Posted: Sun., Dec. 31, 1978, 11:00pm PT

Ashanti

(Switzerland)

By Variety Staff

Vuille. Director Richard Fleischer; Producer Georges-Alain Vuille; Writer Stephen Geller; Camera Aldo Tonti; Music Michael Melvoin Art Aurelio Crugnola

Michael Caine Peter Ustinov Beverly Johnson Omar Sharif Rex Harrison William Holden

A polished but lacklustre adventure entertainment.

Michael Caine and Beverly Johnson are World Health Organization medics on a visit to an African tribe when the lady becomes a prize catch of Arabian slave trader Peter Ustinov. Caine's retrieval odyssey thereafter is variously aided by Rex Harrison as an ambiguous go-between, William Holden as a mercenary helicopter pilot, and Indian actor Kabir Bedi as a Bedouin with his own score to settle with Ustinov. All acquit with professional grace but unremarkable impact.

No help to the film's grip on interest is director Richard Fleischer's minuet pacing. He seems to have come under the spell of those Saharan sand dunes lavishly and lengthily dwelled on as Caine and Bedi pick up Ustinov's trail. [Script is based on the novel Ebony by Alberto Vasquez-Figueroa.]

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1979. Running time: 117 MIN.