"Uncivilized" is no great film--but it is a fun film to watch. So, despite a strange and often illogical plot, it's so weird and so unusual, you can't stop watching! Margot Rhys plays a writer whose work has become stagnant. She accepts an offer for a trip into the Australian outback to look for a white man living among the aboriginals--sort of like Tarzan of the Apes, but more like Mara of the Koalas! During the trip, she's kidnapped by an Afghan man(?!?!) and taken to Mara...to become his woman!! You'd assume he'd rape her but instead, their relationship is quite tame. Eventually, the plot gets weird with subplots involving illegal drugs, rubies and an aboriginal war. Often, none of it makes much sense, but since the movie is so odd, you can't help but watch. Also making it easier to pay attention is that the print available for download from archive.org is the original uncut Australian print--complete with a nude bathing sequence. You really can't see much, but it certainly was hot stuff back in 1937--and also an apparent attempt to copy Hollywood's notorious nude swimming scene in "Tarzan and His Mate".
The plot has some serious logical issues--mostly involving the Afghan but also relating to Mara's unwillingness to mate with an Aboriginal (a weird nod to the anti-miscegenation laws of the day in the so-called 'civilized world') and WAY too much native dancing (it was obvious padding). Also, some will blanch at the film's language, as the Aboriginals are referred to as 'stone-age savages' and the like! Still, it was exciting. And, I loved that the macho white man living in the wild (Mara) was played by the not exactly sexy Dennis Hoey--the British actor who later gained fame as Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone. Weird...but interesting.
