why we got the message loud and clear that he turned down our first choice for the director for Gold", he said. Filming The film was controversially filmed in South Africa under the apartheid regime, with scenes shot at two large mines, Buffelfontein and West Rand. "We had to drop down two miles, which was horrendous,” said Moore. "It was great to start with, and I got tremendously enthusiastic about the mine, but after ten days down there it got very claustrophobic." Some scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in London. The British film union, ACTT, put a black ban on the movie because its members were forbidden to work in South Africa. The Union suggested the film be shot in a mine in Wales instead but the filmmakers refused, claiming Wales looked nothing like South Africa. Some members defied the ban. Bradford Dillman later recalled "Susannah York, a militant liberal, used every publicity opportunity to deplore the conditions of the black miners, despite pleas from the producers to cool it." The complexity of filming the final flood scenes resulted in the movie going over budget. Klinger tried to sell the film to companies such as British Lion, Anglo-EMI, and Rank, but was rejected. He succeeded in selling the film to Hemdale. Reception The film was popular at the box office – it was one of the 19 most popular films at the British box office in 1974 – enabling Klinger to raise finance for Shout at the Devil. Critical The Los Angeles Times said the film "is everything people have in mind when they talk about a movie movie. Its hero is heroic, its heroine is beautiful and kittenishly sexy, its villains are outrageously villainous, its characters crustily colorful. It has scope, scale, surprise. It has more punch than a 15 round fight and more corn than Kansas. It is a travelogue of South Africa and a fascinating audiovisual essay on gold mining." Awards and nominations References External links Gold Mine at Wilbur Smith Books Review of film at New York Times Review of film at Variety 1974 films Allied Artists films British thriller films British disaster films 1970s English-language films Films scored by Elmer Bernstein Films based on South African novels Films set in South Africa 1970s thriller films 1970s disaster films Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films directed by Peter R. Hunt Films about mining Films set