vision, different of the wider and deeper poetry or grandeur of his other movies. Now, decades later, I can still feel how the demented laugher froze in my throat, the moment when that haunting final shot suggested total extermination. "Attention, please! Attention, please! Attention, please!..." - for years, I've repeated it in my mind, never having enough of that unique, and so strong, warning; again, it's kindred with Kramer's "There is still time, brother!"
Director: Mihalis Kakogiannis
Writer: Mihalis Kakogiannis
cast
Tom Courtenay ... The Navigator
Colin Blakely ... The Pilot
Sam Wanamaker ... Elias
Candice Bergen ... Electra Brown
Ian Ogilvy ... Peter
Dimitris Nikolaidis ... The Dentist
Nikos Alexiou ... Goatherd (as Nikolaos Alexiou)
Patricia Burke ... Mrs. Mavroyannis
Paris Alexander ... Fred
Marlena Carrer ... Goatherd's Wife
Tom Klunis ... Mr. French
William Berger ... Man in Bed
Nikos Papakonstantinou ... Manolios
Dora Stratou ... Travel Agent
Alexander Lykourezos ... Director of Tourism
Country:Greece | UK | USA
Language:English
Release Date:26 October 1967 (West Germany)
Also Known As:...Otan ta psaria vgikan sti steria!
Filming Locations:Greece
Runtime:109 min
Sound Mix:Mono
Color:Color
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