If anything, it’s this Australia poster that’s ‘Not Suitable for Children,’ not the movie. Just what’s going on here? An attack? A warning? A threesome? Yikes! You can figure out what the studio thought they were getting into: a South African Western with Irish grandee Susan Hayward leaving the potato famine behind for a new start on a new continent. (AFRICOLOSSAL! in CINEMASCOPE as the ad copy had it.) But when Dutch Settlement nation builder Tyrone Power rebuffs her, she weds fellow Irishman John Justin and takes a wagon train North, mere prologue to a series of deaths & adventures (widowhood; bastard child; Zulu warriors to slaughter in lieu of Native Americans; lovestruck rival Richard Egan; symbolic tree of tru-love split by a thunderbolt; ruined harvest redeemed by a literal diamond-in-the-rough; even young Rita Moreno to play a local slut). A good two seasons worth of slightly bonkers story beats. Plus a script that regularly sends Powers drifting out of the picture to build that start up country. Director Henry King couldn’t get a break in his last working decade. A fine craftsman, especially of Americana, his sole worthy gig in this late period a tough Gregory Peck Western (THE BRAVADOS/’58 https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-bravados-1958.html ). A few good things stand out: WideScreen views on the big Zulu attack, Franz Waxman’s bustling score; but no one kept their eye on the ball.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Not strictly comparable, but Fred Zinnemann’s THE SUNDOWNERS/’60 gauges the possibilities for a new territory epic. Loaded with well-developed characters, colorful incident & tart Australian flavor. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/sundowners-1960.html
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