Simply A Masterpiece

Pretty Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Woeful title aside, CODE 7, VICTIM 5 is a would-be, South African-set detective story from prolific B-movie producer Harry Alan Towers, who also wrote the thing under his 'Peter Welbeck' pseudonym. It stars man-of-the-moment Lex Barker as a private eye who's commissioned to investigate a mysterious murder among the upper crust in South Africa.The best - and only good thing - about the movie is the location photography, captured in stunning detail by famed cinematographer Nicholas Roeg. This is a sunny, great-looking movie which allows you to see plenty of areas of the country usually missing in films; those drives around Table Mountain are particularly fine. A shame then, that the rest of the film is so sloppy.The worst thing is undoubtedly Towers' script, which is mundane to say the least. Despite a few shoehorned-in fight scenes, this is dull, by-the-numbers stuff in which little happens to lift the story out of its lethargic gloom. Barker tours the country for a while, indulges in some light romance with a string of Euro-crumpet in scenes reminiscent of a Connery Bond flick, and finally tackles the villain whose identity is revealed at the climax.The cast put in strictly ordinary performances and Barker fails to show even an ounce of charisma, so you end up wondering why was such a star of his day. He looks a little like a young Stephen Baldwin to me. Some of the action sequences are okay, like an impressive car chase early on, but for the most part this is a chore and rightly forgotten.

Just plain ordinary as I've said. A shame, because even though some of the great 'superstars' are that, i.e., the Eastwoods and Schwarzeneggers of this world, who have presence but not necessarily acting on a great points scale, neither had Lex Barker anything but the same - the gruff actor could've excelled at some point but was resigned to the world of B-movies. This story just has that recipe, girls, glamour, interesting scenery (South Africa)and just an obligatory plot of detective work. Barker is on the hunt for people being picked off (mostly around him) with mention of neo-Nazis to boot. As someone else has mentioned, there are some set-pieces of interest (but only to give it lacklustre merit) like the ostrich stampede. Obviously a foreign production designed with Barker in mind to sell it to the states even if a support featurette, it also beggars belief that Ronald Fraser was cajoled into it. Purposefully noticeable was the absence of any of Apartheid-era South Africa, but as someone else has mentioned, 'District Six' is stated by Fraser's character, which was a former area 'cleared' and forgotten about by the South African government a few years later in its 'Group Areas Act' of ethnic cleansing, well, that's not what they called it, but it was of sorts! This was obviously a nice, cheap holiday to South Africa and much cheaper once they were there already. Of note though, is Gert Van Den Bergh, who, being South African/South African set, hadn't appeared in a lot, other than any film set in that beautiful country - he was mostly remembered for his one and only large-scale, epic film 'Zulu' as Ardendorff, the Boer.

Producer Towers was very big on stories in which people are picked off, one after the other. (He produced screen versions of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" three times!) While this film isn't exactly in the same vein, it does feature, as part of its plot line, five men who are connected by an event during the war being killed, one at a time (the first one being during the war.) Former "Tarzan" Barker plays a hired detective, placed in charge by Rilla of finding out who is behind the slayings before Rilla's turn comes about. As he pokes around South Africa trying to uncover the killer's identity, he is allied with a local police inspector (Fraser) and distracted by two very curvy and very big-haired ladies. Smyrner is Rilla's blonde, Danish assistant and Vendell is his brunette adoptive daughter. Barker is unable to figure out the mystery or to keep the body count at bay until all is revealed at the end in a fairly surprising finale. Barker is still fit and unbelievably tan here, though obviously older than when he swung from the vines and cavorted with his one-time wife Lana Turner. He gives a decent performance, doing a large amount of his own stunts and only looking awkward or in any way foolish when he is mired in some tentative love scenes with the ladies. It's asking a lot of the audience to believe that Fraser is the "chick magnet" that he's portrayed to be here. There's nothing wrong with his acting, but that aspect of his character is ludicrous with Fraser in the role unless he has about 12 undisclosed secrets no one knows about. Smyrner is pretty weak. Her lines (like many peoples' in this international cast) aren't always completely discernible and she's content to smile prettily rather than display any significant emotion in her scenes. Vendell has the spicier role, though she's not exactly amazing either. Both gals show off some serious curves (and use enough hairspray that they should have their own ozone hole named after them!) The setting of Capetown is amply exploited with some really interesting locations and varieties of terrain. There doesn't appear to be much, if any, rear projection here. The cinematography (by no less than Nicholas Roeg!) manages to capture the local color in a reasonably captivating way, especially in a vertigo-inducing scene atop a jagged cliff. The music has a bouncy, swingy feel to it that may annoy as many viewers as it pleases, depending on one's taste. In this relatively tame film, there is one awfully bloody death scene that also includes an actor mumbling a long stream of last words that, unfortunately, reveal aspects of the plot, but good luck understanding him! The revelation of the killer is, thankfully, a bit less obvious than it seems as if it's going to be and that helps make the film better that it could have been. As it stands, it's a so-so mystery whose chief assets are the strong arms and sun-kissed smile of Barker and the interesting location work.

CODE 7, VICTIM 5 is now available in a cheap DVD, and for a few dollars (mine cost $3 US), it's passable entertainment, mostly for the presence of Lex Barker as private eye "Steve Martin" (same name as Raymond Burr's character in GODZILLA). This is a typical Harry Alan Towers production--find an out-of-the-way country where the pound/dollar goes a long way and without powerful unions, hire a lot of locals in small roles, use a lot of free locations to give the film "color," have Towers himself pen a by-the-numbers script over dinner or during a flight. South Africa photographs well (the film was shot by Nicholas Roeg, so it's no surprise), and is so unfamiliar to this American that the background almost becomes a character. The plot is the standard "someone is killing off one by one the members of a group from a previous time" and ex-Nazis are even dragged in. Ronald Fraser (best known in the USA for FATHOM, with Raquel Welch and the late great Tony Franciosa) does a good job as the local police inspector who finds jet-setting detective Barker to be a bit of a pest, but eventually realizes Barker's honesty and professionalism--Fraser and Barker are the perfect foils for each other. Nothing special here--probably of interest mostly to the Barker fan (or those who want a quick three-dollar travelogue of South Africa).