SKY RIDERS (1976, USA/Greece, 91m, PG) ***
Action, Adventure
dist. Twentieth Century Fox (USA), Fox-Rank (UK); pr co. Twentieth Century Fox; d. Douglas Hickox; w. Jack DeWitt, Stanley Mann, Garry Michael White (based on a story by Hall T. Sprague and Bill McGaw); pr. Terry Morse Jr.; ph. Jim Freeman, Greg MacGillivray, Ousama Rawi (DeLuxe | 2.35:1); m. Lalo Schifrin; ed. Malcolm Cooke; ad. Terry Ackland-Snow.
cast: James Coburn (Jim McCabe), Susannah York (Ellen Bracken), Robert Culp (Jonas Bracken), Charles Aznavour (Inspector Nikolidis), Harry Andrews (Auerbach), John Beck (Ben), Zouzou (Female terrorist), Kenneth Griffith (Wasserman), Werner Pochath (Number One Terrorist), Antonis Antypas (Dimitr), Telis Zotos (Bracken’s secretary), Nikos Tsachiridis (Gatekeeper), Ernie F. Orsatti (Joe), Barbara Trentham (Della), Henry Brown (Martin), Cherie Latimer (Cora), Simon Harrison (Jimmy), Stephany Mathews (Susie), Steven Keats (Rudy).
This enjoyable, if absurd, gimmicky action-adventure set in Greece sees industrialist Jonas Bracken’s (Culp) wife (York) and children kidnapped by terrorists and held at a mountaintop monastery. He turns to her mercenary ex-husband, Jim McCabe (Coburn), who assembles a group of hang-gliding circus performers into a rescue team. The plot is absurd and feels like it has been manufactured to capitalise on the hang-gliding craze of the day. The opening kidnapping sequence is well-staged, and the protracted rescue finale is excellently shot and full of thrilling action, helped by Schifrin’s urgent score and Hickox’s clinical direction. There is little in the characters, however, for the audience to invest in, despite the acting credentials of Coburn and Culp and viewers are left simply to admire the spectacle rather than question the story’s logic.
