Mamba

In my very early days I enjoyed watching all those golden oldies starring Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. Mamba, shot in color and with sound (it was the first all color all talking movie which was not a musical), reminds me fondly of those long gone days. Mamba is for sure not a movie of interest for many, but if you want to watch one very old adventure movie in a colonial setting, digging deeper into the history of movie making, Mamba will give you a splendid time. Exact rate: 6 + 1 for nostalgic reasons only.

Mostly forgotten today, Mamba was a sort of landmark in its day. It was one of the most bold films that the smaller studios, the so-called Poverty rows, ever made. It was a joint project of Tiffany and Color Art Productions. It had ornate costumes, realistic and spectacle sets, and claimed that it was the "First All Technicolor Drama."

Mamba didn't just have a scene or two colored, as did Dixiana, Rio Rita, Broadway Melody or the Great Gabbo. Money poor Mamba was more ambitious than those films. Mamba was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor from beginning to end. It may well have been the first sound feature to have had such a grand treatment. When the film opened at the Gaiety Theatre in New York, it caused a sensation, breaking the two-week box office at the theater.

Apparently, the color was outstanding with lush greens and excellent flesh tones. Overwhelmed by its Technicolor effects, the critics of the day gave the movie and its stars excellent reviews, pointing out how the film appealed to both men and women alike because of its Jungle theme and the beauty and the beast aspect of the romance.

According to the director, Albert Rogell, while in production Mamba kept running out of money. In order to fool, the creditors, the production kept two sets of identical costumes available so that the cast and crew could keep working on the production.

While this cash poor production may have been a grand success in 1930, Father Time has finally collected the bill on this historic landmark film. It exists today only in fragments. Too bad an identical master copy wasn't keep in the vaults.

I'll start by saying that I'm very glad to have seen MAMBA, thanks to Kino's new release of a long-in-the-works restoration of what was long thought to be a lost film. A print was discovered in Australia and the Vitaphone discs survived (at UCLA I assume). Apparently only fragments of a silent version had been known to survive. Anyway, the money was found to restore the Australian print and put it all back together ... minus some bits the Australian censors had cut out.

Mamba was touted in 1930 as the first All-Technicolor All-Talkie dramatic film. Produced by Tiffany, it was apparently a success in its day.

Unfortunately, the story of the film's production and rediscovery is almost more interesting than the film itself. The story is set in 1913 in German East Africa just before the war. Boorish landowner August Bolte (Jean Hersholt) is the local rich man (the notes say he's an ivory trader, but I don't recall any mention of ivory), supposedly called Mamba (a deadly snake) by the locals (although I don't recall this word being uttered). There are German and British soldiers in the area. Bolte forces an impoverished German nobleman to "sell" his daughter (Eleanor Boardman) for a sum of money. Bolte snags his bride and heads back to Africa but on the voyage she meets a dashing German officer (Ralph Forbes).

It seems that Bolte rapes his bride on their wedding night (cut by censors) and she lives behind a locked door once they get back to Africa. Bolte tries to win over the local society by throwing a party for his wife but it doesn't work and they soon get word that war has been declared in Europe. Bolte is drafted into the local German army but there is a big native uprising that binds together the Germans and Brits (at least temporarily) against them.

Sorry to say the acting is abysmal. Stiff and hammy and much of the time they seem to be parodying silent acting technique. Boardman spends most of her time wringing her hands and when she speaks (which isn't often) she sounds more like she's from Old Virginy than Old Germany. Hersholt comes off best as the slimy pig. Forbes is a piece of wood with a scar across his cheek. Will Stanton plays the Cockney servant for comic relief.

The color is quite good (2-strip Technicolor or whatever we call it these days) although it's limited to red and greens. Much credit is due to the UCLA restoration team and the various partners. The film looks great, and the sound is very good.

The story reminded me a lot of THE WITNESS FOR THE DEFENSE (1919) with Hersholt on par with Warner Oland's deranged husband in that Elsie Ferguson film.

This film was shown at Capitolfest 2018, Rome, NY, in as complete a condition as it's going to get. The soundtrack has been corrected, missing pieces added (except for a sequence deemed offensive by the Australian Censors in the 30's) and it has been gussied up for public viewing. The restoration of "Mamba" is a story in itself.

"Mamba" is a rarity in that it is in color and produced by the now-defunct Tiffany studio, an independent which makes the fact it's in color even more remarkable. It is really not as bad as the website rating would indicate, it's just that the plot is a little far-fetched.

'Mamba' is the nickname of the despised civilian trader in the German East African jungle, hated both by the German and the British troops in the area. He decides he must have a bride to keep him company and bullies a debtor to marry his daughter back in Austria. On the trip back a German officer (Ralph Forbes) is smitten by her (Eleanor Boardman), and the movie takes on a life of its own. The main reason to see 'Mamba' apart from the technical acheivements is Jean Hershholt, who is outstanding in the role of the repugnant Bolte, the trader/husband in the title. There are also some rousing battle scenes which lend excitement to the story. It is worth seeing for the reasons mentioned. Shown at Capitolfest, Rome, NY 8/18.

7/10 - The website no longer prints my star ratings.

To update the other reviews on this site, the film exists in its entirety in two-strip Technicolor. The owners also have five sound discs (5 through 8). UCLA possesses two reels (1,9) and all nine sound discs. Attempts are underway to combine these two sources and hopefully with UCLA's track record of superb restorations of early Technicolor films, MAMBA will soon be available for viewing once again for the first time in eighty years.

Initial viewing of reel five and almost all of reel six reveals a stellar performance by Jean Hersholt as the villainous bore, August Bolte, and a sensitive take by aristocratic Eleanor Boardman as Helen. Ralph Forbes is rather stiff and affected as the so-called hero, Karl Von Reiden. The colors are lovely - reds and greens predominate, but the flesh tones are quite authentic.

This seems to be a treasure, awaiting interest and funding for a proper restoration.