Watusi

This movie try to be the second part of King Solomon´s Mines, but it is not played by such important actors as the first part, but in spite of that I think it is worth of been watched. It is a film to see but not for pretending people.

This is pretty much a straight "reimagining" of H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" story. This time, though, it's the son of the famous "Quartermain" dynasty "Henry" (George Montgomery) who alights on the sleepy African village where his father's friend "Rick" (David Farrar) is nursing his beer. He wants to go back to the mines and help himself to some precious gems. Replete with supplies and their native factotum "Jim-Jim" (Robert Goodwin) they set off on their perilous trek. What's missing thus far is soon found as they travel - in the guise of German traveller "Erica" (Taina Elg doing her best Deborah Kerr impression) and now we are good to go with a standard adventure featuring crocodiles, snakes, restless natives, a few very useful worms and some beautiful (and occasionally shockingly graphic) archive photography. The denouement, indeed the last half hour of this all goes remarkably smoothly and is really rather disappointing. Extra points if you can spot Rex Ingram as it meanders along slowly but determinedly and though it's all entirely derivative and has about as much action as an edition of "Daktari", it's still a watchable film that plays to just about every colonial stereotype and is very much of it's time.

It's following from the classical ¨King Salomon's mines¨ ( directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton, 1950 ) based on novel by H.R.Haggard with Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr . Here the Allan ( one of the members of the league of extraordinary Gentlemen with Sean Connery ) Quatermain's son named Harry ( George Montgomery ) again leading a safari in search for legendary diamonds mines . The starring along with another hunter ( David Farrar ) save the damsel ( Taina Elg ) in distress and originating the ordinary loving triangle . They are fighting off natives , Crocs , Rhino, Cheeta and traps by Pigmeos , among others.

It's a quickie with lack luster and low budget but it manages to be at least an enjoyable adventures movie because contains action, sensational outdoors and outlandish cliffhanger situations abound . It's made on the sets and leftover from previous movie . In fact , the producer Sam Zimbalist ( Robot Monster, Cat women of the moon ) is known for short-budget productions. He fashioned a group of films using stocks originally shot since former films . We are seeing several African animals though the most turn out to be taken from an excessive utilization of stock-shots ,thus Gnus, Elephants, Crocodiles, Snakes, lions , Buffalos and a spectacular stampede . The starring is George Montgomery, a famous actor of B movies . He was born to Ukranian immigrants and was a heavyweight boxer previously becoming a player . Plus was an excellent craftsman and built and designed homes, besides a self-taught artist creating bronze busts for notorious actors . He starred films around the world and diverse genres : Adventures (this one and Steel Claw) , Warlike ( Battle of Bulge and Hell of Borneo ) and especially Western ( Seminola, Fort Ti, Last of badmen, Durango) . The motion picture is produced by M.G.M. and finely directed by Kurt Newmann ( The fly , Mohawk ). The picture obtained limited successful but results to be enough agreeable. It's a good stuff for young people and exotic adventures lovers who enjoy enormously with the extraordinary danger in the lush jungle.

I remember seeing Watusi when it first came out in theaters back when I was 12 years old. Of course at the time I had not seen King Solomon's Mines and could not appreciate the fact that MGM was recycling a lot of the stock footage that they had shot in that film a decade earlier. Now some sharp eyed viewers might recognize Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, and Richard Carlson in long shots.

H. Rider Haggard when he wrote King Solomon's Mines created a Victorian era pulp fiction hero in African safari man Allan Quartermain. It's now 1919 and after war service Quartermain's son Harry played here by George Montgomery is after that elusive treasure that his father left behind, those legendary diamonds from the mines of King Solomon.

Joining him in this venture is David Farrar an old friend of his father and later on they rescue Taina Elg who is a missionary's daughter from some nasty natives. Montgomery has some mixed emotions about her as the World War I years left him with a nasty hatred of Germans.

I think you can see at least partially where this is going and I won't divulge the rest which was a surprise. Put it this way I think the choices Montgomery makes at the end of the film are ridiculous and really renders the film unrealistic to say the least.

Montgomery looks at home in the African jungle as he does in the American west and Elg and Farrar give good performances. Still Watusi is both recycled and faintly ridiculous.

This film, apparently, was hastily concocted by MGM in order to exploit the excess of jungle footage shot during the making of KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1950); incidentally, while the latter had adopted the 1.37:1 aspect ratio (then still the standard in cinema), by the time WATUSI came along the Widescreen was in vogue – which meant that the 'old' scenes had to be stretched in order to fit the new format! Another strange fact connected with the film is that, while it was released in July 1959, director Neumann had died eleven months previously!; actually, he probably wasn't involved in the editing of any of his last three efforts given that they were all released posthumously – which, I guess, speaks volumes about how fast low-budget titles were churned out by Hollywood during this period…

Back to the matter at hand: the film is a sequel to the Stewart Granger/Deborah Kerr KING SOLOMON'S MINES; for the record, I own that version on VHS but haven't watched it in some 20 years!. Given WATUSI's B-movie status, casting this time around is somewhat second-rate (if likable enough): George Montgomery as famous hunter Allan Quatermain's son (with an aversion to Germans, the story occurring just after WWI), Taina Elg as – naturally – a German missionary and the sole survivor after an attack by Natives, and David Farrar as an ex-colleague of the elder Quatermain (who, rather cheekily, is also revealed to be of German parentage!).

The film is good-looking (generating a reasonable atmosphere throughout) and generally watchable, but its singular lack of purpose is more than evident – not least in the compactness of it all (running just 85 minutes), thin plot line (Montgomery retraces his father's steps towards the fabled diamond mines) and, perhaps fatally, its decision to supply romantic rivalry (whose outcome surprises no one) rather than a veritable tension within the group. With this in mind, even the potentially exciting climax in the cave – where the trio has to face perilous rock formation and the threat of lava from beneath in order to reach the coveted treasure – falls flat!; the titular people, then, aren't given anything to do other than sport a peculiar hairdo and engage in the occasional boring tribal rite/dance!