Operazione Zanzibar

A merry yarn and predictably cheesy in all the right places. The fight scenes are particularly wanting and the dialogue is more than inadequate in places, but one is compelled to hang in there to let the plot unravel. The characters are implausible rather than larger-than-life, especially the Arab contingent, but this was 1965 and the swinging sixties seems an acceptable excuse. As usual, for movies of this period and genre, the hero is sadly old enough to be the father of the damsel in distress, leaving one to wonder: where were all the young, virile men before 1970? Perhaps it's also somewhat surprising that, being a British-made film, there is a distinct lack of black actors and extras, especially as this actually was filmed in Mozambique! Overall, it's not the worst way to kill an hour and a half, unless you have something better to do such as walk the dog.