Safari

Always enjoyed Victor Mature movies and he was great as usual.

I will never understand why with all the expense of making a movie they very rarely get even close to the firearm reality of what is necessary.

None of the big bore rifles even sounded close to being real. As in later movies like Anaconda they show bolt action rifles being fired repeatedly without the shooter cycling the weapon, reloading with the bolt action being used etc. There is poor sound and absolutely no recoil even being feigned. It is as if they are shooting Daisy air rifles.

When Victor Mature asks for his 900 grain bullets for his big bore express rifle, that was good as they used Holland AND Holland .500 and .600 nitro Express rifles back then, with side by side rifled barrels.

Yet when he shot it, there again was no recoil. All that expensive footage shot yet they show a river scene with a sound stage movie screen behind them, why use that at all? The dead lion dummy, drugged starving circus lion whatever they used looked to be hundreds of pounds lighter than a 500lb plus Atari.

Still very enjoyable movie.

"In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." That was a rock 'n' roll hit in the late 1950s. Where did an American recording group get the idea to do such a single? From this movie, in which the African characters, while marching on safari, sing it - an authentic African folk song that easily translated to a rhythm 'n' blues beat. Here is a fine example of what they used to call a 'program picture' - not a B movie in the early-indie junk-movie sense, or an A studio production either. Just before TV ruled, the major studios used to make minor films (though not B movies, mind you - something beyond that but below a B feature) and called them programmers. That way, they could make use of the actors, writers, directors, etc. who were on a regular payroll, a concept that would die early during the next decade. After all, if you were going to pay all of those people a weekly salary, might as well knock out modest movies that, when you think about it, cost them little but the price of raw film stock. They could be marketed on double bills, then sent over to the Drive-Ins, and finally put into a package that went to local TV channels in those days before the networks got hooked on full-length films (fall of 61). So here were Victor Mature and Janet Leigh as an older man and younger woman who find themselves together on a safari that her father arranges. Mature has ulterior motives - his family was destroyed in a mau-mau attacks some years earlier and he wants revenge, thinking this may be the way to get it. The mau-mau attacks are very well staged by Terence Young, who would go on to do several Bond films. Crisp color and a strong soundtrack qualify this as precisely what it was meant to be - far from a memorable movie, but a time killer that doesn't leave you feeling that you've wasted you're time when it's over.

Wealthy eccentric Sir Vincent Brampton (Roland Culver) , his fiancée Linda Latham and her brother (John Justin) hire the very expert professional hunter Ken Duffield (Victor Mature) . As he agrees to take Sir Vincent Brampton and his young sweetheart Linda Latham (Janet Leigh) on a safari. However , Duffield is actually looking for the murderers of his son who was killed by Kenyan Mau Mau rebels and one in particular , Jeroge , who used to work for him . But then things go wrong , as Vincent is really jealous to the growing affection between Duffield and his girlfriend Linda . Murderous Mau-Mau! Maddened Beasts! Mighty Jungle Love! Filmed Under Military Protectioin Africa's Mau-Mau Country! Love in an Inferno .This is the real Mau-Mau Story! Today's reign of TERROR filmed in Africa! Their love defied primitive jungle laws! White Heat Explodes in Green Hell!

A moving drama/adventure movie with nice mood , it is a rich , robust and colorful picture , a hell-for-leather stuff . However , being full of transparency with the animals out acting the cast . One of several lively , all-action , color de luxe adventures produced by Britain's Warwick films , in this production company usually played Robert Taylor and Victor Mature as stars in the late Fiifties . The plot is simple and light , wealthy hunters hire Mature to lead them on a jungle hunt : an enormous lion , while Victor seeking for vengeance and they continue up country closer and closer to rebel territory, they both get closer to achieving their aims . It also depicts Mau Mau terror , as the tension , intrigue and suspense mantain a real grip across . Along the way , the film reflects the way in which Mau Mau divided two communities , both African and British . In "Safari" anyway , neither White Men , nor African people are necessarily the heroes , but both of them share the guilt of the distresses . In fact, the attitude of the colonials and the Africans are both very partially portrayed , the reason for ¨Safari¨ is more an adventure/thriller movie than a historical film . There are other films about ¨Mau Mau¨ , such as ¨Something of value¨(1957) by Richard Brooks ,with Rock Hudson , Sidney Poitier , William Marshall , this is by far the best film about the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya along with ¨Simba¨by Brian Desmond Hurst with Dick Bogarde , Donald Sinden , Virginia McKenna , this was British forerunner of Richard Brook's work . The usually wooden Mature plays an obstinate hunter whose real goal is to locate the Mau Mau to exact a relentless vendetta . Mature became one of Hollywood's busiest and most popular actors after the war, though rarely was he given the critical respect he often deserved. His roles in John Ford's My darling Clementine (1946) and in Henry Hathaway's Kiss of the death (1947) were among his finest work, though he moved more and more frequently into more exotic roles in films like Samson y Delilah (1949) and Sinuhe, the Egyptian (1954). Never an energetic actor nor one of great artistic pretensions, he nevertheless continued as a Hollywood stalwart both in programme and in more prominent films like The Robe (1953). More interested in golf than acting, his appearances diminished through the 1960s, but he made a stunning comeback of sorts in a hilarious romp as a very Victor Mature-like actor in Neil Simon's Zorro (1966). He eventually took over his activities and, after a cameo as Samson's father in a TV remake of his own "Samson and Delilah" (Sansón y Dalila (1984) , he retired for good . He is well accompanied by the gorgeous Janet Leigh and excellent support cast such as : Roland Culver as a wealthy man whose only obsession: to shoot a famed lion that no one else has yet managed to track down and John Justin as the faithful brother . The ambient of the country at the time is pretty well shown accompanied by an atmospheric and brilliant cinematography by John Wilcox , as well as thrilling musical score by William Alwyn . Being shot on location in Nairobi National Park, and Nairobi , Kenya . Being produced by the notorious producers Irving Allen and the famous Albert R Broccoli who subsequently to finance the successful James Bond series . The motion picture was decently directed by Terence Young .

Based on historical events as the Mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960), also known as the Mau Mau Rebellion, the Kenya Emergency, and the Mau Mau Revolt, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920-1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Executing indiscriminate killings of women, children, and those who will not join or agree with them . Dominated by the Kikuyu people, Meru people and Embu people, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba and Maasai peoples who fought against the white European colonist-settlers in Kenya, the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment (British colonists, local auxiliary militia, and pro-British Kikuyu people).The capture of rebel leader Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signed the defeat of the Mau Mau.

A real big-screen picture, but I can only imagine... Even on my ancient Beta videocassette taped circa 1983, the Technicolor treatment amazes! Yes, there is a lot of stock footage there, but what scenery! The chase scenes, including elephants, tribal Kikuyu warriors, and the entire main cast, are so well put together as to make the transitions transparent. Much of 'Safari' has the feel of a spaghetti western, but its authenticity is never in doubt.

My only complaint is that of historical inaccuracy, since the Mau-Mau revolt (and characterization) is only viewed from the side of the Brits. If you can get past that issue enough to treat this purely as an action film.

Though Safari is hardly in the same league with such location jungle dramas as The African Queen or King Solomon's Mines, it has one thing going for it that I find amazing. It was actually shot in Kenya colony before Kenya became a nation and the Mau Mau rebellion as part of the plot while it was going on.

Director Terrance Young and his principal cast of mostly Caucasian players were taking their lives in their hands just being there. A year after Safari was released to theaters, Ghana became the first African nation granted independence from its European colonizers. That paved the way for about 40 regime changes in Africa. Kenya in fact was one of the last in that group to be granted independence, a lot having to do with the Mau Mau Rebellion.

The story is a standard one, Victor Mature is an Safari guide who takes on a job to guide Roland Culver and his party which consists of among others Janet Leigh and John Justin. Culver is after a rogue lion and Mature wants an excuse to get into the country where the Mau Maus are operating so he can get the guy who killed his son. Culver's got both a drinking and jealousy problem.

I think anyone who's seen a couple of these films knows exactly where this one is going. Safari is a standard routine story, not worthy of the location cinematography or the events of the time. Still give these people a medal for filming in Kenya at that time.