Dark of the Sun

In the chaos of the Congo crisis, a band of mercenaries under Captain Curry is sent to recover a fortune in uncut diamonds and to bring civilians out of a region held by rebels. The mission takes them through hostile country by rail, with rival forces, internal disputes and a strict deadline working against them. Curry commands men whose loyalties and motives do not always align, and the operation becomes less about the diamonds than about survival.

Jack Cardiff directed the film, the fourth of the features he made, arriving after My Geisha and The Liquidator in the late 1960s. Adrian Spies and Ranald MacDougall wrote the screenplay, and George Englund produced the British production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Rod Taylor leads the cast as Curry, alongside Yvette Mimieux as Claire, Peter Carsten as Henlein, Jim Brown as Ruffo, Kenneth More as Doctor Wreid and André Morell as Bussier. Shot for about two million dollars, it took a similar amount at the worldwide box office, a modest return on its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 3,900 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.6 from a much smaller base of 84 ratings, indicating a generally favourable but not enthusiastic response.