Ashanti [Blu-ray]

Released simply as Ashanti, this search-and-rescue film was adapted by scenarist Stephen Geller (Slaughterhouse-Five) from Evano, a novel by Alberto Vasques-Figueroa. Odious middle-eastern slave trader Peter Ustinov sets the plot in motion by kidnapping Beverly Johnson, the wife of World Health Organization doctor Michael Caine. As Johnson is subjected to the basest of humiliations, Caine joins forces with soldier-of-fortune Rex Harrison, pilot William Holden and nomad Kabir Bedi to rescue his wife. Shiek Omar Sharif purchases Johnson, clearing the decks for an all-stops-out action finale. Aldo Tonti lensed the picture.