REVIEW: En Ghentar se muere facil

En Ghentar se muere facil
Director: Leon Klimovsky
Year 1967
 
En Gentar se muere facil, AKA In Ghentar Death is Easy, is a war/adventure hybrid that features the charismatic stylings of George Hilton as a treasure seeking adventurer armed with a smart mouth and a slew of slick moves. Presented in the same vein as the Eurospy films and war movies of the time period, the production is an interesting combination that gingerly sets up a number of memorable cinematic moments, while establishing an iconic character that is as sharp-tongued as he is boldly brave. En Ghentar se muere facil is an enjoyable action/adventure flick that has enough charm and variation to satisfy any aficionado of the many respected genres that the film tackles and if you’re simply looking for a good time, then my friend you’ve found your fix.
 
The film follows adventurer Teddy Jason as he is commissioned by a group of rebels to recover a case from a downed aircraft off the coast of the Republic of Ghentar. After retrieving said case, Teddy comes to find that the contents are a cache of valuable diamonds and being the opportunistic little devil that he is, he decides to keep the valuable haul for himself. This of course leads to a whole heap of trouble, for as soon as he recovers the diamonds and slyly stashes them away, Teddy is visited by the secret police. After some interesting interrogation methods that fail to break him of his secrets, Teddy is placed under arrest and sent off to a secluded prison camp in the middle of the desert called The Mines of Paradise. In this direst of situations, Teddy must figure a way out of this hellish prison and reclaim his treasure, but can his cunning abilities and smooth-talking demeanor get him out of this situation or will he be doomed to spend the remainder of his years in this living nightmare? Hell no! If there’s a way then Teddy Jason will find it!

George Hilton plays the role of Teddy Jason, the wise cracking and confident adventurer who never found himself in a position that he couldn’t get himself out of. Hilton works wonders in this film, bringing about a character that is truly engaging and worthy of our moral support as we cheer him on in recovering his diamonds and thwarting his enemies. With the heavy influence of Eurospy elements within the film, George does a tremendous job in bringing about that super spy mentality to the persona of his character. Teddy Jason would have made a perfect Bond replica and I imagine that he would fit right in with the likes of Ken Clark’s Dick Malloy, Roger Hanin’s Louis Rapiere, Ray Danton’s various spy iterations, and the series of exceptional actors who took on the role of secret agent Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath in the OSS 117 spy outings. The amount of energy that Hilton brings to this role is powerful and you can’t help but get lost in the fun that is on screen. With an immensely charismatic performance, George Hilton definitely makes this film, if nothing else, a purely entertaining ride.
 
As for the rest of the cast they do a fine job, but in the end they amount to being nothing more than filler for Teddy Jason’s world. There are a few exceptions though and one being the role of Botul a local fisherman, played by Venancio Muro. Botul is a rapscallion and he carries a good majority of the films comedic relief as he pairs up with Teddy in a series of action comedy set pieces including a rousing end battle where they storm the fortress of the evil Dictator Lorme, played by Alfonso Rojas. We also get a delightful duel role performed by Ennio Girolami in the form of Kim, a viscous but sympathetic general who has a few tricks up his sleeve. Last but not least is the sexy freedom fighter Mary, played by Marta Padovan. She doesn’t get a great deal of things to do in this film, often dropping out of the picture for the majority of its run time, but when she does appear she really scorches up the screen and makes you take notice. When it comes to the characters of En Ghentar se muere facil, none of them shine as bright as George Hilton in the role of Teddy Jason, but all of them do a commendable job in filling out the world for the adventurer to go wild in.

What I find most interesting about this film is that it pulls from so many different influences that it becomes a hybrid of sorts that really can’t be pinned down into one genre of filmmaking. For instance the Eurospy elements are heavily prevalent throughout the story, but they’re not clear and concise enough that you can safely lump it into that particular category. I mean we have a stereotypical secret agent type character that poses as an adventurer, yet he falls in line with every archetype that the Eurospy agent entails. Still his mission is not one that requires him to save the world or thwart a villainous miscreant from attempting to indoctrinate the masses, but simply to assist in the takeover of a dictator through the simple retrieval of a missing case. There’s nothing too epic in this storyline in which you would find in the likes of a James Bond-esque tale, but the atmosphere and fun of the film strikingly reflects the inherent nature of these wonderful movies, giving the misconception that this really is a Eurospy outing just with a slight face-lift and priority restructuring.
 
Another genre that this film tackles is the war movie, particularly the European styled efforts that focused mainly on a rag tag group of soldiers as they attempt to do the impossible. There are hints of this throughout En Ghentar se muere facil, as we witness the formation of the rebels as they chomp at the bit in trying to figure out a way to bring down Dictator Lorme and storm his cliffside stronghold. On top of that there is another side to this film that seems to follow closely along the lines of a heist movie or a prison flick. The entire duration of Teddy Jason’s stay at the desert prison camp seems as if the character had fallen into another movie entirely as the stakes change and the main focus of the narrative is for his imprisoned character to find a way out of this hellish scenario. Combine this premise with the fact that the movie is basically a glorified heist flick, seeing that it all boils down to Teddy taking the cache of diamonds for himself and stashing it away to obtain later, and you’ve got yourself a rather unique film that though packed to the gills and possibly over bloated, is a whole hell of a lot of fun. As a lover of all of the genres tackled within this one film, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this entry successfully combines all of these elements and creates a unique beast that is anything but boring.

En Ghentar se muere facil is a cornucopia of genre trimmings that branch out in every direction yet still manages to maintain a strong core sense and an outstandingly enjoyable and focused story. With George Hilton in the lead role of Teddy Jason, the film has a remarkably charismatic hero to root for and Hilton gives it his all in allowing the audience to be swept up in this twisted adventure. The interactions and special moments that Hilton shares with the rest of the cast as they pop in and out of the main narrative, is often enduring and especially memorable. Often at times the combination of action and comedy finds itself intertwining in the most outrageous of moments, and the carefree nature of the production is just infectious and down-right fun.
 
When it comes to the combining of multiple genres, this film has it down-packed as it gives each respectable movie style its due while making it seem genuine and relevant within the confines of this particular cinema world. From the Eurospy elements, to the heist portions, to the war infused mayhem, to the prison sequences, the film gathers all of these conflicting concepts and perfectly brings them together in a harmonious blend of genre goodness that results in a hybrid that is like nothing of its kind. The name of the game in En Ghentar se muere facil is fun and there is so much fun to be had within its jam-packed runtime. If you’re looking for something that is a bit outside of the norm, yet feels wholly familiar and highly entertaining, then I suggest you hunt this obscure little wonder down because it really is worth your time. En Ghentar se muere facil is…..

What's this pervert looking at?

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Let's quite the grinning and get down to sinning.



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Even outside of the showers, dropping the soap is a dangerous blunder.

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This film was made for 3D. Watch out!

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Ah the last peanut M&M. What a treasure indeed.