Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Movie review - "Safari" (1940) **

A so-so melodrama which reminded me of The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and the Errol Flynn Film Another Dawn.Like that it's about a female who jets around the world, here played by Madeleine Carroll instead of Kay Francis, who is about to marry a man she doesn't love (Tullio Carminati) but falls in love with a dashing adventurer who leads her safari to shoot animals.

Unlike Another Dawn no one is married but the wounded party does not behave well - he gets a bit naughty. Not naughty enough really - you really want Carminatti to do more. It doesn't feel as though there's quite enough plot here.

It's okay I'm not a big Carroll fan but I like Fairbanks and it was interesting to see him play a more hard bitten type of character - a Burt Lancaster like woman hater. I was underwhelmed. These films run into trouble with big game hunting heroes because they also always try to not glamourise game hunting.

Its set in a fictitious country that is supposed to be West Africa. A British colony. There is talk of war being declared and Fairbanks wanting to go and fight. The film could have used some Nazis causing trouble.


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