Au péril de sa vie

It's 1939 Belgian Congo. Newly arrived nurse Rachel Cade (Angie Dickinson) finds local mistrust. Dr. Bikel runs the failing clinic and is quickly dead. Rachel starts gaining their trust and preaching the bible. Colonel Henri Derode (Peter Finch) is the local administrator. Paul Wilton (Roger Moore), an American doctor with the RAF, becomes her patient.

The old fashion bible preaching is a little off-putting. Back in the day, it would play well as the savages get civilized. It's very old school and pulpy romanticism and colonial jungleism. This may be longest that I stared into Angie's brown eyes. Also it may be the earliest star role for Roger Moore that I've seen. He's not even trying to change his accent. In a modern viewing, it's a little clunky and dated. Then there is the central and title theme. I'm glad that they do call it out with Rachel's "sins" and this is more than a simple white savior film.

The film was not what I was expecting, especially with the likes of up and coming actors such as Angie Dickinson and Roger Moore starring in the film. The story takes place in the Belgian Congo where Nurse Rachel Cade who is young, beautiful and somewhat naive decides to set up shop with all the good intentions in the world to help the native people's with both their physical and spiritual needs. What the young Nurse Rachel lacks in the real world of hard knocks and love she makes up for with her perseverance and dedication to her nursing skills.

Of course the beautiful Nurse Rachel has not one but two men vying for her attention. As I explained earlier Rachel was somewhat naive and inexperienced with being in a serious relationship. But the Belgian Congo can be a lonely place for a beautiful women and all the preaching Rachel provides to the native people she finds herself in a compromising position and suddenly she needs to put her big girl pants on and make a few life changing decisions in a very short period of time.

I can't say I was overly impressed with Ms. Dickinson's "oh so very innocent soft sultry voice" but the native people love her for all she has contributed to their village. The middle of this picture runs rather slow and predictable, but if you choose to hang in there, the results and the ending are worth waiting for.

I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

The performances of the principles in this movie are really very good. The story is interesting and the presentation is balanced in regard to all of the characters. Both the native African and the missionary viewpoints are well presented and believable. The Head Witch Doctor, the chief of the tribe, and Rachel's chief assistant are both believable and representative of a different cultural viewpoint. The way in which she finally puts herself on the line to gain the trust of these people is compelling. Her guilt when she feels that she has failed to be true to her preaching and beliefs appears genuine. The difficult decisions she faces at the end seem to be realistic. All in all a very good movie.

Definitely in line with IMDB majority opinion here in regarding this as a mostly bombastic (especially where religion is involved), dull film with occasional flashes of interest and a couple good performances, from Juano Hernandez and the always under rated Angie Dickinson in the title role. The main problem with it flows from the egregiously bad story decision by scenarist Edward Anhalt to soft peddle the most interesting conflict, namely that of Rachel versus the tribal hierarchy symbolized by Hernandez, and instead highlight the pale, bloodless love triangle between Dickinson, Peter Finch and truly one of the dullest British actors ever to trod the boards, Roger Moore. His romantic scenes with Dickinson act as built in bathroom and snack breaks. The ones between Finch and Dickinson are a little better because Finch is a ten times better thesp than Moore but, still, you weary of them and want more scenes like the African dance that arouses Finch's and Dickinson's carnal desire...and not just for each other. Yes, the scene is on the racist side with its not so subtle message that white passions can be unhealthily aroused by dark races, but it is also quite envelope pushing for 1961, a good seven or eight years before the code was sent a packing, and I'm sure got this movie at least semi banned or censored in the American South. Give it a C plus.

PS...Hard to say whose supposed accent was worse, Finch's Belgian or Moore's American.

Tolerable romantic/exotic/religious melodrama from producer Henry Blanke, who had earlier been responsible for the more acclaimed THE NUN'S STORY and the more popular THE MIRACLE (both 1959). As a matter of fact, this basically extends the African scenes of the former's second half to take up its entire length but, at the same time, incorporating the emotional/vocational struggle inherent in the latter – and, for good measure, the male stars of each (Peter Finch and Roger Moore respectively) were brought on board for this new venture as well! Anyway, the titular figure is played, quite convincingly, by Angie Dickinson; as for her co-stars, Finch is typically commanding but one has a hard time believing Moore as either a flyer (the setting the eve of WWII) or a doctor (and it is clear he did not take the part seriously himself)! The most prominent among the indigenous community are 'holy man' Juano Hernandez (who holds his own against Finch in the acting stakes) and 'medicine man' Woody Strode (whose contribution is, alas, rather limited). The narrative takes a thoroughly predictable but pleasing route – with earnest (and luscious) Dickinson having as hard a time convincing agnostic Governor Finch of the true faith as the superstitious natives…but the 'miracle' finally occurs when she cures a local boy, whom Hernandez and Strode had already given up for dead because his father had dared defy the gods! Similarly, when Moore's dashing but uncommitted character turns up in the second half, conflict naturally arises between him and Finch over the heroine (since both have no qualms about showing their feelings to the missionary girl)! The denouement, then, is as unlikely (with spiritual grace taking the upper hand over basic human fulfillment) as it is melodramatic, but that's Hollywood for you. While unsurprisingly meandering somewhat over the course of its generous two-hour length, the film emerges a good-looking and mildly enjoyable effort very typical of the time – also marked by a lush score courtesy of veteran Max Steiner (that is perhaps exceedingly reminiscent of his Oscar-winning theme from NOW, VOYAGER [1942]!). Incidentally, while the full title of this one smacks of exploitation which is barely present in the film proper, the print shown on TCM UK actually dropped the heroine's foibles and left us with just her name – an alternate moniker under which, however, it seems never to have been shown until now!