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| Series Aired | 1977 | |
| Running time | 4 hours 2 mins | |
| UK Certificate | 12 | |
The Rhinemann Exchange - Starring Stephen Collins
Review
As a mini series it works rather well. You have time to build up the characters, and set out the story. The story is of course fairly straight forward. Spaulding, is sent to Argentina, to acquire plans for a gyroscope that works. Others are intent on stopping him for varying reasons.
Spaulding is an honourable man with a technical background, but he is not told of the true nature of the transaction that is to be undertaken, only that the man from Lisbon, is required to terminate Rhinemann at the end of the deal.
The action is somewhat staid by todays standards. The car chases whilst OK do not give a sense of speed or danger. Some of the makeup is also rather dodgy, however it just shows how much such things have improved in the last 30 years.
Spaulding also does a fair bit of bed hopping - one of Ludlums few books where sex is prominent. The sex in the film is of the clothes fall off variety, cue to bedroom door type, but then it is not that important to the story. The first time he meets Leslie Hawkewood and goes off with her, his room is searched, raising questions about her loyalty and who she is working for.
All in all an enjoyable rendition of the book, which it keeps fairly close to. It doesn't suffer from the Hollywood trend of taking a story theme and then changing it out of all recognition - in the latter Bourne movies which bear no relation to the books they came from.
The weakness is its age - it shows just how far television has come in the last 30 years, however you can't criticise the programme for the era in which it was made.
The supporting cast is also very strong with Roddy McDowall (Heroes), Larry Hagman (Dallas) and Rene Auberjonois (Star Trek - Deep Space Nine).
Give it a go and see whether you enjoy it!
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