The Big Gamble (1961)

Directors:

Richard Fleischer, Elmo Williams

Writer:

Irwin Shaw

Stars:

Stephen Boyd, Juliette Gréco, David Wayne

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stephen Boyd	...	Vic Brennan
Juliette Gréco	...	Marie
David Wayne	...	Samuel Brennan
Gregory Ratoff	...	Kaltenberg
Sybil Thorndike	...	Aunt Cathleen
Fernand Ledoux	...	Customs Official
Marie Kean	...	Cynthia
Harold Goldblatt	...	The Priest
Maureen O'Dea	...	Margaret Brennan
J.G. Devlin	...	The Driving Instructor (as Jimmy Devlin)
Philip O'Flynn	...	John Brennan
Fergal Stanley	...	Davey Brennan
Jess Hahn	...	Ferguson, The first mate
Alain Saury	...	Lieutenant Francois
Jacques Marin	...	The Hotel Clerk

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

africa | irish | truck | adventurer

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Taglines:

Across 30,000 Miles to the Fabled Ivory Coast!

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1961 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Das große Wagnis

Filming Locations:

Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Darryl F. Zanuck Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stephen Boyd nearly drowned while shooting this film. He was saved by co-star David Wayne, according to Boyd in a December 11, 1960 appearance as a Mystery Guest on What's My Line?.

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Goofs

The floating tree branch that hits Vic is the same one that Samuel watched float by hours earlier. (Samuel saw the branch when they got stuck in the river, Vic got hit when the truck was nearly unloaded of nearly 300 cases of beer.)

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Connections

Referenced in What's My Line?: Episode dated 11 December 1960 (1960)

User Reviews

Fantastic voyage

Except for the beginning which takes place in a chic wealthy sullen family -which does not fit well in the main plot-,"linear" best describes this movie.A minor movie for highly talented Richard Fleischer who had already directed Juliette Greco in "crack in the mirror" the year before.Greco has some lines in French with her compatriots Fernand Ledoux as a customs officer and Jacques Marin.Which is very useful to her Irish husband Stephen Boyd.

It's the story of the odyssey of a lorry through the jungle and its fevers ,its thieves ,its precipices and its rivers in spate .A critic called it " a cross between "African Queen" and "Le Salaire De La Peur" (wages of fear).Some of the scenes were more or less "inspired" by HG Clouzot's work (1953)but "Gamble" never reaches its level of intensity.Boyd ,Greco and David Wayne team up for better of for worse,and armed up with three hundred boxes of canned beer,they struggle against a hostile nature.