A TWIST OF SAND

UK, 1968, 90 minutes, Colour.
Richard Johnson, Honor Blackman, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Vaughan, Roy Dotrice, Guy Dolman.
Directed by Don Chaffey.

A Twist of Sand is a routine action adventure with colourful settings on the south-western Atlantic coast of Africa. Richard Johnson is the hero with Honor Blackman as the leading lady – and a group of people trekking across the desert in order to find treasure. Needless to say, there are intrigues and people double-crossing each other. Don Chaffey directed a number of action films including two children’s adventures in Australia, Ride a Wild Pony and Born to Win.

1. Was this a good adventure film? The initial sequences, the Skeleton Coast, the trek through the desert, the personality clashes?

2. Did the war sequences make this a good war film? The war atmosphere, the nature of the mission, the danger on the Skeleton coast? Geoff’s clashes with the crew, the destruction of the submarine and its crew (the significance of the credits sequence)?

3. How effective was the cross-cutting between the war story and the adventure story? What comment was being made on both ?

4. What did the film have to say about the nature of guilt, expiation, the effect of bad actions on subsequent lives?

5. The ending emphasised the expiation theme with Geoff carrying Johann. Too serious? (What did it add in depth to the adventure theme?

5. What did the film show of human greed? The gun running? Riker and his forcing people? Julie and her searching for the jewels? The impersonal nature of greed? Riker murdering David? The irony of greed with the estimated loss of the diamonds?

6. The characters: were they charactered or were they stock characters? the villainous hero, plagued by ghosts and acting tough and rebelliously? The devoted friend? The bully who is greedy and persecuting and ultimately kills? The tough greedy heroine?

8. Johann as surviving from the submarine, his mute state, his madness and violence, his place in the expedition, as a figure needing reparation, being carried by Geoff?

9. The film was an adventure with parable overtones. Was it effective in both aspects?