Cuibul salamandrelor

1977 Romanian film

1977 (1977)

Running time

90 minutesCountriesRomania
ItalyLanguagesRomanian
English

Cuibul salamandrelor, also known as Oil! and Oil - The Billion Dollar Fire, is a 1977 Romanian-Italian action film directed by Mircea Drăgan.^[1]^[2]

Plot

An International petroleum company called Consolidated Oil covertly sets fire to an oil well in the Sahara because the government of the North African nation won't comply with their demands. Due to the extent of the damage, oil prices rise sharply. The company's president Mr. Stewart (Ray Milland) assigns John Carter (Stuart Whitman) to deflect suspicion. However, when Carter arrives on location, a company representative hinders his efforts and implies to him that the fire was started on purpose. Consolidated Oil hires a Romanian firefighting crew with little experience in oil well fires, but the Romanian specialists team up with Carter and find proof of arson. Eventually they succeed in putting out the seven fires. Consolidated Oil tries to sabotage the firefighting but their efforts fail. The international news media exposes the conspiracy and Stewart is unmasked as one of the driving forces behind the scheme. He learns that he is to be a scapegoat and is then murdered. His secretary is not only unsurprised when she is informed of his death, but she has already written his obituary. Meanwhile, the Romanian firefighters are publicly celebrated in the unnamed Arab country.

Cast

Stuart Whitman as John Carter
Woody Strode as Ben
Ray Milland as The Boss (Mr Stewart)
Gheorghe Dinică as George Oprișan aka "Salamander"
William Berger as Peter Mann
Tony Kendall as Ahmed (or Tony in the German version)
Radu Beligan as Professor Luca
Gordon Mitchell as Joe
Florin Piersic as Dan
Jean Constantin as Jean
Paola Senatore as Diana Astor
Valentin Plătăreanu as Ionescu
Mircea Diaconu as Grigore

DVD release

A PAL version has been released as Fireforce (Brennendes Inferno) by a company called Elfra. It includes an English and a German-language version as well as filmographies.

References

^ "Cuibul salamandrelor". Archived from the original on 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
^ "Cinema Nocturna Remembers Gordon Mitchell". Retrieved 2013-07-10.