Middling, mid-list, mid-‘50s African Adventure has just enough quirks to make it worth a look. Cornel Wilde, enjoyably lowdown, sneaks into Kenya to find his brother murdered and his opportunity for riches from a reclaimed gold mine unsecured. Does anyone even know where it is? Lucky for him, missionary Leo Genn and anthropologist niece Donna Reed are headed to Mombasa, near the played out mine, along with safari guide Christopher Lee, while field man Ron Randell is already in the area. But this ad-hoc team sees a dangerous journey made tougher still by so-called Leopard Men, a secret cult of native tribesmen out to stop all White interlopers, particularly ones carrying Geiger Counters. So that’s what his brother was hoping to find in the dead mine: uranium. Lenser Freddie Young gives the location work a far more sophisticated look & palette than journeyman Hollywood director George Marshall was probably used to, and some casting agent found dozens of fresh young locals as bearers. (In shoots like these, fit young non-union guys didn’t just play bearers, but doubled up to work as bearers.) Meanwhile, one of the White characters secretly sides with those Leopard Men, believing Africa should be for Africans: Land, Waterways, Mineral Deposits, the works; Stop plundering Black Africa’s heritage & wealth for the White Man’s gain. Here’s the kicker, he’s the villain. Yikes! Along with Wilde’s loosey-goosey perf (he makes a very funny, very fit drunk) and Young’s lensing (can’t blame him for some of the studio sets), it’s this retrograde political angle that makes you sit up & take notice. Maybe next time, this villain might also imagine having one of the African characters figure into the plot.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Wilde returned to Africa, and to his stiff persona, in the intriguing, self-directed THE NAKED PREY/’65. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-naked-prey-1965.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: More like Attention Must Be Mislaid. Here, someone had the ghastly idea of using a novelty score with a loud, jazzy trumpeter cutting up, even walking on for a spot. Fortunately, him & his mouthpiece disappear once we hit the jungle.
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