The Wrath of God

From 1972, this another of those films from that era which seems to have disappeared from sight, (I recall seeing it only the once on TV, in a late night slot on ITV in, I think, the early eighties).  Which is a real pity, as I remember it as being a well-made action film with an excellent cast and superbly staged set-pieces.  Set against the background of one of those Latin American revolutions so beloved of Hollywood and based on a pseudonymous novel by Jack Higgins, Wrath of God features the three main protagonists involved in a series of shifting relationships and crosses and double crosses, before finally coming together to defeat the main villain: a vicious dictator.  For once, the trailer doesn't lie: the film, as I recall, is that action packed.

Robert Mitchum is, as ever, excellent in his laid back way, as a Tommy gun toting con man posing a priest, his character echoing not just his own earlier roles in films like Villa Rides!, but also Humphrey Bogart in Left Hand of God.  The film also gives Victor Buono, now probably best remembered for playing King Tut in Batman, one of his best film roles as Jennings, 'The Fat Man', a slippery and flamboyant gun smuggler.  Perhaps most interesting is the casting of Scottish actor Ken Hutchinson as fugitive IRA man Keogh.  Hutchinson had previously played a key role in 1971's Straw Dogs but, despite giving another strong performance in Wrath of God, went back into British TV after this movie, frequently turning up as a guest villain in things like The Sweeney. 

The revolutionary background, the presence of an IRA man on the run and Mitchum's character's gradual conversion to the revolutionary cause is reminiscent of Leone's Fistful of Dynamite, released a year earlier, although Wrath of God lacks that movie's complex investigation of the politics of the revolution and its effects on the individual, opting, instead, for a more straightforward action-orientated approach.  Director Ralph Nelson, a veteran of several previous tough action westerns. (although now remembered more for Charly, his Oscar-winning adaptation of Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon), moves it all along at a good pace.  Quite why the movie has vanished I don't know.  I have heard stories that, following an on-set accident suffered by Hutchinson, the insurance company effectively ended up owning the film.  It was certainly a film that seemed out of its time - by the early seventies this kind of big-budget studio-backed action film was becoming a rarity, which might have left distributors wondering what to do with it.  Whatever the reasons for its relative obscurity these days, it's high time it was revived.