Customer Reviews

The Rhinemann Exchange

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"The Rhinemann Exchange" was the first adaptation of a Robert Ludlum book to film. It was also one of the first TV miniseries, and the cast is a Who's Who of 70's television stardom.

David Spaulding (Stephen Collins) had a very cosmopolitan upbringing thanks to his father, a world famous concert pianist. He has lived in cities around the world, is fluent in several languages, and has an engineering degree. All of this makes him a desirable recruit for US Army Intelligence in the early days of World War II.

After proving himself during an assignment in Spain, David Spaulding is hand picked as the only suitable candidate for a below the radar operation code named Tortuga.

The Germans are desperate for industrial diamonds for their V2 rocket, and the Americans are equally desperate to get a better gyroscope for their bombers. A rogue exchange is brokered, and scheduled to take place in the neutral city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A mission so controversial that his superiors won't even entrust Spaulding with the true nature of the exchange for fear he would refuse the assignment.

In Buenos Aires it seems everyone knows more about Spaulding's msision than he does. He finds himself targeted by the Americans, Germans, and even Haganah as he struggles to learn the truth and complete his task.

The DVD is divided into three chapters corresponding with the original three night airing of the miniseries in 1977. From the DVD package, this is full frame 1:33:1; approximately 4 hours and 8 minutes; Dolby Mono 2.0 English soundtrack, and English SDH subtitles. There are no bonus or special features.

Recommended.

A fantastic print of one of the best mini-series of the 70s. Stephen Collins in excellent and is supported by such well-knowns as Larry Hagman Jose Ferrer, Vince Edwards, Rene Auberjonois, Gene Evans,
John Van Dreelen, Claude Akins, Werner Klemperer, Roddy McDowall, John Huston and of course Lauren Hutton.
A must-have for devotees of superior entertainment.

The DVD was 4 hours of factual information. My husband, a disabled veteran of WWII, and I enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. The story starts out in 1939 and leads up to the start of WWII and continues on from there. My husband plans to watch it again in the event he missed something the first time.

I bought this DVD because of the Robert Ludlum name and I was not disappointed. This 70s mini series was superb --- story line was great and the cast was a-one and the acting was good.

Yes, this is an older TV adaptation. I loved it. It stayed true to the book, and in doing so, had to be long. All the layers of espionage and not knowing who is on who's side was great to see in the series. I'd like to see The Materese Circle done like this.

The first hour of this is terrible. I couldn't finish watching it. This DVD comes up constantly when you look up the excellent films The Odessa File, Marathon Man, and Three Days of the Condor, as well as the decent Holcroft Covenant and Boys from Brazil so, being a sucker for 70's films of this sort I gave this a shot, already knowing full well that Stephen Collins isn't exactly brimming with charisma (see Start Trek TMP) but hoping that the source material would make up for it. Well the adaptation, the lackluster direction, dreadful pacing as well as cardboard performances by all involved make this a terrible disapointment. I wanted to like this, I really did, but phew! it stinks.

The Rhinemann Exchange, based on the Robert Ludlum book by the same name, has a great story going for it. All the acting is very nicely done, as is the directing by the late great Burt Kennedy, who directed The War Wagon, The Train Robbers (two of John Wayne's best later in life films) as well as Support Your Local Sheriff!, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, among others. This is the kind of film that I would watch on a kick back sort of day. The film moves along at a fairly even pace. Its never terribly intense nor is it boring. The story just draws you in and gets you interested in how its all going to work. Being a 1977 mini-series it has that sort of late 70's early 80's made feel to it, which for me is a welcome relief. In other words, don't except the kind of fast paced editing and terrible camera work that some of today's films have. But at the same time, don't expect this to be a really mind blowing film either. The music score is sufficient, very decent for the time, but now a days it might be considered kinda plodding by some. It runs at approx. 4 hours and 8 mins. It can be watched all in one short, or in the three parts that it is broken into (complete with clips of the previous episode, etc. I love it, very 70's/80's feel how its done).

There are some great actors here. Stephen Collins in the lead does a great job, as does Lauren Hutton, Larry Hagman, John Huston, Roddy McDowall, and Claude Akins. Even Werner Klemperer has a bit part in it as a no nonsense Nazi who is out the get the job done no matter what (though a far cry from his wonderful role as Col. Wilhelm Klink in his Hogan's Heroes days, one can't help but smirk at seeing him back in uniform again). These and others all bring Ludlum's story to life, as does a lot of incredible cars from the 40's that are all throughout this film. Some real nice locations, indoor and out, really help the picture come to life. And, there is also almost a noir feel to some of the dialog. Though they were going for a thriller here, they certainly romanced it up a lot for tv at the time. If you like 70's and 80's feeling films and series, films that run at an even sort of pace, has a lot of characters, different layers of story, etc., then this is a great film. I've not read the book at this point, so I can't say anything about that. Knowing the kind of films that Ludlum's books seem to produce, I'm sure this could all be done better and more intense today. But for it's time this is a competent rainy day sort of min-series with a lot of actor's that are fun to watch.

Ipurchased this dvd on dec. 21,2011 for 5.75. My account was charged 17.00. please correct this mistake. Purchased from Amazon.

Wa surprise to find out this was a mini-serie. Good scenario, alot of action and makes you wonder if it realy happenned. Enjoyed the DVD

The series has a good plot but is poorly acted by one and all.
Robert Ludlum's book is much better to read than sitting through this poor attempt to bring his written words to life.