[3]In 1959 former British Major and mercenary Robert Dapes (Sean Connery) arrives in Cuba under General Bello's (Martin Balsam) orders as part of the dictator Fulgencio Batista's forces.

When Alexandra's husband takes her out and expects her to drink with a potential (factory) investor and his prostitute, she leaves the restaurant and meets Robert.

Robert and most of the other American, British, and wealthy Cubans flee from Cuba as Fidel comes to power while Alexandra remains behind, alone, to face an unknown future under the new communist government.

[4] The same historical events were featured five years earlier in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II and would be covered again by Sydney Pollack in his 1990 film Havana, starring Robert Redford.

While some critics mentioned the film’s pro-Castro stance, the reviewer explained that “the picture, while taking no position on Cuba today, makes appallingly clear the conditions that made Castro’s revolution inevitable.”[8] Another positive review came from film historian, Leonard Maltin who noted: "Director Lester is in pretty good form with most scenes punctuated by throwaway bits.

I can't help but suspect that at some point during the production, which was shot in Spain, Mr. Lester and his associates decided that there was absolutely no way to realize the Harold Robbins-like potential of the story and chose, instead, to make a film that is a crazy fantasy about old-time Hollywood melodramas".