Impasse (1969)

An American adventurer (Burt Reynolds) living in the Philippines hatches up a plan to steal three million dollars in gold hidden by the army during WWII. But when one of the key players (Clarke Gordon) goes missing, it puts the heist in jeopardy so he must track down the man first. This film must have been a tax write off for somebody. In the 1960s, the Philippines were a popular place to make quickie low budget movies with a couple of American stars and a Filipino cast and crew. CRY OF BATTLE with Van Heflin and Rita Moreno, SAMAR with George Montgomery and Gilbert Roland and MISSION BATANGAS with Vera Miles are three others that spring to mind. They were programmers that quickly vanished or played the lower half of a double bill. The film seems split in half, the first hour devoted to the search for the missing man and the second half, hunting down the gold and the heist. But for a thriller, the film drags which is fatal and the narrative bogged down with irrelevant characters who just waste the story's time. Like the American hippie played by Joanne Dalsass whose character seems to have walked in from some American International flick. The picture is held together (barely) by Reynolds whose ascent to stardom was still a few years away and the always welcome Anne Francis as the missing man's daughter. Directed by Richard Benedict. With Lyle Bettger, Jeff Corey, Rodolfo Acosta and Miko Mayama.