Sabaka

"Sabaka" is not a great film by any standard, though, in a pinch, it's worth watching as a time-passer. I know this is faint praise, but it's just not a movie I can strongly endorse. The only reason I decided to watch the film is that Boris Karloff was in the film, though he was generally wasted.

The film is set in India and it was nice to see that the film crew actually went to this country to film it. HOWEVER, it was also a severe disappointment that none of the folks in the film were Indians! While Karloff looked rather Indian, most of the actors simply looked like Hollywood actors painted up to look like Indians--which they were. And, in addition to having Hollywood types in the roles, the film also suffered from 'travelogue-itis'--the horrible need to film lots of native scenes and place them into the film--often at the most inappropriate times. For example, during a scene where the jungle is on fire, there is a scene involving a leopard killing some helpless animal---why?!?! What does this have to do with a forest fire?! The story is about a cult started by a couple of scum-bags. They worship the false fire god Sabaka--who is evil and full of nastiness. So it's up to a nice young Sabu-wannabe to infiltrate the gang and bring them all to justice using his trusted jungle friends. None of it is all that interesting but at least it isn't all that dull. And at least it's in color--nice, pretty color. But the story is a bit uninspired and it's just a slightly below average time-passer.

Forgettable costumer about an Indian (dot not feather) boy who seeks revenge on a cult. Boring time-waster with some recognizable faces in supporting roles, namely past-their-prime talent like Boris Karloff, Reginald Denny, and Victor Jory. Nice to see June Foray in a live-action role. Print I saw had very muddy colors. Nothing much to recommend about this unless you are a Karloff completist or you are having trouble falling asleep.

SABAKA appears to be a feature version of the "Gunga" adventures that were featured on a children's show, hosted first by Ed McConnell and later by Andy Devine. I am only familiar with the Devine episodes, which were called ANDY'S GANG. Devine took over in 1955 after the death of McConnell, who had created the show for radio in the late 40s and brought it to TV.

The show is best remembered for its puppet characters, especially Froggy the Gremlin. But each episode began with the host cracking a fat book to read stories of the adventures of "Gunga, the East Indian Elephant Boy." A ten- or fifteen-minute filmed drama ensued, featuring a lot of Indian location footage.

Nino Marcel, Vito Scoti, and Lou Krugman appeared in the same roles listed for SABAKA. Closing credits for the ANDY'S GANG (which is available on EBay etc) list Frank Ferrin as producer.

Gunga Ram, a boy in the employ of a maharajah vows revenge against the cult of Sabaka, the god of fire. The cult had burned his older sister and her husband alive in their home in order to help win converts.

Set in India, with a cast made up of entirely Hollywood vets, it was supposedly shot in India, its more dress up day at the back lot rather than a real shot on location film. Clearly much of the film, the animal and travelogue sort of stuff was shot on location, however I doubt any of the name actors stuff was.

The cast is for the most part is wasted in their small roles. Reginald Denny as a British Lord basically sits in a chair and watches a parade, top billed Boris Karloff plays a disapproving general, and while he's very good in his scenes has a role that means nothing to the proceedings. Only Victor Jory and June Foray as the heads of the fire cult have anything to do. (And its nice to have more than just Ms Foray's voice to keep us entertained.) The movie itself is okay. An unremarkable adventure for kids, its the sort of thing I could have seen my parents dropping me off at on a Saturday afternoon when I was a kid.Its not particularly scary, actually its not particularly anything, it just sort of is. It doesn't help that after an involving first third, where we meet all the characters and have a good number of possible plots set up, the film shifts gears and becomes primarily interested in the revenge story. This would be okay if it wasn't the only thing going on, but as the sole focus of the film its not enough to sustain the last 45 minutes to an hour.

An okay time killer this would be worth seeing if a decent, unfaded and worn print could be found. Its a good example of what family films used to be (and why they went out of favor). Frankly if it wasn't for the stars this film would have been lost to time.

5 out of 10.

This is an incredibly bad yet fascinating Technicolor adventure from United Artists and writer-producer-director Frank Ferrin in which Indian teenager Gunga Ram (Nino Marcel) works as an elephant handler for the kindly Maharajah of Bakore (Lou Krugman). When Gunga's sister is killed by member of a nefarious cult that worships the fire demon Sabaka, the young man sets out to find the cult's High Priestess (June Foray) and bring her to justice.

Amateurishly acted and filmed with all of the finesse of someone who has never seen a movie before let alone made one, this turkey is filled with unintentional humor and terrible dialogue. It would be easy to write this off as bottom of the barrel, yet there is quite a bit of nice location filming, with an authentic parade featuring ornate decorations, and elaborate temples.

There is also the once-in-a-lifetime cast of Karloff as an Indian general, Denny as a doddering old colonial governor, future TV reporter and lover of Fidel Castro Linda Howard as Gunga Ram's ill-fated sister, and June Foray, voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel among others, in one of her few live-action movie acting roles. Be forewarned: there are some disturbing animal scenes, including what appears to be an Indian local killing a real leopard, and a tiger let loose on a live and bound water buffalo.