Sol Madrid (1968)

You've never seen David McCallum play a moRe anti-heroic characer than he does in director Brian G. Hutton's above-average narcotics thriller "Sol Madrid." McCallum appears as the eponymous protagonist who works undercover for Interpol and lives to bust drug dealers. Indeed, he believes that he shouldn't have to play by the rules because the bad guys don't. The biggest heroin dealer of them all here is Emil Dietrich. "Dirty Dozen" psycho Telly Savalas is charming as the cigarette-smoking villain who lives high, wide, and handsome in his estate in sunny Acapulco, Mexico. Initially, our hero doesn't have his sights set on the urbane Dietrich. He learns from his superior that the mistress of a Mafioso kingpin, Dano Villanova (Rip Torn of "Men in Black"), has left him. Moreover, the man with a computerized mind who knows everything about the Mafia's account, Harry Mitchell (Pat Hingle of "Hang'em High") has fled from the Mafia, too. At first, Sol's mission is to find Mitchell and persuade him to testify against the Mafia. Stacey Woodward (Stella Stevens of "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"), joined Mitchell for $250-thousand dollars. but she didn't accompnay him to Mexico. Sol Madrid breaks into Woodward's bedroom, surprises her, confiscates her loot, and they head off to see Dietrich and his guest Mitchell. Madrid works his way into Dietrich's confidence when he manages to smuggle heroin into California by means of an oil pipeline. The Interpol agent reels in Dietrich afterward for $25 million. Meanwhile, another Interpol agent working undercover in Acapulco is a smiling dude known as Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan"), and he works as a cabbie when he isn't crusading for law and order. Eventually, Madrid is able to persuade Dietrich to sell him heroin on the premises of his house, something that Dietrich had never done before. During the big bust scene, our hero gets into a fight with the villain, and you can guess who survives the confrontation. Sol Madrid emerges as one of those cops who doesn't take prisoners and he isn't afraid of anything. Eventually, he is able to rescue Stacey from the mitts of the mafia. Once the evil Villanova ferrets Stacey out, he incarcerates her in a cabin and gets her hooked on heroin.What sets "Sol Madrid" apart from all of McCallum's other films is the savagery of his character. He exposes a double-agent in one scene and shoots the man at point blank range without a qualm and lets him fall down and die. Later, he tangles with a well-dressed Mafioso and drowns the dastard face down in a muddy pool in Mexico. I don't think that I've ever seen David McCallum play a character as brutal of Sol Madrid, and he displays no remorse for his murderous behavior. "Sol Madrid" was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer a year before Hutton made history with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood in the explosive World War II thriller "Where Eagles Dare." Hutton's next film was "Kelly's Heroes. If you want to see David McCallum as you have never seen him before, check out "Sol Madrid."

I well remember David McCallum from his Man from U.N.C.L.E. days, enjoy him now on NCIS, and saw him on stage as Emperor Josef in Amadeus on Broadway. At that time I interviewed him. I have never met anyone less like a matinée idol in my life: unassuming, detached, nervous, but very polite and obviously hard-working. Only those my age would know that in the '60s, with his cute blond haircut, adorable face, and accent, he was the object of so much affection.Here he stars in Sol Madrid, probably MGM's attempt to capitalize on his matinée idol status. He plays undercover agent Sol Madrid who is assigned to destroy drug traffic coming from Mexico, engineered by a man named Dietrich (Telly Savalas) and distributed by a man named Villanova (Rip Torn).With the help of a U.S. officer working undercover in Mexico, Jalisco (Ricardo Montalban), Madrid uses Villanova's ex-girlfriend (Stella Stevens) to get into Dietrich's home, where he poses as a drug dealer looking for a huge amount of heroin.This is not a very interesting script, but the Acapulco locations are beautiful, and it's a last chance to see the wonderful Paul Lukas -- this was his final film. Savalas has a showy part and acquits himself well. Rip Torn is appropriately evil, and Montalban very good. McCallum doesn't exhibit much in the way of personality; he underplays, but the character he portrays is clever and can get a job done with a sort of quiet authority, and when he needed to be more demanding, he was. So in spite of some criticism of his performance here, I think his instincts were right. Stella Stevens was a good choice for Villanova's girlfriend - tough and edgy.Not great, but not bad.

Beautiful location scenery, an eclectic cast and a fairly pedestrian script add up to an okay crime drama. McCallum plays an undercover drug agent (with the unlikely name of Sol Madrid) who is trying to bring down fat cat kingpin Savalas and mob distributor Torn. He takes Torn's former moll Stevens to Mexico in order to infiltrate Savalas' heavily guarded estate and set up a sting operation on him. Assisting him is Montalban, a U.S. cop who has been working undercover in Mexico for many years and who wants to bring down Hingle, another linchpin in the drug connection. There's a lot of sniping, conspiracy, betrayal and violence along the way as McCallum works to reach his goals. Acapulco locations add a nice touch to the film and there is great, slick acting by Savalas and Montalban. Torn also inhabits his menacing character well. McCallum, however, veers back and forth from a blank nonentity to a petulant child who isn't getting what he wants. His performance is both uneven and uninvolving. Stevens is pretty shrill for much of the time, though she does look great during a lot of the film in her Moss Mabry creations and impossibly thick (faux?) blonde hair. She also allows herself to be seen (virtually) sans makeup in some of her grittier moments. Aside from some witty and authoritative moments with Savalas and a clever (if rather unbelievable) drug smuggling attempt, the film is mostly a drag. It seems a bit aimless and the lead's emotionless demeanor does not invite a lot of investment from the audience. There is a sort of interesting background for the title sequence in which a plant is sliced open and white liquid spews out while the red-lettered credits run. It's a tough, occasionally intriguing film, but one without much emotional payoff or lingering interest.

2 out of 10Why even bother giving names to these plot advancers? It is a reach even to call them characters, since there is zero context, characterization or texture provided. "Supercop" infiltrates "Latin Drug Lord's" operation using "Blonde Moll" who is on the run from "Mob Guy." Who are these people? Apparently the director didn't care either, all he wanted was a few gun and knife fights to occur in front of a camera.Unfortunately for the viewer, the plot itself is just as underdeveloped. I defy anyone to explain why the Michael Conrad character exists, why Sol Madrid does 3/4ths of the things he does (or how he could be allowed by his superiors to do so), or why "Mob Guy" decides to reenact the desert hotel scene from Touch of Evil.The "mafia meeting" at the beginning is the silliest I have ever seen. And, no, this isn't supposed to be a comedy.David McCallum and Stella Stevens believe the best way to deliver lines in an "intense" scene is to yell them, otherwise, any inflection is superfluous.The only morsels of merit are seeing a completely unbelievable yet interesting way to smuggle drugs play out and Ricardo Montalban, who, despite the decent resumes of the other actors, is the only one who decided to employ his talents instead of pocketing his paycheck simply for showing up on the set.