SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 1965

  

    Concerning a disparate group of airplane crash survivors stranded in the desert wastelands of South Africa, its a shame SANDS OF KALAHARI has never really recd. the accolades it deserves. Directed by Cy Endield, its a first rate sweaty and intense adventure film - but was always maddeningly hard to see. Thankfully this was remedied a few years back by a DVD and blu-ray release from Olive Films. It has a first rate cast including Stuart Whitman (in whats by far the best role of his career), Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, Nigel Davenport and best of all the great Stanley Baker.
  After the success of ZULU American producer Joseph E. Levine approached the production team of Cy Enfield and Stanley Baker to collaborate on another picture. Deciding on a screen adaptation of William Mulvihill's African adventure novel SANDS OF KALAHARI they initially approached Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to star but Taylor refused to travel to Africa and George Peppard and  Susannah York were then cast. Peppard dropped out for THE BLUE MAX and Whitman was cast at last minute.(with he and York most likely for a whole lot cheaper then Burton & Taylor).
  Stranded after their initial plane flight is cancelled the group instead hires pilot Nigel Davenport to fly them to Johannesburg. Severely over loading the plane Davenport runs into a huge swarm of locusts during the flight and crashes the plane in the barren desert. Its to the movies credit that we don't get a whole lot of unnecessary back story (and soap opera plot lines) for the characters - we basically learn that Baker is an alcoholic former mine superintendent, Bikel is a college professor & Whitman is a big game hunter (with York's and Andrews story left mostly to the imagination).

   After the crash the group initially works together, finding a source of water and some food in a jagged outcropping of rocks that also is populated by a colony of baboons. Whitman with his gun soon begins exerting his alpha male persona as the best person to deal with this situation and begins seeing the other male members as a hindrance to his survival (along with the baboons - who he begins hunting down).  Seeing himself as Adam and York as his Eve, the slowing escalating psychotic Whitman begins whittling down the group, leaving only Baker left to defy him.
   The films makes excellent us of its locations with the wide screen photography (by Erwin Hillier - who also shot OPERATION CROSSBOW this same year) making great use of the wide sun baked vistas and shimmering distant horizons. The characters also become more bedraggled as the film progresses (with Whitman especially interesting to watch as he reverts to savagery) and in a nice touch there's refreshingly make up free York, who doesn't look like she stepped straight out of a beauty parlor as often in the case with female characters in movies such as this. All in all a this is great film worthy of re-discovery and perfect to watch on a hot summer's night.

DARK OF THE SUN 1968 on Blu-Ray

       Based upon a book by African adventure specialist Wilbur Smith, 1968's DARK OF THE SUN is a balls-to-the-wall action film that barely pauses to catch its breath during its nail-bitingly intense 100 min. running time. Directed by Academy Award cinematographer Jack Cardiff (BLACK NARCISSUS) it features Rod Taylor as a mercenary Capt. Curry in the war-torn Congo of the 1960's. Curry who along with his buddy/comrade Sgt. Ruffo (Jim Brown) is hired to rescue a group of stranded Europeans who are caught behind the lines. Jacking up the tension considerably is the real motive behind the "rescue"- $50,000,000 worth of diamonds held in a bank there.
      Regulated to some late-night TV showings and a pan & scan VHS, this was mercifully rescued by Warner Archive for a DVD release a few years back and now we have a beautiful Blu -Ray that brings forth the sweaty violence in startling clarity.
     Gathering together a group of mercenaries including Peter Carsten dubbed by Paul Frees) as a sadistic ex-Nazi turned mercenary and in a very touching performance that could have easily gone the wrong way Kenneth Moore as an alcoholic doctor they travel by a heavily armed train their destination, picking up missionary Yvette Mimieux (reuniting with Taylor from THE TIME MACHINE) along the way. The plot gives us a nice lead-up, spending just enough time in preparation of and the train journey itself to let each character develop their own individuality. Mimieux at first seems hopelessly out-of-place in the midst of the mission, but she along with Jim Brown will become a conscience for Taylor and the audience.

     Thankfully a hinted at burgeoning romance between Mimieux and Taylor never materializes, leaving the plot free to move from one action sequence to another. Although the plot has politics as a basis for the recovery of the diamonds, the mercenaries for the most part are guided by money, greed or revenge (or sometimes all three) and once the train gets underway it's a non-stop adrenaline rush. Browns made out as the most sympathetic of the bunch and a couple of dialogue scenes with Taylor help flesh out both characters.
    Taylor has never been better here and it's one of those roles that once you seem him here, you'll never look at him the same way again. There's an excellent chemistry between himself and Brown with a real sense of longtime friendship and camaraderie between them. Taylor's revenge-driven transformation at the end all of film, as he turns into almost feral-like animal on the hunt for blood is an amazing piece of acting.
    The film's much heralded violence still packs a wallop to this day with several startling wince inducing images and sequences including a covert trip to a town to retrieve the diamonds that's like a trip to one of the outer circles of hell. If all this weren't enough, you also get fight with a chainsaw and Rod driving the literal piss out of a Land Rover.
     Extras on the disc include the theatrical trailer and a new commentary with Trailers From Hell Larry Karaszewski & Larry Olson along with Brian Saur & Elric Kane.

All above screen-caps are from the Warner Archive Blu-Ray

RIP Janine Reynaud (1930-2018)

    A smoldering redhead who lent an unforgettable presence to Euro sex, horror and exploitation films of the 60' & 70's Jannie Reynaud has passed away. Starting out as a model she is perhaps best known foe being an early muse of Jess Franco and for her role in his SUCCUBUS (1968) and the two psychedelic  spy "Red Lips" spoofs KISS ME MONSTER & SADIST EROTICA (1969).
  She also appeared in THE CASE OF THE SCORPIONS TALE (1971) and in the creepy Gothic CASTLE OF THE CREEPING FLESH (1968). Her performance in 1971's FRUSTRATION (aka THE CHAMBERMAID'S DREAM) in amazing and is a film which is in dire need of a Blu-ray upgrade. A recent resident of Texas see was married for a brief time to the equally enigmatic French actor Michel Lemoine.

ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. On Blu-Ray

     

     Watching Hammer's 1,000,000 YEARS BC for the first as a child (for me at least) was one of those movie touchstone events that forever turned me into a movie geek. I saw it at the drive-in with my father probably in 1967 on a forgotten double bill that of which I most likely fell asleep during the second feature. Watching it on the big screen (and even later on TV) was an awe inspiring spectacle as the film had a truly epic majestic look to it, as if we were watching the Lawrence of Arabia of prehistoric caveman/dinosaur movies.
     Billed as Hammers "100th Production" (it wasn't) and fueled by the double shot of Raquel Welch in her fur bikini and Ray Harryhausen's stop motion prehistoric beasts, it arrived on a wave of publicity in 1966 and was both Hammer's most expensive (£422,000) and the highest grossing production as it raked up $8,000,000 in the U.S. alone. Directed by Don Chaffey (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS), it was shot on location in the Canary Islands (with interior stuff at Elstree) and has a wide open spacious look to it unlike the set bound Gothic horrors that Hammer was known for. Producer (and writer) Michael Carreras smartly hired both a director and cinematographer (Wilke Cooper) who had both worked with Harryhausen before.

      Anybody whose reading this is hopefully familiar with the basic plot as Tumak (John Richardson BLACK SUNDAY) is banished from his violent tribe of "rock people" and upon wondering through a barren landscape comes across Luna (Raquel Welch FANTASTIC VOYAGE) along with her proto-hippie "shell people" who show him a gentler way of life. Welch who was under contract to Fox at the time was about to loaned out to MGM for the role of Domino in THUNDERBALL when Fox changed their mind, casting her in FANTASTIC VOYAGE and then setting her off to London for a role and look that would pass into mid 60's cultural history. How many adolescent boys ordered that poster out of Famous Monsters and had it hanging in their bedroom ?
     Originally clocking in at 100 minutes Fox cut it down to 91 minute for U.S. release losing some blood, violence, hints of cannibalism along with a bit of wild cave woman dancing by Martine Beswick (most likely it was also probably cut a bit for better double feature compatibility). In a really bizarre move Fox edited some of Harryhausen's stop-motion animation work including bits of the Allosaurus attack which is one of his greatest creations.

     Often unfairly labeled and mocked (sure its popcorn, but its GREAT popcorn),it was obviously taken seriously by all involved and watching the film today its pretty amazing how dark and grim it is through the first sequence with Tumak's rock people and how other worldly the film looks in terms of scenery. Shot entirely without dialogue (just some grunts & a few verbal commands from the shell folk), it's  Mario Nascimbene's (he's credited with "music and special music sound effects") score that carries the film's audio side which combines sound effects, wind and sometimes even the mixing of two different pieces of soundtrack music along with choral passages to create a score that alternates between disjointed primitive soundscapes along with sweeping grandeur.
    Kino Lorber's spectacular new blu ray shares the same 4k restoration that Studio Canel released last year of the longer British cut while adding a second disc with the same restoration of the 91 minute U.S. version.  Extras include interviews with Martine and Raquel (who at 75 looks like she could still climb into that fur bikini with no problem), a vintage interview with Ray Harryhausen, still gallery & trailers and a full length fact packed commentary by Tim Lucas on the long cut.

  

All above screen Caps Are From The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray

No better way to watch a Hammer dbl. feature then if your "scientifically cool" !