The Delta Factor (1970)

***SPOILERS*** Framed for a 40 million robbery of US currency Morgan, Christopher George, is given a chance to redeem himself and cut his sentence down from 25 to 5 years by FBI Agent Ames, Ted de Corsia, by being given the task to not only recover the cash but rescue this important US nuclear scientist Art Keefer, Ralph Taeger, who's held captive on the Caribbean island fortress of Nvevo Cudiz. With pretty FBI Agent Kim Stacy, Yvette Mimieux, acting as Morgan's wife he used their honeymoon as cover to rescue Keefer as well as recovering the stolen money. As it soon turned out Morgan found himself involved with a web of corruption on the island from the Governor General and Police Commissioner on down that made his task of rescuing Keefer and recovering the money far more difficult then he ever expected it to be. There's also the fact the the island is being used as a gulag like prison for political dissidents that are being kept in line and in a zombie like state by being shot up with drugs by the Commandant and his stooges running it.***SPOILERS*** Acting as a drug dealer to gain entrance in Nvevo Cudiz Morgan guns down those in charge and starts a major prison revolt with the hundreds of junkies imprisoned there crashing out. It's during the massive jailbreak that the man who framed Morgan his former army buddy Sal Dekker, Joseph Sirola, who had his face altered with massive plastic surgery pops up trying to retrieve the stolen cash, that Morgan recovered, that he framed Morgan for. Planning to used the airplane that the FBI/CIA provided for Morgan as well as Keefer together with Stacy to escape Dekker, badly injured in the car chase in trying to kill Morgan, in not being quite up to it in being able to hold his gun correctly ends up being blown away by Morgan instead. As Morgan is out of trouble and in the air he's given a chance to escape, from serving time for the 40 million dollar heist, by Kim, who's now in love with him, to make a clean getaway by her looking the other way. With Morgan and the 40 million exiting the plane by parachute and swimming to safety to a boat prearranged in the Caribbean Sea that was there to rescue him.

The first 70 minutes of "The Delta Factor" are essentially all setup: Christopher George (a convict asked to help the government in exchange for 20 years of imprisonment written off) and Yvette Mimieux (an agent) meet, travel to a Caribbean island, check their hotel room for bugs, organize their mission, get in touch with their local contacts, give and take messages in coded form, etc. This is all fine for a spy flick, but when it takes up more than 3/4 of the total running time, there is a problem. The budgetary constraints are pretty obvious, especially when we keep hearing all the time about this terrible storm that has cancelled all transportations, but we never see any of it! The movie finally picks up in the last 20 minutes, with a prison riot / escape, followed by a pretty cool car chase, followed by George shooting and throwing grenades at the remaining bad guys. All this climactic action does not include Yvette, by the way, but when she is on-screen she is irresistibly gorgeous, with a variety of hairstyles, a knockout face and a fit body. Though she was never really classified as a "sex symbol" in her career, "The Delta Factor" makes it easy to argue otherwise! (**)

From the sky-blue eyeshadow that all the women wear to the rugged, steely hero who is too tough to actually act, this movie is the 1960s distilled. No cliché is left unused. The script is full of 'busters' and 'bud' and other masculine dialogue; the women are large of bust-line and and disposable as Kleen-Ex; the cinematography resembles a lesser episode of 'Bonanza' in its realism.Oh, why bother? It's a Mickey Spillane film. That means it comes with expectations and it delivers all of them in the execrable fashion of the Master.Auteur, my right hind hoof. But if you're a Mickey Spillane fan this could be your cup of coffee (tea is for sissies, buster).

I will not give away the plot of the film, but I will say that if you are a fan of any of the major stars in this film and/or Mickey Spillane stories, you will get a kick out of seeing it. After viewing a nice full screen print, I can say that all the ingredients are there for a fine circa 1970 action/adventure flick, and even though it appears to have been made on a limited budget, the director did just fine with what he had in my opinion.Christoper George and his co-stars including Diane McBain, Yvette Mimieux and Yvonne DeCarlo all put in fine work here, and the humor and sexual tension and pacing of the film make for a fun diversion.This is highly recommended if you can find a copy.