El diablo bwana

Viewers: Hello. This movie does not show up on Cable very often. It reminds me of a much more recent movie, The Ghost and the Darkness. Similar plot...but has historical truth, of the two lions of "Ranchipour". The British colonel was building a bridge over the river, and some 150 workers were eaten by the two lions. He killed the lions. Those two lions , "taxidermied", are on display at the Chicago Field House,Chicago, IL.

Based on a true story. Bwana Devil, filmed in Natural Vision 3-D,came out at a time when movies were competing with the growing popularity of television, which was keeping audiences out of theaters in droves, Arch Obler's thiller has some spectacular photography of the African plains and is somewhat of a documentary. Lot's of shots of animal herds and native tribal dancing. The outdoor shots are brightly lit but the studio shots are quite dark. Third Dimension photography requires sets to be brightly lit. Starring Robert Stack, Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce. This tale of a "Great White Hunter" hired, by the English rail-road company,to hunt down and kill two lions, that are killing off workers, is slow to start but the 3-D action picks up later with many shots of spears being thrown at the screen, on-coming trains heading stright for the camera and, of course, leaping lions jumping from the screen. This movie can still be screen on television, in 2-D of course, and is interesting to see the shots that had audiences jumping in their seats back in 1952.

Apparently this was the first "official" theatrical release in 3-D; without the glasses, pretty much the only eye-catching composition / depth of field comes at the very start, in the opening credits. Lots of uninteresting conversations serve as filler between the infrequent but reasonably well-done attack scenes - considering the era and the amount of blood that could (not) be shown (there is also some blatant use of stock footage). Second-billed Barbara Britton appears after half the movie is over but looks good, especially with sweat covering her neck. ** out of 4.

The story is not unlike the story of Jaws. A tiny group of people is isolated and threatened by this horrible creature, cut off from the world. Experts are brought in to eliminate the menace and restore order.

The only reason I mention this is to show the difference between talent (Spielberg/Benchley) and zero talent (Obler/Clampett) for story telling and film making. This 79 minutes (plus the mandatory intermission early 3-D requires) seemed to stretch way beyond its length. Horrible film.

Quick notes: What year is this story set in? It sure seems like 1952 until Barbara Britton, in high-button shoes, steps off the train.

The highlight was when star Robert Stack took his shirt off. Maybe if he had done the entire thing shirtless I would raise the score a half a point.

This was seen at the Film Forum in Manhattan, struck from the camera negative. It made zero difference as it was still completely awful.

An interesting premise, based on a true life story of two man eating lions but unfortunately, poorly executed. Leading man Robert Stack lacks charisma and the film at only 1 hour and 20 minutes, still drags and, at times, is ludicrous. Nigel Bruce is billed third in this as Dr Angus McLean and it is his penultimate film appearance. Though he has an amusing story about a fish, he is, in the main, a straight character here, though has a twinkle in his eye. He features throughout until the last 20 minutes but unhappily, his Scots accent (Stirling) doesn't really convince and undermines him more than somewhat.