Maldita Aventura

I watched the film because of the cast. I am a fan of Mitchum, Martinelli, and Hawkins, All of them were at their best physical condition when they made the film, making the film worthwhile if you were a fan of any of the three. Silvia Koscina, the Yugoslavian actress, has a small role as a stewardess during a business class flight sequence. Interestingly, the noted Italian film director Mauro Bolognini had chosen both Martinelli and Koscina to act in his movies by a coincidence. .The film Rampage was ordinary, if not dumb with a story that has a very predictable ending,

Why is the film stupid? "The Enchantress" in the film is a leopard that apparently attracts Asian tigers in the story. The fact is a leopard is smaller than a grown tiger and they don't like each other and have different habitats. The film and the story suggest something else.

Finally to have a German actor Stefan Schnabel play an Asian village chief was poor casting.

Rampage casts Robert Mitchum and Jack Hawkins as a trapper of wild game and a hunter of same respectively. They've been hired by the Berlin Zoo to bag some big cats for exhibition. Both of them see themselves as Hemingway like existential characters, each with a distinct philosophy about the profession they've chosen for themselves. Both have world wide reputations for what they do.

Probably it would all have been fine had not Hawkins introduced Mitchum to Elsa Martinelli his mistress who has been such since she was found in a burned out church during World War II as an adolescent. Hawkins did introduce her to the facts of life, but Elsa's been taking care of business on her own for a while, but she always comes back to Hawkins. A fling with Mitchum though has Hawkins going through the Othello thing without an Iago to stoke those green fires.

The trio is looking for special game, it is reported that there is an enchantress in the Malay jungle, a mixed breed of a tiger and a leopard. When we see the enchantress it looks like it has the bone structure and shape of a tiger, but the spots of a leopard. The Malay natives regard them as special.

I saw Rampage in the theater when it first came out and the jungle scenes are great, but the soap opera plot among the leads is strictly melodramatic. Still I think fans of the leading characters will like it.

This movie is underrated. Robert Mitchum is at his laid-back best as the trapper and Elsa Martinelli is sexy and strong in the female lead. Jack Hawkins is fine, and it's nice to see Sabu in a strong role after The Jungle Book. The musical score (by Elmer Bernstein) is melodic, almost as good as his Magnificent Seven soundtrack. Set this all in verdant Africa with a tiger hunt thrown in, and it makes for good viewing.

¨Rampage¨ is an entertaining mixture of moving story , sunny adventure and loving drama about some wild-animal trappers . A team of professionals who holds each other to high standards in their job have a common objective , the animal trapping in . As German menagerie hires big game trapper , a zoo-suppling wild animals called Harry Stanton (sober Robert Mitchum) and renowned big game hunter Otto Abbot (sad-looking Jack Hawins) to travel to Malaysia to capture wildlife for the zoo , but the main object of the safari is to catch a special piece . As they are also tasked with capturing a very particular animal , a specie known as the Enchantress , a half tiger , half leopard that boasts the movie but when appears , it's rather a disenchantment , as she proves to be a simple leopard with her back dyed pink . Accompanying them is Abbot's mistress , gorgeous Anna (Elsa Martinelli) , an orphan who Otto adopted long time ago . Harry goes for her ; then , Anna falls in love for him . They fly into the jungles of Malaysia, an area that Abbot knows well having hunted there many times before , but it's Stanton who arranges to get the local tribal leader's cooperation and being helped by a native scout (Sabu) . Later on , it occurs thrilling scenes of the tigers hunt , when two of the animals are caught in nets at the same time . Then , there take places the old eternal triangle .

This jungle adventure yarn is full of spectacular scenes , thrills , an usual triangular drama and results to be quite entertaining , though mediocre with a lousy sense of pace and some holes in the screenplay . Hunting scenes through the footage of the capture of wildlife is made by stock-shots in that the risk of the hunters is none at all , as the Rhino hunt is filmed by transparency . Filmmaker Phil Karlson shot this tawdry jungle romance and Mitchum and Hawkins star in it , which should guarantee a high quality excitement and entertainment , but doesn't . This stirring picture effortlessly switching between love story and hunting scenes . All sounds a mite too familiar , it is because the picture is merely a blending from previous films such as ¨Red Dust¨ (1932) by Victor Fleming , ¨The Macomber Affair¨ (1947) by Zoltan Korda , ¨Mogambo¨ (1953) by John Ford and the best , ¨Hatari¨ (1962) , by Howard Hawks . This is a moving though average adventure movie in which a trapper and a white hunter go after a wild animal , a cross between a tiger and a leopard . For more exciting are the scenes of the leopard hunt on a modern building and over the attic . Foot-tapping and lively soundtrack by the classic Elmer Bernstein and glamorous color photograph by cameraman Harold Lipstein , though filmed in Hawai ; all contribute towards compensating for the flaws and gaps in the plot .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Phil Karlson . There were no half measures in this filmmaker . He would make adventure movies or violent and noir films . As he directed Western as ¨Gunman's walk¨ , ¨They rode west¨, ¨Texas rangers, ¨Iroquois trail¨ and Gansters genre or Noir films as ¨Phoenix city story¨ , ¨Kansas City confidential¨ and ¨Scarface mob¨ . Karlson was never able to capitalize on them and raise himself out of the B-picture mire , and he was stuck making things like ¨The Young Doctors¨ (1961), a Elvis Presley vehicle as ¨Kid Galahad¨ (1962) and a pair of failures Matt Helm films with Dean Martin such as ¨The silencers¨ , until he hit it big with Walking tall . Flops alternated with hits through his career , though Karlson's direction was more than successful in ¨ Walking tall¨ (1973) with invaluable help of Joe Don Baker , this was his biggest commercial success and which , since he owned a large part of the picture, made him rich . ¨Rampage¨ rating : 5,5/10 passable and acceptable ; Robert Mitchum fans will enjoy his idol .

The Wilhelm Zoo in West Germany hires big game hunter Otto Abbot (Jack Hawkins) and trapper Harry Stanton (Robert Mitchum) to travel to Malaysia to bring back two tigers and an "enchantress" (half-breed creature: part-leopard, part-tiger). Abbot's house is filled with wild animal artifacts (head trophies, rugs, animal skins). Harry wants no part of animal killing. Abbot's mistress is the statuesque and lovely Anna (Elsa Martinelli), whom he rescued when she was 14 years-old. She is a crack shot and will be along for the expedition. The jungle guide is Sabu ("The Jungle Book," 1942).

Early on the tone for the movie is set at a dinner club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when the confident Abbot suddenly asks Harry if he'll try to take Anna away from him. Harry responds, "You drag it out pretty flat on a table, but as long as you did . . . Yes, I'm gonna try." Anna darts those tantalizing dark eyes; she has subjugated her life to Abbot.

In the jungle the expedition captures two tigers with the help of the local Sakai people, who beat their drums to drive out the tigers from hiding. But as Abbot uses his rifle once, the Sakai chief says that the beaters will no longer help (they are against big game hunters). But there is still one more animal to capture, and the film is not even half over at that point. So there is time for plenty of tension. Although Anna has rebuffed Harry early on, they develop a bond that makes Abbot jealous. Eventually an enchantress is captured after hard work. But on the train to Germany Abbot releases it to attack Stanton, and it soon escapes the train: Abbot is not caring about the damage it will do or the people it will kill. In due course, the climax occurs on a building rooftop with all principals involved.

The acting is fine, and Robert Mitchum has always had a strong screen presence. He reminds one of the legendary real-life trapper, Frank Buck of the earlier 20th century ("Bring 'Em Back Alive," 1930). The underrated Elsa Martinelli is appropriately gorgeous, slender, and sensual. She had a fairly similar role in a comparable but superior film with John Wayne as the love interest ("Hatari," 1962). The photography is fine: "Rampage" was filmed in Hawaii. On the negative side the screenplay could have been better, and the enchantress was rather small and somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, the movie is still worth a look.