Well, here we go again when discussing a movie's seemingly obvious virtues falling short of its overall impact. "Cabo Blanco" has got the rugged features of Charles Bronson as a barkeeper, Jason Robards as a former Nazi, Fernando Rey as a chief of police, and Dominique Sanda as some sort of femme fatale. Plus, the added bonus of a distinguished action film director like J. Lee Thompson (his best is still "Guns of Navarone") should have made this film stand out from the pack. No, not really, yet "Cabo Blanco" is diverting enough as a curiosity and not much more than that.
An explosion takes place off the island of Cabo Blanco where some sea explorers are investigating the remains of a ship known as the Brittany - one man is killed. This Brittany ship means a lot to the ex-Nazi, Gunther Beckdorff (Robards), who is living on some palatial home on a hill overseeing all the fishermen who live modestly on the island. Sanda is Marie, some mysterious French-accented woman with no passport who knows Gunther and he is aware of her as well. These two both know that shipwreck holds an untold fortune at stake, allegedly gold. Somehow so does hotel owner and barkeeper Giff (Charles Bronson, a more tender tough guy role before he became a one-man army killing machine in the 80's Cannon pictures), who might have some inside information on that Brittany ship. Or maybe not.
"Cabo Blanco" is quite entertaining in terms of rich atmosphere (the interior look of the bar is perfectly realized; the deep blue sea is enticing), an enveloping Jerry Goldsmith score that speaks high adventure and some decent performances. The plot hanging between four major characters (just barely a reminder of "Casablanca") is truncated and oscillates between murky details and curiously underwritten motivations (you'll quickly forget the presence of Simon MacCorkindale as a spy). Dominique Sanda's Marie is toothless at best with scant mystery or allure and her purpose, other than seeking the man she presumably loved who was also looking for treasure, is the only real mystery. Robards' Gunther is depicted as appropriately seedy yet he meets a rather anticlimactic finish. Fernando Rey is a colorful delight and Bronson, looking a little modern for a 1940's setting, registers with ample charisma. It is hardly a "Casablanca" but, then again, so few movies are.
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