Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) fights off his partner, witnesses a shocking suicide, and hallucinates about his wife Helen. During a long, harsh Arctic exploration, he stumbles into a cave where he literally unleashes a river of gold. Years later, he is filthy rich with his own island. He doles on his daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) but dislikes her pick Claude Maillot Van Horn (Rutger Hauer) to marry. Charles Perkins (Ed Lauter) is his business partner. Mobsters Aurelio D'Amato (Mickey Rourke) and Mayakofsky (Joe Pesci) want to buy the island to build a casino but Jack refuses. It's WWII and everybody wants to kill Jack.

The first act has so many surreal touches which doesn't always fit the rest of the movie. There are also some weirdness in the rest including a voodoo orgy and a crazy kill. All the strange touches distract from a more tense thriller. Although I can say that I've never seen a blowtorch used that way. This does have a killer cast which keeps it interesting. This is a cross between Hitchcock and an experimental art-house film. The trial is extraneous and adds no tension to the movie. That's par for the course.

I had never heard of Ed Lauter until he died a few months ago, even though I had seen him in a number of movies; he simply hadn't registered in my mind. While watching Nicolas Roeg's "Eureka", I was surprised to see that Lauter co-starred. I had also never heard of Harry Oakes until I read about the movie. The movie had a good plot but seemed as though it could've been shorter. In the end, I think that the main point to derive from the movie is that prestige makes people go crazy. Gene Hackman's character struck gold and it made him rich, causing him to go nuts, and the insanity extends to his acquaintances. As shown in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Wolf of Wall Street", people will do anything for money.

Anyway, it's an OK not great movie.

Already in "Performance" and in "Don't look now",Roeg showed a pretentious,show-off and gaudy style.The latter film was saved,however,by Daphne DuMaurier-inspired screenplay ,Venice setting and Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland's skills.Here,absolutely nothing.The movie fluctuates with a complete incoherence from a genre to another.The first fifteen minutes recall some kind of remake of "Come and get it" ,an old movie(1936)by William Wyler and Howard Hawks.Then it leaves the adventure films genre for the soap opera,complete with grumpy rich man (It might be Hackman's worst movie)frustrated wife playing tarots,rebel daughter,and French son-in-law with frame of mind(Yes I am a coward!).Then the soap opera turns into a film noir ,featuring as a highlight,so to speak, a vaudou orgy.And finally what a surprise,a trial(You could have been an artist!,Russel says to her father's killer hubby)The colors evoke postcards,the interpretation is either theatrical (Russel and her mother)or inexpressive(Hauer,Rourke,the latter would do better with "Angel heart") As I said,a horrible,horrible,horrible movie.