Gold

Other than his James Bonds, this is my favorite Roger Moore adventure film. Saw it in the movies in October 1974. At that time it was considered to be another of the "disaster" genre of films that were so popular at the time. (The following two months saw the release of the two granddaddies of disaster films: "Earthquake" in Nov. '74 and the greatest disaster film "The Towering Inferno" in December. Sadly, "Gold" was lost in all the competition and didn't do that well. For some reason, only butchered up copies were ever released on DVD with, at least, a half-hour cut out. (This is explained on the audio commentary for this film.) But that has now been remedied and this Blu-ray is now a complete cut. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it was out."Gold" concerns an attempt to flood the largest gold-mine in South Africa to drive the price of gold up, as well as make millions for the competing gold-mines. Roger Moore is the dashing mine manager and in order to distract him from what is going on, he is lured into an affair with lovely Susannah York. York's slimy husband, played by Bradford Dillman, is one of the masterminds behind the scheme and he has no problem using his wife to get Roger out of the way when the disaster strikes. (Although he really seems to have really very little sexual interest in her and vice-versa.) The mine is owned by the irascible Ray Milland, Susannah's grandfather and John Gielgud is on hand as the despicable head of the scheme.This film was made after Roger's first Bond "Live and Let Die" and released before Roger's second Bond, (also with the word "gold" in its title,) "The Man With the Golden Gun" that December. (As a long-time Bond fan, I can say that "Gold" is a superior film to "Golden Gun.") There are many Bond veterans involved in this film. It is directed by Peter Hunt, who directed one of the greatest Bond films "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." The second-unit direction is by John Glen, who later directed five Bond films including three of Roger's and the titles are by Maurice Binder who directed all but one of the Bond titles during the Connery, Moore and Dalton Years. The music for this film is by the great Elmer Bernstein and the featured song "Wherever Love Takes Me" is one of my all-time favorite songs for a motion picture. Sung by Maureen McGovern is was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song but lost out to another song from a disaster genre classic, "The Towering Inferno:" "We May Never Love Like This Again," also sung by Maureen McGovern. Maureen was in competition with herself that year.This film was made for the most part in apartheid South Africa and came in for some criticism in that regard. (Other scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in England.) I watched the Blu-ray with and without the audio commentary. The commentary was by two film experts who loved the film. One gave some fairly interesting information although the other went on way too much, said much of the same things over and over and didn't always make a great deal of sense to me. Other than the trailer, there are no other special features. The picture and sound are okay, nothing extraordinary but I am not going to complain since I have waited years for this film to be released uncut.I remember one film critic describing this film as a disaster classic at the time, although sadly, as stated, it did not do that well and was quickly forgotten. I think it is a great film and Roger's non-Bond best. (Even better than the great "Wild Geese.") It makes me think of how much I miss Roger Moore, being a fan from his "Maverick" days to "The Saint" to James Bond to this film, he really was a class act and a great star. As you can tell, I highly recommend "Gold" and am thrilled that Kino-Lorber has released it on Blu-ray.

I liked the movie. It started out slow and I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I kept watching and realized that it's basically a scheme to corner the Gold market by the grandson-in-law of the owner of one of the largest Gold mines in South Africa. Along the way we meet the character that Roger Moore plays who comes across as a maverick or maniac when it comes to the mine, that is not afraid to take risks and to have a plan just in case something happens. He meets the granddaughter of the owner and the two have chemistry and the granddaughters husband sees that and is willing to use his wife to get even richer.The action builds slowly but when the mine is in trouble, Roger Moore's character will stop at nothing to save the mine. In the end, he succeeds and he gets the girl as her husband meets his fate and death. When the movie was made, Roger Moore had already starred as James Bond. The music score is good as well as are the supporting cast & characters. I watched the DVD on a CRT based TV set and had no issues with it.

First and most importantly, this is ALL REGION and plays in the USA on a standard Blu Ray Player.... another bonus is the 48 minute documentary on Roger Moore which is also viewable. Sometimes even all region BR discs have the bonus features in PAL and don't play ...this disc gives you the full movie in widescreen 2:35 aspect ratio and looking terrific along with the bonus feature in the more TV aspect ratio of 1:33. Director Peter Hunt (former editor on Bond flicks and also the director of the superior Bond movie On her Majesties Secret Service, along with the superior Roger Moore / Lee Marvin film "Shout At The Devil") handles action very well and this movie moves along at a nice clip as one would suspect directed by a man of his experience. This movie has been available in terrible DVD releases over the years and this BR is the one to own.

Gold was released 1974 between Roger Moore's first two Bond films. The first thing you'll notice is how poor the print quality is. Lots of dirt, scratches, dropouts, compressed sound and faded color. There is a BluRay version that is probably much cleaner, but that's not what you'll get from Amazon Prime.The movie, itself, holds up well in terms of plot and entertainment value. It's essentially the Golfinger plot to destroy a major source of gold with the intent of skyrocketing the market price for mined gold.There are some great actors in this movie besides Moore; John Guilgud, Ray Milland, Bradford Dillman and Susanah York. They are all fun to watch.The film takes place in South Africa and it's not afraid to confront the blatant racism there. The apartheid policy was in full effect when this movie was made, but the racism surely still underlies relations between blacks and whites there today, and I was glad to see the movie address it as a minor plot point.Overall, an entertaining two hours once you get used to the poor print quality.

If you have not seen Gold then you are missing out. It's an absolute gem from 1974 with the late great Sir Roger Moore at his best. For when it was made, Gold is a full on action thriller with some fantastic set pieces and practical stunts. It's so well made and exciting all the way through. I love this film and you should too.Last week we had the bad news that Roger Moore passed on which was a blow even though he was 89 years old. I was luckily enough to have seen him in November 2015 when I went to An Audience With Roger Moore. I nearly got to speak to him but my dreams shattered when the steward with the mic got a bit muddled up with who's turn it was to speak. Oh well at least I got to see one of my hero's.So now I have paid a small tribute to Roger, I encourage you to grab a copy of Gold and sit down with a bottle of wine and have your own tribute night to the legend. RIP.

For me "GOLD" is the late Roger Moore's best performance, he was brilliant in this film.Now the Blu-ray and sound quality is very nice, so well worth upgrading from your old DVD.You get a few Bonus features including a Roger Moore Documentary - A Matter of Class, which is on for 50 minutes, and Trailers.The film looks good in 2.35:1 ratio, with the Audio being in LPCM Stereo. The Disc is region free A,B,C. Sadly no subtitles.

I finally get a fully restored version after how many years?? Got to see this movie at the drake cinema Plymouth in 1974, same year Moore starred in the man with the golden gun (bliss!). Dad managed to get hold of a nice brochure (type programme) of the movie? Those were the days! Anyway enough reminiscence. Nice transfer to blu ray, with an equally good roger Moore doc plus the film trailer. Go get a copy.

A group of high-flying businessmen plan to have 'South Africa's' largestgold mine flooded to inflate the gold prices world wide, making a financialkilling, to ensure success they have the mines chairman's son-in-law 'ManfredSteyner' in their pocket.When the mines general manager dies by accident whilst working in the mine,'Manfred' has lost his on-site puppet.'Manfred' manages to persuade father-in-law 'Hurry Hirschfeld' to appoint'Rod Slater' a young contender for the post,'Manfred' believes the cavalierattitude of the new appointment will be the ideal candidate to attributeblame to when the plan to 'blast' and flood the mine succeeds.The film builds up toward a tense and gripping conclusion.The picture quality on 'blu-ray' is superior to the DVD version, the soundhas been enhanced to a satisfactory level.The story is of corruption and greed with a total disregard for the livesthat would be lost if the plan succeeds.Enjoyable, well worth a spin.There is little in the way of additional features.....just a 'Roger Moore'documentary and trailers.

When Roger Moore did something other than play 007 movies for laughs, he was actually a very good actor (check him out in The Sea Wolves, or Shout at the Devil). I remember this film from many years ago, and watching it again gave me a surprise as it's better than I remembered. The film has a good, if slightly predictable, storyline with a surprising amount of action. Certainly worth adding to the collection.