Rent Who Dares Wins (1982)

Great Boys Own Action - Who Dares Wins review by GI

When the SAS were shown on prime time TV storming the London Iranian Embassy in 1980 after it had been taken over by terrorists there was a wave of euphoria in the British media and amongst the public over the exploits of this famous special forces regiment. It was inevitable that a film would soon follow and producer Euan Lloyd saw the potential for a box office hit. Utilising the popularity of TV action hero Lewis Collins, who was himself a part time soldier and who was being touted as a possible future James Bond, a surefire hit was inevitable. Sadly it failed to give him the mainstream film career he coveted. Viewed today this is an action thriller with a preposterous plot that you can drive a bus through but it's great entertainment. The style is clearly influenced by the gritty TV series' that were abundant on British TV at the time including The Sweeney, Target and The Professionals, in which Collins played Bodie, an agent in a special government department. Here Collins is mostly a more suave Bodie, with an attempt to make him a bit 007ish, in a story that doesn't attempt to retell the Iranian Embassy siege but has a climax obviously based on it. Collins is SAS Captain Skellern who is sent undercover to infiltrate a terrorist group masquerading as an anti-nuclear peace movement. The baddies are led by Judy Davis, ruthless but willing to fall for the hero's charms, and the film is a thriller narrative until the end with a climactic set piece storming of, in this case, the American Ambassador's residence. Plenty of gunplay and tough violence, the best scene being the rescue of Skellern's wife and child by the SAS from the evil clutches of Ingrid Pitt. The film was high profile enough to attract some Hollywood royalty namely Richard Widmark and Robert Webber, also Edward Woodward, Patrick Allen have support roles. There's some memorable lines throughout the film and the best ones go to Tony Doyle as the SAS Colonel ("Live bastards......Dead soldiers"). Politically the film is very conservative and caused some consternation particularly amongst genuine peace groups but overall this is a slice of hokum, not to be taken seriously, but great fun.