It sounds like it should be good - Stewart Granger as a big game hunter in Africa, directed by Henry Hathaway, with location filming. The plot sounds solid in short hand - Granger wants to knock off an elephant who killed a friend of his; that's Moby Dick in Africa - that's fine. A millionaire comes along with him, determined to become a man - that's cool too (shades of The Short Happy Life of Francis Macombe). Indeed, Wilbur Smith used this sort of storyline for the first part of one of his Sean Courtney novels, A Time to Die.
But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Actually, make that, pretty much everything to be desired except for maybe location filming. It's a poor script, with uninteresting characters, no suspense or action. Hathaway's direction feels tired. There's this awful jaunty music theme which is reminiscent of late 60s television.
Most crucially, far too big a role is given to someone called Kaz Garas, who plays the millionaire who wants to go on safari. Garas is spectacularly awful, yelling his lines at everyone including Granger, hunching his shoulders, jutting his head around like an ape. Who was he and why was he given the lead in this? Was he someone's cousin? Someone's son? Lover?
Granger is okay. You believe him as a hunter. He's professional at least which is more than his two co stars. He looks at Garas with contempt throughout the film and you don't blame him. Granger may have been a prima
donna with a limited range but he could act which is more than Garas
can. Granger's character is supposed to develop some respect for him at the
end; you have Granger with this tight smile, sharing a drink with Garas -
he looks as though he wants to shoot him.
In Garas' defence his character is incredibly unlikeable, being a dolt on the first safari (jumping out of a jeep if I'm not mistaken), harassing Granger into joining the latter's safari, tagging along with Granger without invitation, jumping into a dance without invitation, punching out an African dancer who is into his girlfriend, ignoring some suffering local people. He's meant to be rich but how did he make any money? How was he not shot back in the USA? You can't imagine him running a bath let alone some kind of business.
Gabriella Licudi is also terrible as Garas' girlfriend, acting
in this dimwit voice. To be fair, she's got some awful dialogue, with
this achingly clunky exposition about Granger's backstory, and is required to do things like dance a Watusi on her own to the radio while on safari. But she also has this atrocious delivery and you're forever wondering what accent she's attempting, and sinks to the occasion in a big monologue where she tells off Garas. She's meant to be half caste but looks incredibly white. Her best bit is where she joins in a dance with her top buttoned and she's not wearing a bra - this is quite risque and unexpectedly diverting.
The story kicks off with Garas arriving in Africa and going on a safari with Granger and he's a dickhead. Then he hears about Granger wanting to go after a elephant and tags along. Why would Garas care? Why is he so insistent? Why is Gabriella Licundi going along? Granger pushes Garas away time and time again. Why didn't they just have Granger need backing from Garas? Why do they drench the film the music? Why does Licudi dance the Watusi? (I know that actually - for a cheap gag in a film that didn't need it.) Why not open the film with the elephant killing Granger's friend so we see it instead of hearing about it? Why so many repetitive scenes of Granger telling Garas to go away? Why not try to develop friendship between Granger and Garas? (They kind of do... in the last two minutes.) Why so many scenes of Licudi explaining the backstory? Why no sense of danger until the end?
The film is also racist, which I know you can say about most Hollywood films set in Africa, but is particularly annoying here because it's so bad. They try to get around it by having Garaz go tsk tsk at some white big game hunters who won't let supposedly half caste Licudi sit at their table with them, but it's kind of weakened by the fact she hardly looks half caste and that there are no decent speaking roles for black actors. The one sizeable part is a porter played by Johnny Sekka - he's in sunglasses which is different.
It's a bad film, poorly made. Poor Granger.
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