Adrian Smith joins me as we return to our long-term discussion of the films of Antonio Margheriti. In the 1980’s he made several ‘military men on a mission’ films for various producers. These movies aped everything from THE DIRTY DOZEN to RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2 (1985) accomplishing much with meager budgets. Margheriti’s expertise in special effect work and miniatures were a major help in keeping costs under control. These sometimes great and sometimes insane effects are part of the fun, especially as we get higher definition prints that allow for certain crazy details to become evident.

CODE NAME: WILD GEESE (1984) was the first of trio of jungle action movies Margheriti made with British actor Lewis Collins in the lead and it is easy to see why Collins was briefly considered to play James Bond. He projects ‘tough guy’ hardness well and is a solid actor to boot. This film surrounds him with an international cast including an Oscar winner (Ernest Borgnine) and a couple of classic screen bad guys playing nice (Lee Van Cleef and Klaus Kinski) giving everything a sweaty sheen of near-respectability, even if Kinski is very oddly dubbed. Throw in a ridiculous car chase, a few dozen explosions, gratuitous Mimsy Farmer, a surprise villainous turn and it is easy to overlook the regularly disappearing plot, ill-defined motivations and bizarre effects choices. This one is fun in all the over-the-top ways that 1980’s action cinema aimed to be. So, hop into that small helicopter and let’s torch some opium fields for exciting but vague reasons! Woo hoo!