South of Suez

Here you have it. The racism that I was raised on in the 1950's and 1960's when the old movies were shown on Saturday afternoons. Tarzan movies were the worst, but this is one of the runner-ups. It is so difficult to divorce the movie-making from the bias that it projected ( and we won't even discuss the animal abuse and misogyny reflected in these productions, I'll just say I am so glad we live in a different time. Worth watching only as an explanation of where we old geezers came from.

John Gamble (George Brent) ends up befriending Smythe, who has a diamond mine, but is drunk most of the time. When Snedecker (George Tobias) knocks off Smythe, he blames it on Gamble, who is now on the run, trying to clear his name. he meets up with Limey (the awesome Eric Blore !) and they return to england. it turns out, there WAS a witness to the murder, but will the witness come forward and stand up for Gamble in time? this one goes all over the map. Brenda Marshall is the love interest. It's a U.S. film from Warner Brothers, but the court scene takes place in London! it's all pretty good. we were deep in the film code, so we know how the story will go, according to formula. directed by Lewis Seiler, right in the middle of his directing career. good stuff.

George Brent is "South of Suez" with Lee Patrick, George Tobias, and Miles Mander. Released in 1940, Brent plays John Gamble, who is the foreman of a diamond mine owner, Eli Snedeker (Tobias), in Africa. Gamble is soon an ex-foreman, as he doesn't like Snedeker's sleazy practices.

Snedeker attempts to cheat Roger Smythe (Mander) out of his diamond claim, which thus far hasn't yielded anything. Gamble figures the claim must be worth something, so he rips up the papers before Smythe can sign them, angering Snedeker, and Gamble goes into partnership with Smythe. One diamond found on the property is a large, star-shaped diamond worth at least 50,000 pounds.

With that and the other diamonds mined, Smythe has enough to leave Africa and join his daughter Katherine (Brenda Marshall) in Egypt. Before he can, Snedeker kills him, but can't find the diamond because Gamble has the diamonds to sell for both of them. Delia, Snedeker's wife, witnesses the murder, but when Gamble returns, angry that he's rejected her, she tells him she'll point the finger at him. Gamble takes off, makes it to London, changes his name to Bradley, and becomes very rich.

He's never forgotten about Katherine, Smythe's daughter, and locates her. They fall in love, but he can't tell her his true identity, because she hates Gamble and is trying to find him to bring him to justice. One night, he sees an opportunity to get rid of John Gamble forever.

This is a good story, and I have to say I didn't mind the acting as much as another reviewer on this site did. I'm used to George Brent, I guess, and I thought Eric Blore, as his friend Limey that he makes while he's a stowaway on a ship, was colorful enough to make up for any of Brent's shortcomings. As far as the vitriol against Brenda Marshall (Mrs. William Holden), I've always liked her.

This is a melodramatic but entertaining movie containing a typical mistake, stated by a judge, that a wife can't testify against her husband. Sure she can. She just can't be forced to do so.

The Hollywood sets suggest a foreign land, and as stated in another review, probably were left over from The Letter. It makes sense.

Enjoyable.

George Brent is helping Miles Mander mine diamonds and ease off the bottle, so he can return to England and his daughter, Brenda Marshall. But George Tobias finds out where Mander hides his diamonds, and kills him; Brent is already on his way to cash out for both of them, so Tobias claims Brent killed his friend and stole the gems he had already sold to Tobias.

There's a second act which involves Eric Blore, but it's all rather silly and horsey. Visually, the movie peaks during Brent's escape from the pursuing colonials. It's a thoroughgoing programmer from Warner Brothers, and Brent isn't the man to bring it off; it had originally be offered to George Raft, but he turned it down, giving yet another actor a chance to make good. Raft's judgment about these things wasn't particularly good, but surely doing a few programmers would have kept him on the Warners' good side, less anxious to kick him out when Bogie made good. Brent may have been no star, but he keeps things going, and the studio gloss does the rest.

The plot of "South of Suez" is something you simply cannot use any more. After all, the diamond miners in South Africa and other parts of the continent have developed a horrid reputation for mistreating the workers. However, when the film debuted in 1940, folks didn't know or particularly care about this...and so having a diamond miner being the leading man was not unusual but you won't see in the 21st century.

When the story begins in Tanzania, you see that mine owner Eli Snedeker (George Tobias) is a cruel and vicious man. Soon he and his foreman, John Gamble (George Brent) have a falling out and Gamble is thrilled to stop working for this monster. At about the same time, Snedeker is about to cheat a man out of his mine...and Gamble comes to his aid and becomes his partner. You know that sooner or later, the evil Snedeker will do something to try to exact revenge on Gamble...even though Gamble is a decent and honorable man.

When this film began, I was shocked to see George Tobias playing the vicious Snedeker. Tobias was known for playing 'nice guy' roles as well as the Stevens' neighbor, Abner, on "Bewitched"...hardly the type to be a murderous villain! But Tobias was good in this juicy role.

So is this any good? Yes. The story certainly is unusual as well as interesting...and is much like like "Jubal", which is a reworking of the Biblical story of Joseph! See the film and you might see what I mean. My only quibble was the ending...when one of the characters behaved in such an uncharacteristic manner...that was just poorly written. And, despite what the judge said, a wife CAN testify against her husband...she cannot be compelled to do so but can do it if she wants! Still, despite this sloppy ending, it's worth seeing.