This film is like a moral sermon of vanity, but at the same time it's a thrilling adventure constantly getting screwed up. Perhaps the most interesting performance is by Peter Vaughan as the mentally unstable Johann who doesn't speak at all but only mumbles some German occasionally, and his acting is well worth observing carefully, as he is the key to the developing tragedy. Richard Johnson is reliable as usual, he repeats his feat as leader of a miscellanous party risking their lives, like in "The Haunting" five years earlier, but here they are facing all the atrocities of nature in the burning waste of the Kalahari with sand storms and other unexpected terrors of the sands, which brings out the worst in them. The most interesting and thrilling sequence though is the perilous cruise through the shallows of the Skeleton Coast. Honor Blackman is as tough a girl as ever, Roy Dotrice is the most sympathetic of the party and comes to unfairly suffer the most, while Jeremy Kemp is enigmatical and unpredictable as usual. All these five male actors appear to still be living today although they were all above 40 at the time of the film. It's not a bad story, it gives you plenty of reason for afterthought, it's a curiosity of an adventure film with an impressing struggle with destiny, which as always wins in the end over the weakness of human vanity, but.at least there are some survivors.

The basic problem with this film was it was simply boring. It did not leave you at all interested in the characters, and there development or to care what was going to happen to them. The second problem was the superfluous nature of the character played by Honor Blackman, apart from falling over a lot, she did not seem to do anything. The third problem was the lack of chemistry between the leads. The fourth problem was the total predictability of the way it ended, there was nothing really to get excited about. The film was not that great, I would not choose to recommend this title to you, reader.

seen this film twice once as a kid when it first came out the second in my teens .cant remember the ins and outs .double crosses .richard Johnson as ex royal navy officer with a checkered past a wreck of a galleon with a lot of diamonds. peter vaughn as a mute ex German u boat sailor and a connection to Johnson .did enjoy it and would like to see it again .roy dotrice is rjs right hand man and ends up dead in one of the double crosses.honor blackman is the token totti with not a lot to do .and a bizarre ending involving a conning tower of a German sub.it seems a shame that so many British films made about this time have all but disappeared these are films that i grew up with such as hammerhead long days dying and a film with mark lester as a child who witnesses a murder on malta and is chased by two cops . little or no chance of seeing them on DVD a shame.