Hellfighters
Dir: Andrew V. McLaglen
1968
**
Andrew V. McLaglen's Hellfighters is an odd mix of action vs. soap opera. It's a cross between Dallas and Thunderbirds but without the Cowboy hats or strings. The cast may as well have been made out of wood though. The idea that there is a group of international firefighters made up of reckless (and mostly old) playboys is rather silly but if there was one, I can't help but think they'd have more pizzazz than this!? The action bits look a little bit too staged as if the actors didn't do much rehearsing but the bits with the stuntmen are good. The soap-opera story line is tiresome and somewhat out of place. It's two separate films that don't fit well together, maybe it could have been a good TV series but as a film it just doesn't work. Even hard-core