Perdidos no Kalahari

Sands of the Kalahari sounds as if it is based on a book by Wilbur Smith, but actually it isn't. It features a top-drawer cast, some blazing African location photography, and a genuinely exciting storyline about survival in the wilderness.

The story deals with a plane crash. The survivors find themselves in the middle of the Kalahari desert, close to a barren, rocky outcrop inhabited by baboons. They manage to make a shelter in the rocks and await rescue, but after a while it becomes clear that no-one is coming to look for them. Tensions begin to rise, and various characters react in various ways: Stuart Whitman's character becomes more and more like the savage, primitive monkeys; Nigel Davenport finds himself sexually craving for one of the ladies in the party; Susannah York becomes increasingly flirtatious; Harry Andrews scientifically toils away trying to come up with a rational escape plan; Stanley Baker just deals with the situation in a quietly courageous way.

The film is very exciting. You get to know the characters quite well, and you find yourself considering their plight very seriously and pondering on how you would cope in similar circumstances. The unpredictable nature of Whitman's character and Davenport's character means that you are always on your guard, expecting the unexpected. This is a really good little film, generally forgotten now but well worth seeking out. If you get the chance to view it... do!

... it's been haunting my memory for years.

All I can really remember (I'm 37, I must've seen it when I was 15) is a feeling of the vastness of the desert, the apparent futility of their situation, and an ending that I couldn't ever forget.

I couldn't remember the name, so I did a search in IMDb's 'Plot' category for 'baboons'. And up it came - good old IMDb! How I'd love to see this again, but I guess it'll never end up on DVD, and I'll be lucky to spot it on TV (even here in the UK, where there are dozens of movie channels).

Review: tough, after all this time, but this film - I think - started me off on a lifelong quest for films that DO NOT COP OUT AT THE END. My God, these films are so much more memorable than the rest. If memory serves, the final images in Sands Of The Kalahari are utterly chilling. Top marks to the team behind it. Fingers crossed I get to see it again one day. For impact, I'd put the ending up there with The Vanishing (1988), The Wicker Man and Runaway Train. I think ... hope my memory's not playing tricks on me!

I had no idea this movie was from Stanley Baker and Cy Endfield, the producer/director team responsible for 1963's Zulu. It makes sense though, as both are above-average adventure movies with an emphasis on character as well as action. Slightly similar to Five Came Back perhaps, only with baboons instead of natives, but otherwise 100% original and entertaining.

The plot is simple enough. A plane crash lands in the desert, where survivors are forced not only to deal with hunger and the elements, but a pack of angry baboons who don't like trespassers. The Discovery Channel likes to remind us we're all just animals. Stuart Whitman confirms it in the performance of his life, playing a man determined to survive, at any cost, an almost psychotic Cornel Wilde from Naked Prey.

Great locations, good camera work, and some of the best primate performances ever put on screen. One look at the Kalahari baboons, and you'll remember Cujo was just a sick doggie.

I'm really gratified to find so many other reviewers having good memories of Sands of the Kalahari and feeling as put out as I do that it is not on VHS or DVD. Nor apparently has it been seen in America at least for some time.

This is a tale of survival, but the characters sure don't come out of Swiss Family Robinson. A small plane crashes in the Kalahari desert in South Africa. One woman, Susannah York, and five men. Only one of them Stuart Whitman who is a big game hunter is really trained for the business of survival. The others are products of the ease and comfort of civilization. One of them, Stanley Baker, is badly injured and needs constant nursing by York.

There's a colony of baboons nearby and Whitman starts identifying with them in every sense of the world. He turns on the others, eliminating them one by one except York who he decides will be his savage Eve to his savage Adam.

The injured Baker gradually heals and in the end proves to be the savior for York. I'm not going to say any more, but hopefully TCM or AMC will run this film at some point for American audiences.

Susannah York is beautiful and talented and goes through a gamut of emotions regarding Whitman and their predicament. Stanley Baker is a favorite of mine among British players, he never gave a bad performance in any film I ever saw him in. But the real treat is Whitman. His devolution of character out in that desert was Oscar caliber material and why he wasn't nominated in 1965 is a mystery.

If some American movie channel gets a hold of this film, do not miss it.

What a great flick. It's hard to believe that it never received the recognition it fully deserved. Acting is first-rate, the scenery magnificent and the plot hooked you in immediately. The ULTIMATE survival movie!

Stuart Whitman played his role as ultimate survivor to the hilt in probably the most effective role ever in his career.

I would hope that some day Paramount comes to it's senses and releases this on DVD. All fans of this movie should in fact demand no less- let's start lobbying Paramount. Until then, it is an all too rarely seen item on cable movie channels like A&E or AMC.