Albino

The successful phase of the GERMAN ADVENTURE FLICKS (DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE (The Treasure of Silver Lake9 / HEISSER HAFEN Hong Kong / JAGD AUF BLAUE DIAMANTEN) was actually long over in 1976. Nevertheless, actor (UND EWIG SINGEN DIE WÄLDER / AND FOREVER SING THE FORESTS) and director (DAS MÄDCHEN UND DER STAATSANWALT / THE GIRL AND THE PROSECUTOR) Jürgen GOSLAR brought a sensational adventure film to West German cinemas.

The action takes place in present-day Zimbabwe (formerly: Rhodesia). Terick (James FAULKNER, known from GAME OF THRONES) is looking forward to the end of his police service in the British colony. In the future he wants to spend more time with his beautiful fiancée Sally (Sybil DANNING). Then a fateful attack occurs. Incited by an albino local (Horst FRANK, probably the most bizarre role in the CINECITTA divo's career), rebels against British colonial rule attack the farm of Johannes (ACADEMY AWARD Nominee (1961 for SONS AND LOVERS) Trevor HOWARD) and kill Terick's fiancée in the process. Blinded by thoughts of revenge, he and Katchemu (Sam WILLIAMS) track down the albino, whom everyone calls "Whispering Death". This sinister act of revenge goes against the grain for Terick's former boss (Christopher LEE) and the specially assigned Captain Turnbull (Erik SCHUMANN, known from HIMMEL OHNE STERNE).

From today's perspective, this excursion into the colonial past is questionable for several reasons. The exceptional German actor Horst FRANK plays his role brilliantly, but seems out of place and presumptuous as an albino local. The violence shown in the film is staged in a very inflammatory and racist way. Nevertheless, this film stands out in West German film production of the 1970s. A filmmaker like Jürgen GOSLAR dared to produce a genre film that very strictly fulfills audience expectations in terms of action-packed stories. The great German director Dominik GRAF also acknowledges this in his enlightening documentary OFFENE WUNDE DEUTSCHER FILM about the last remnants of the West German film industry of the 1970s.

Jürgen GOSLAR's film clearly takes some getting used to, but shows that West German cinema could also have moved in the direction of audience-friendly genre entertainment.

In a smaller role is the young actor Sascha HEHN (NACKT UND HEISS AUF MYKONOS), who after various appearances in West German sex films with DAS TRAUMSCHIFF (from 1981) and DIE SCHWARZWALDKLINIK (from 1985) was to become one of the biggest West German television stars in the 1980s.

Albino, although made in 1976, works as an action film set in the present day. This movie is basically about conflict between those who enforce the law and those who break it to terrorize others. This conflict is the key, and it explores the temptation of law enforcers to break the law to get the terrorists. This theme is perhaps more relevant now than prior to September 11, 2001.

Sybil Danning fans get to see her in only a few scenes. This is NOT a sexy movie. Her character (Sally) has a key role in the plot development. Her riding a horse to the climactic confrontation for her character reminds me of classic "maiden in peril" Westerns, and thus ends up being of quite appropriate.

The is a Unique glimpse into Rhodesia during its struggle against antagonist forces both internal and external.

The acting is a bit forced but is easily overlooked for the greater story which is a nice blend of action and pathos.

Stereotypes are here but they may surprise you in how they are implemented.

This is not your typical John Wayne action flick but neither is it an anti Rhodesian hack piece. It walks the line between the two and offers up a compelling story of revenge action and drama.

It benefits most from not having Andrew, V. McLaglen's heavy hand to turn it into a parody od the book. Is he did with the wild geese.

A well acted depiction of life in White Rhodesia from the European point of view, and a rather disturbing story of an irreconcilable conflict between a good man's justifiable need for revenge and the necessity of upholding the law. Parents, and those sensitive to violence, should be cautioned that this is an extremely gruesome film with explicit scenes of rape, murder, torture, and mutilation.

The film credibly portrays the lives of European settlers determined to remain in their adopted land despite the increasing danger of rebellion. Most of them honestly believe that it is possible to live in peace with the Africans as long as they are willing to accept their "civilizing" guidance. The rebels are presented as bloodthirsty thugs who terrorize other Africans and have no real program of true revolution other than savage hatred of the White Man. Most of the Africans are more or less loyal to the Whites and are usually shown to be strong, honorable, and trustworthy, although often in a patronizing manner.

Christopher Lee is quite good as a police chief determined to prevent vigilante justice when a group of terrorists led by an albino (pronounced "albeeno" in the film) witch doctor (Horst Frank) rape and murder the fiancée of a man recently retired from the police force. He (James Faulkner); along with a couple of equally vengeful African servants of the victim's elderly father (Trevor Howard); takes off into the bush to find and kill those responsible. These are not evil men out to indiscriminately slaughter Africans but people who feel that there can be no rest for their souls until they spill the blood of The Albino and his crew. Lee sympathizes with their feelings but is firm in his determination to maintain law and order and bring the killers to justice legally. This, of course, also means hunting down the revenge party, causing the settler's militia to mutiny and withdraw from the operation.

The pursuit of both the killers and the posse is grim and realistic, causing the viewer to actually perceive the stresses and fatigue of the participants. Although somewhat cheaply done, subtly racist, and overly clipped and trite in spots, the film is of great interest from both the historical and moral perspective. I saw it many years ago, but, unfortunately, it; like a surprising number of other quality films; hasn't been made commercially available on either VHS or DVD.

This rather obscure film from German director Jürgen Goslar (who also directed several episodes of the hugely popular German Krimi series "Derrick") is notable mostly for its cast. Horror icon Christopher Lee is top billed as the British police chief in the African province. His mission is to accomplish peace between the natives and the white people. The late great Horst Frank plays an Albino native who leads a gang of terrorists that try to destroy the efforts to bring the natives and the whites together. And young Sascha Hehn - at the time the film was made nearly unknown, but later cast in some German soft core films and later a TV-star as a heart throbbing doctor or Prince Charming in the schmaltzy series "Das Traumschiff", a sort of German "Love Boat" - is a young officer and the best mate of the ex-policeman on the rampage whose wife has been raped and killed by Horst Frank's evil Albino.

The film itself suffers from its only real problem: Goslar directed the movie as a mix of revenge thriller in the tradition of the John Boorman classic "Deliverance" and a tedious social drama that can not succeed in leaving clichés about African natives out of the story. So the film itself becomes a mishmash of entertaining exploitation film and laughably banal social comment. Whenever Goslar goes for the exploitation, he succeeds; we witness a savage (if not that explicit) rape and murder, some really painful torture and a graphic head shot in "Dawn of the Dead" tradition, only that this film was made two years earlier. Whenever Goslar goes for social comment, the movie becomes bothersome, because it's not really convincing. The climax, on the other hand, is a worst case scenario that partially manages to bring the two aspects of the story together.

All in all, this film is quite interesting for fans of obscure films of the Seventies (be it for the actors alone), but it's also a good example for a movie that doesn't live up to its potentials.