The Adventurers

DVD Features:

Description by OLDIES.com:

If there's a vice or deceit that doesn't roll across the screen as you watch this Harold Robbins' extravaganza, just wait a few minutes! Candice Bergen, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine, Rossano Brazzi, Charles Aznavour and more star in The Adventurers, an irresistible mega-movie directed by Lewis Gilbert (Shirley Valentine, Moonraker) and loaded with all the trappings and treacheries, power plays and passions, intrigues and in-fighting of the world's super-rich. At the center of the jet-setting story is troubled playboy Dax (Bekim Fehmiu of Black Sunday). Raised far from his South American homeland of Corteguay amid the high society and political intrigue of Italy, Dax uses romance as a stepping-stone to success...and all the while schemes to bring vengeance on those who once wronged him and his family. Let the adventure begin.

Product Description:

Set in anarchic South America, THE ADVENTURERS is a thunderously charged 1970s political action-thriller. Bekim Fehmiu stars as Dax Xenos, a troubled playboy whose politico father was killed during a revolution. Searching for enlightenment, Xenos travels from woman to woman in an attempt to cope with his tumultuous childhood. After having an affair with the older and refined widow Deborah Hadley (Olivia de Havilland), he switches gears and falls for the young and sultry Sue Ann Daley (Candice Bergen). The two have a child, but when tragedy strikes and their son is killed, Xenos breaks down and leaves her, opting to seek revenge on his father's murderer, Rojo (Alan Badel).

Produced as an end note to the 1960s, THE ADVENTURERS showcases some of the more risqué social trends of the time on both a micro (infidelity, drug use, debauchery, lesbianism) and macro (totalitarianism) scale and then attempts to explain their origins. In one of his darker films, director Lewis Gilbert manages to save viewers from the pitch blackness of utter despair by serving up some of his witty British-isms. Racy nudity and the well timed appearance of Ernest Borgnine as Fat Cat come as welcome bits of comedy relief in this otherwise bleak film. An underrated film that shares themes with works like Shakespeare's HAMLET and Gunter Grass's THE TIN DRUM, the overbearing melancholic truths of THE ADVENTURERS evoke both a crippling sadness for humanity and a hope for future generations to come.

Plot Synopsis:

In THE ADVENTURERS, the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous take place against a backdrop of political intrigue. A young socialite, whose family was destroyed by an important government official, returns from exile and plots his revenge.

Plot Keywords:

Adventure | Mistaken Identity | Politics | Racy | Theatrical Release | Thriller

Production Notes:

• The film is based on the novel, THE ADVENTURERS, by Harold Robbins.
• According to VARIETY, although the screenplay is credited to Michael Hastings and Lewis Gilbert, at one point John Michael Hayes and Harold Robbins himself were set to do the adaptation. It is unclear whether or not they actually wrote anything; production on this film was delayed for several years.
• Charles Aznavour is well-known as both an actor, particularly for his role in Traffaut's SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, and a popular French singer.

Cast and Crew: