The Mercenaries

The Congo, 1960: soldier-of-fortune Taylor braves rebel-held territory to rescue the white folk and retrieve a fortune in diamonds for President Ubi. The political backgound is skated over so we can get on with a crude variation on the cowboy-and-injuns schtick and plenty of lip-smacking carnage. Tricked out with an ex-Nazi (Carsten) still sporting a swastika, a disheveled blonde Belgian refugee (Mimieux), a loyal African sergeant (Brown), and a dipso English doctor (More) who sacrifices himself for a woman in labour, the film has an exceptionally unsympathetic hero and a preposterous moral turn-round at the close. Adapted from a novel by Wilbur Smith.