The Jackals

Almost a word for word re-make of "Yellow Sky", with a setting on another continent. No better than the original, but still worth seeing. A pleasure seeing Vincent Price in something not dealing with the walking dead or some ghostly mansion: he shone as the grizzled old prospector, Oupa.

Veteran Hollywood hand Robert D. Webb concluded his career as director of this remake of 'Yellow Sky' that transposed the action to South Africa.

As in the original the wailing of the wind adds a bleak atmosphere to the action. Local colour is supplied by the sound of kookaburras and African drums on the soundtracks with occasional lapses into crass comical nudges.

Most of the supporting cast appear to be afrikaners dubbed with American voices; but as you would expect the most interesting piece of casting is Vincent Price as gun toting young heroine Diana Iverson's gutsy old prospector grandpa.

In rugged South Africa, scavengers arrive from a US-styled western. The group's laconic leader is tall Robert Gunner (as Roger "Stretch" Hawkins). Mr. Gunner has a great name for westerns. He and his men find local blonde Diana Ivarson (as Wilhemina "Willie" Decker) attractive. She has a natural sway in her hips. Gunner kisses Ms. Ivarson roughly and you know they are falling in love. Her grandfather is prospector Vincent Price (as Oupa Decker). He is amusing. This is an anachronistic and unnecessary re-make of "Yellow Sky" (1948), which was an adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (1623).

*** The Jackals (11/67) Robert D. Webb ~ Robert Gunner, Diana Ivarson, Vincent Price, Patrick Mynhardt

In what is probably the only entry in the category of 'voortrekker' westerns, Vincent Price plays a gold miner whose haul is the target of five bank robbers. Love interest is provided by the oddly effective Diana Ivarson (who apparently never made another film) as Price's granddaughter. It's all enjoyable if somewhat disconcerting due to the British and Afrikaaner accents of the leading players who are also decked out in typical 'western' garb. A fun diversion.

My main reason for seeing The Jackals was Vincent Price. And while he has given better performances before, he still gives amusement and sometimes creepiness to the role of the grizzled grandfather figure. Other redeeming qualities are the final gunfight, the most exciting and original of the fight scenes in the film, Diana Ivarson's beauty and the striking photography and scenery. There are however major debits with The Jackals, which I think outweigh the good things. The rest of the cast(particularly from tall and ruggedly handsome Robert Gunnar), and actually Ivarson is the same, are very stiff and do nothing with their cardboard characters, who are to me little more than Western cliché bookends. The violence is more at home in a network television programme from the mid-1960s, while the story is overall dull and bland as well as playing it far too safe. The dialogue, of which is very faithful to Yellow Sky, word-for-word often actually, because of the blandness of the pacing and story seemed very wordy and stilted here. While the score is really out-of-place, it is difficult to take seriously a jazzy xylophone-like score that adds nothing to the mood in a Western. Overall, has some bright spots like Price and the scenery but because of the story, the rest of the acting and the music especially The Jackals did little for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox