And speaking as we were yesterday of hero of my youth (and Mel Gibson of his day) Australian leading man Rod Taylor, I am shocked to discover that perhaps his very best film -- and without question one of the sophisticated and accomplished action flicks of the decade -- is currently, and inexplicably, unavailable on DVD.

I refer, of course, to the gritty (and prescient) tale of mercenaries during the Congo uprising, the quite remarkable Dark of the Sun from 1968. Directed by the equally remarkable Jack Cardiff, and starring Taylor, Yvette Mimieux (his toothsome 1960 co-star from The Time Machine ) and football great turned better than necessary actor Jim Brown.

The plot:

The Congo,1964: Good guy soldier of fortune Bruce Curry (Taylor) is hired by President Ubi (Calvin Lockhart) to rescue the white residents of a remote jungle town about to be attacked by rebels, but his real (and ultra-secret) mission is to relieve 50 million dollars in diamonds stashed in a high-tech vault there. Curry enlists a team including his Congolese (educated in America) pal Ruffo (Brown), evil ex-Nazi Captain Henlein (Peter Carsten) and alcoholic Doctor Wreid (Kenneth More, in a should-have-won an Oscar turn). Heading by troop train into the heart of darkness, Curry rescues a beautiful civilian (Mimieux), fights an inconclusive chainsaw duel with Heinlein, and eventually evacuates the white residents of the town just as the rebels attack (the rebels manage to uncouple the coach with the diamonds , but the rest of the train gets away). Curry and Ruffo lead another raid to retrieve the diamonds, and in the middle of it Henlein kills Ruffo in the mistaken belief that he has the jewels. Curry, enraged at the murder of his friend, finally confronts the Nazi in a mano a mano fight to the death, and then returns to turn himself in for court martial.

Here's one of my favorite scenes, with Taylor and Brown bonding before bumping heads with the noxious Nazi captain, played with just the right note of arrogant relish by Carsten.

This was an exceptionally violent film in its day, but while that aspect of the film has dated somewhat, the suspense hasn't. Cardiff, apart from his obvious visual gifts, had a real gift for building and sustaining tension, and the scenes in rebel territory in particular have lost none of their nail-biting, edge of your seat excitement. It helps also that star Taylor is in especially good form here; there's an essential decentness to his portrayal of a character that could easily have been a stereotypically macho jerk (see the future ouevre of Sylvester Stallone and Stephen Seagal) and its adds a moral gravitas to a picture that could easily have slipped into a rather unpleasant nihilism.

In any case, as I mentioned, perhaps inexplicably Dark of the Sun isn't on DVD at the moment, but given that Quentin Tarantino is reputedly a fan -- he uses some of its Jacques Loussier musical score in his current hit Inglourious Basterds -- I suspect it'll get a video release in the not too distant future. In the meanwhile, Turner Classic Movies has a very nice print of the film they show from time to time; I'll keep you posted the next time they air it.