The Big Gamble (1961)

An Irish sailor (Stephen Boyd) and his new bride (Juliette Greco) go to his family in Dublin to borrow money so they can start a hauling business in the Ivory Coast in Africa. The family gives him the needed money on one condition: he must take his cousin (David Wayne) with him as a partner. Directed by Richard Fleischer (20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA). The film's producer is Darryl F. Zanuck, the former head of 20th Century Fox, and during his tenure he produced classics such as GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, ALL ABOUT EVE, THE SNAKE PIT, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and many others. Now an independent producer (he would briefly return to Fox in 1962), one wonders what he saw in this routine adventure film other than to give a good part to his latest paramour (Juliette Greco, the most talented of Zanuck's mistresses). The film gets off to a shaky start but picks up momentum (about 40 minutes later) when they begin the perilous trek to get to their final destination. Boyd's hard headed Irishman isn't very likable and more than a bit of a prick and Wayne's whiny cousin seems there for some unnecessary comedic relief which leaves the appealing Greco to for the audience to latch onto. The score by Maurice Jarre (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) is pretty good. Unexceptional about sums it up. With Dame Sybil Thorndike, Gregory Ratoff, Marie Kean and Jacques Marin.