Burt Reynolds and Anne Margaret sizzle with on screen chemistry in Burt Reynolds first good movie.Up till this point Burt had been in mostly forgettable movies like "Operation CIA" and "Navajo Joe" or smaller roles in movies like "Angel Baby" and "Armoured Command". Here he shines as he does the type of light comedy for which would become his trademark. Without his trademark moustache his performance is full of charm and wit, with a twinkle in his eye, he is clearly enjoying himself. Plot In A Paragraph: Sam Whiskey is an all round nice guy, but with a loud, fast mouth that gets him in trouble. He is willing to try his hand at just about anything but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he is to salvage gold bars, which Laura's dead husband stole recently, from a sunken ship and secretly bring them back to the mint before they are missed. But how shall he manage to get several hundred pounds of gold into the mint without anyone noticing??Of the rest of the cast, frequent costar of Burt Reynolds, Sweet Ossie Davies who I adore, is great here, like wise Clint Walker. Anne Margaret is gorgeous, and it's easy to see how she tempted Reynolds character to do her bidding!!

Many movies are produced for purposes other than artistic merit, or creative urge, so I'm not going to review the "quality" of this movie, as that is not its point. (Or maybe a I will... it's hard to avoid!) In 1969, movies were much more expensive to produce than today (as far as film stock, negatives, distribution, etc.), so major studio releases had to use certain stock genres, settings, and well known stars to get projects approved.This is one of those projects, and it serves that purpose well. If you want to see Burt and Angie in their prime, having a good time making a movie, then this time capsule is for you. It bangs right along, with no slow spots, and it easy to consume and understand.It's a great movie to watch for the flavor of sixties star driven action comedies, but it is very dated, and not well written. The dialog is basic, and the plot such as it is, exists just to string together action sequences. This movie never was never intended to be good, bad, or indifferent. It was supposed to sell tickets and refreshments when people wanted to get out for the evening.But that's fine - it did its job when it needed to, but skip it unless you're interested in the culture of the time when the movie was made, it doesn't stand alone as a movie of the genre worth watching.

It's no mystery that Burt Reynolds is one of the most underestimated actors of our time. In this particular film, he gave us one of his best comedy-stilish acting ("no-one noticed it", he said) which makes this movie working. Burt's acting would be enough to make it watchable, but also Ossie Davis and Clint Walker fit well in their roles.For me the remarkable of this movie is a) the way it is directed and edited (it ain't dull for one second), although there are some silly situations (e.g. Burt firing with a machine gun to save his friends killing all his enemies without hitting his friends...), but hey, it's a comedy and it's not the story which is most interesting. It's the mood of the film and the way characters are portrayed. It contains a lot of fine jokes and dialogue ("I'm not riding this long way to bury your bird") and chemistry between Burt and Angie Dickinson is amazing. Also the more serious parts of the film (stealing the gold out of the fort) are working well.Also, there are some things which seem to be rare in a film: The fact that no-one of the "thieves" have intentions killing his buddies to keep the gold for himself. No, they even break in to return it back to the government! It's hardly believable, but it is that fact that make the film and these characters charming.I give it a 7 of 10

This is a forgotten Burt Reynolds film, that is not really that bad. This is some humor in Burt's character, and Ossie Davis, The two were paired again years later in evening shade. maybe united artists will put this on dvd, or at least tape.