Shirt-shedding Roger Moore (as Rodney "Rod" Slater) works in a Johannesburg, South Africa mine. After a suspicious accident, Mr. Moore gets promoted to General Manager, by nasty non-smoking Bradford Dillman (as Manfred Steyner); then, he meets Mr. Dillman's unfulfilled blonde wife, Susannah York (as Terry). Ms. York is the granddaughter of cigar-chomping mine-owner Ray Milland (as Hurry "H.H." Hirschfeld). Eventually, Moore unbuttons his shirt, then York unbuttons hers. While his wife skinny dips with Moore, Dillman plots to flood Mr. Milland's mine, drive up the price of "Gold", and collect the cash.

It's difficult to picture the suave, immaculate Moore spending years in the dirt - he sure cleans up well. But, the main problem with "Gold" lays with the boring romance - Moore and York look good together, but are saddled with a long, unexciting aboveground "who cares?" affair. The less seen Dillman and Milland are better without even kissing. And, frankly, the characters played by Tony Beckley (Stephen Marais) and Simon Sabela (John "Big King" Nkulu) seem more interesting. With at least six degrees of Oscar-connections, Maureen McGovern's non-hit "Wherever Love Takes Me" received "Academy Award" notice.

***** Gold (9/5/74) Peter Hunt ~ Roger Moore, Susannah York, Bradford Dillman, Ray Milland

With a plot partially lifted from The Towering Inferno, Gold is a man made disaster of a film in every sense of the word.

Ray Milland is the hard as nails South African gold mine magnate, Harry Hirschfeld. He's done something to get the gold traders mad at him because they're planning to do him dirt. John Gielgud is head a gold buying syndicate and he's planning with the connivance of Bradford Dillman who is Milland's grandson-in-law, to blow a hole in the Sonderditch mine that Milland owns, letting in the ocean and flooding the mine. The price of gold will go up because of the sudden shortage. The fact that a thousand men might be killed is of little importance to Gielgud and company.

Nor is it to Dillman who's found out that his wife Susannah York has been cheating on him with Roger Moore the new mine general manager.

The film is a sanctioned glimpse at the former Union of South Africa as the old apartheid government would like to show you. The mining sequences are quite well done and I wish that they had stuck to a simple disaster film instead throwing in the romance.

In fact Roger Moore, intrepid hero that he is, looks ridiculous because when the ocean flood starts, he's out having a romp with Susannah York. Instead of applauding him for his eventual heroism, Milland should have had him canned and banned from the industry.

Unless you like Roger Moore, I'd give iron pyrites a pass.

Made the year following Roger Moore's incredible success with his first appearance as James Bond in LIVE AND LET DIE, GOLD is in many respects a wannabe Bond film. From the cheesy (and, incredibly, Oscar-nominated at the time) and utterly dated score by Elmer Bernstein, to the stylised titles by Bond veteran Maurice Binder and the behind-the-camera direction from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE Peter Hunt you can feel the influence of the Bond films throughout. Even Roger Moore plays a Bond-style hero, completely courageous and with a stiff upper lip of course, who spends much of the film's time bedding his boss's wife – who is played by Susannah York.

The film opens and closes with two riveting scenes set inside a gold mine, where cave-ins, explosions, floods, and amputated limbs are commonplace. Although the mine locations are clearly sets, they're altogether realistic and have a really claustrophobic atmosphere. Throw in some racist South African workers abusing the blacks and you have a very volatile and gritty atmosphere. In particular the climax, a race against time in a flooding mine, is edge-of-the-seat stuff, and Hunt doesn't hold back on the horrifying accidents that were commonplace in mines: one poor worker has his face torn off while Roger Moore suffers the most painful injury of his screen career.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film – all of the scenes set above ground, in fact – is unbelievably dull. Things slow down to a snail's pace as Moore engages in a long-winded romance with the singularly unappealing Susannah York. There's some conspiracy involving the world's stock markets and increasing the price of gold, but it's all very mundane and aside from a decent battle between man and car at the film's climax, there isn't a shred of action to enjoy. Indeed the filmmakers come very close to making Moore's hero repulsive, as he ends up cavorting in a lake with York while the men under his command are being killed in the flooded mine.

GOLD is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith, who also co-wrote the screenplay. As you'd expect from this master author, the locations and technicalities are all authentic, although I could have done without the padded travelogue footage of the South African locations. Ultimately the whole film just feels like a lacklustre Bond flick with nothing happening in the middle – and with a two hour running time, you'll really feel the boredom. The film just concentrates on having stars in throwaway parts, like John Gielgud's corrupt financier who has about five minutes of screen time. Bradford Dillman just stands around as the villain, leaving it to Tony Beckley to be imposing, while at least Ray Milland has fun as the gruff, shouty mine owner. Simon Sabela particularly shines as King, a courageous worker who wins a solid gold helmet for his heroism! Aside from the mine sequences, GOLD is a real bore; perhaps FOOL'S GOLD would have been a better title.