A film that helped put at end to the Jules Verne craze that flourished on screens in the 50s and early 60s – that, and the fact that most of the best known Verne’s had already been filmed. On a children’s film level this isn’t bad, with its colourful Arabs, dancing girls, rescues and romantic sweep of a balloon of travelers crossing Africa to claim land for Britain before slavers happened (a big thing the British used as justification for their African colonialism, which is here unquestioned as a good thing).
Adding to the fun is Peter Lorre as a cuddly slave trader (he comes in a bit too late in the day), a cute chimp and Richard Haydn as a pompous British solider (unexpectedly the second best performance in the film). Cedric Hardwicke is non-descript and uncolourful as the professor (a waste of this role, it needed someone a bit mad). Second billed Fabian mostly grins in a not very exciting role as Hardwicke’s assistant; he also sings snatches of the title tune and romances a slave girl (Barbara Luna).
Red Buttons is not ideally cast as the romantic lead – he’s meant to be a swashbuckling, two fisted yet sophisticated journo, the sort of role played by a young Clarke Gable or who could have easily been portrayed by one of the young males under contract to Fox (Stuart Whitman, David Hedison). But it’s Red Buttons, for crying out loud. A talented actor in comic support parts, he’s irritating and lacks the necessary charisma to be a hero.
The film starts a big sluggishly but gets better as it goes in, particularly once Lorre and Barbara Eden join the gang; Henry Daniell pops up as a shiek. (All three were also in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.) They probably should have personalized the slavers racing them on the ground a bit more, and it hurts that the main actors aren’t actually in Africa, just cut in among stock footage.
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