Stern des Südens

The Southern Star is a very big diamond. Someone steals it. George Segal and Ursula Andress, pursued by Ian Hendry, all hampered by the dipsomaniac homosexual ex-Major Orson Welles, attempt to retrieve it, and have encounters with wildlife, humour and danger along the way.

Typically for a 60s Africa movie, the best things about it are the wildlife shots.

Ostriches cause amusing chaos, cobras are scary, hippos are much less frightening than they look, antelopes leap, lions are fierce - you know the sort of thing.

Orson Welles, as usual, steals every scene he's in, and Harry Andrews's obvious enthusiasm for tribal music is a fairly eye-popping sight. Naturally, we have a lengthy scene in which Ursula Andress swims around naked in the lake for the cheesecake shots.

The main action consists of Hendry and some henchmen tracking Segal and Andress through the jungle and is wholly unabsorbing.

There's nothing objectionable or offensive about this movie, but there's nothing much to recommend it either.

'The Southern Star' is a cracking Adventure Caper based on a Jules Verne novel, It's set in the beautifully widescreen photographed plains of Africa Circa 1900. The title refers to a massive Diamond discovered by George Segal in a river bed,It is taken from Segal by pompous Kramer Harry Andrews, It is later snacthed by appealing African actor Johnny Sekka, with Segal's love interest and Kramer's daughter (the ravishing Ursula Andress) in tow the pair go off in search of the elusive stone, Ian Hendry is the pursuing former lover of Andress intent on claiming the stone, George Segal was at the fledgling height of his popularity here as ever he is always watchable what ever role he is cast in. Check out the 'revealing' river bathing scene with Ursula Andress it goes to show why she will always be remembered as the consummate Bond girl. Orson Welles has a small role as an over the top Gay/Camp Sgt Major. All in all 'The Southern Stone' is a great picture. i'm glad that it's finally available on DVD the quality is great.

The only reason I watched this dross was because I saw the magic name "Orson Welles" in the list of actors appearing (of which more below). To start on a (the only really!) bright note, the footage of wildlife is very good indeed (although it feels as if this was taken from elsewhere and when the actors are anywhere near real wildlife (apart from the tame ostrich), it consists of dummies/props (Segal and the plastic "crocodile" in the river and Andress swimming quietly past a wallowing herd of hippos at a distance of a few feet in a river (fat chance, she would have been dead in about two minutes, killed by what are actually THE most dangerous animals in the whole of Africa - forget lions and cheetahs!) Apart from the quality of the photography, the NUMBER of animals in each shot is also very impressive; massive herds of hippos, elephants, prides of lions, herd of ostriches etc. I fear this shows how much wildlife has been lost between when the film was made (1969) and now (2020), as nature programmes never seem to show most animals in those numbers these days! To move on to the human actors; these are largely as are to be expected. I always expect VERY little indeed from George Segal (who must have been one of THE luckiest actors of his time, with everything resting on his photogenic looks), Ursula Andress (eye candy embodied) and Ian Hendry (ALWAYS playing every role in precisely the same way). A disappointment was Harry Andrews. I usually find him a magnetic actor to watch and one who, no matter who the lead star is, seems capable of stealing every scene he appears in. In this case, however, he goes WAY OVER THE TOP and his booming, laughing, lecherous, somewhat sadistic interpretation just did not work for me. Which brings us to the figure of Welles; absolutely huge/grossly obese at this time (as in "A Ferry to Hong Kong", made shortly before) and obviously just "winging it" in terms of putting any life at all into his part (even though this is admittedly very slim and he does not even appear until about half way through the movie). I felt really sad at seeing him having to take parts in such dross as this, particularly remembering that this was only a few years after two of the (in my view) finest films he ever made: "Chimes at Midnight" (which virtually everyone must agree is a masterpiece) and "The Trial" (which some people (e.g. Charles Higham) certainly do not regard as a masterpiece but which I do in terms of style and cinematic finesse). As Charlton Heston (who starred in another of Welles' undoubted masterpieces, "Touch of Evil") once said in an interview, instead of wasting his enormous talents on dross like this, Welles should have focused on finding a patron or sponsor who admired his work (although being Welles, of course, he would probably never have accepted his position in such a relationship for long in any case!) A very final thing I found abysmal: the MUSIC/soundtrack is beyond horrendous -cheap muzzak, recorded at ear-splitting levels for much of the film and thrown in at what mostly seemed totally inappropriate moments! Overall. a REAL turkey and one I am guaranteed never to waste two hours watching again in my life (even with Welles in it)!

Yes, The Southern Star features a pretty forgettable title tune sung by that heavy set crooner Matt Monro. It pretty much establishes the tone for this bloated and rather dull feature, stunningly miscast with George Segal and Ursula Andress as an adventurous couple in search of a large diamond. Add in Harry Andrews (with a strange accent, no less) chasing an ostrich, tons of stock footage of wildlife, and poorly composed and dull photography by Raoul Coutard, and you end up with a thoroughly unexciting romp through the jungles of Senegal.

The Southern Star is based on a novel by Jules Verne ,one published under a number of different titles .It is most widely known by the title used in the movie but has also been published as "The Southern Star Mystery" and "The Vanished Diamond".

The setting is French West Africa(changed from South Africa in the novel) and the period is immediately before the outbreak of World War One. The star is a large diamond which goes missing and is found by banjo playing American geologist Dan (George Segal).It is actually the property of business tycoon Kramer (Harry Andrews) whose daughter Erica (Ursula Andress)Dan is in love with .Complicating matters is the fact that Kramer's head of security Karl(Ian Hendry)is also after both the diamond and Erica and has a large force of men to ensure he gets both .In particular he has a sidekick Plankett (Orson Welles) a ,man fond of drilling his troops to records of bugle music .

The greatest asset of the movie is its striking location photography of Senegal which ensures the movie is always good to look at .It is also pretty well acted -although I did wonder how Ursula Andress managed to get her hands on full make up ,including mascara ,in the jungle .Welles in particular seems to be enjoying himself hugely .

the action when it comes is fine and the movie has a lot of humour -which is my big problem with it .I prefer my period adventure straight and details like the banjo playing and bugle records grate on me a tad Its a minor grouse ,nothing more and the movie is an enjoyable romp that may have relatively little to do with Verne but is a pleasant diversion on a wet and windy afternoon