The Naked Prey (1965)

Directed and produced by Cornel Wilde.

In 1890s Africa, a hunting party encounters a group of natives who demand a small payment for passage through their territory. The party’s guide (Cornel Wilde) sees it as a reasonable and customary request, but his client refuses, treating the natives with contempt. Offended, the natives attack the party at camp, and inflict punishments on the hunters and their bearers. The guide, saved for the last, is given the chance to run for his life, hunted like the animals his clients had killed.

The Naked Prey is a very literal entry in the man on the run genre, which pits an intelligent character against equally intelligent characters. It’s the best of the eight movies directed by actor Wilde, and, despite some slow sequences, manages to keep a good level of tension and excitement throughout. This is assisted by the rather horrifying tortures inflicted on the hunting party, and by the time and effort devoted to the personalities of the guide’s pursuers. Though their language is not accompanied by sub-titles, the acting and direction makes clear their own stresses and conflicts.

Also to be noted are the director’s messages depicted in scenes of nature. Numerous sequences show the brutality and ruthlessness of nature, animals fighting each other for survival. Interestingly, though the hunters are ‘shooting ivory’, the director makes it clear what he thinks of such activities, even using just a single still image to get his point across.

The acting is commendable. Wilde was a long-established player by this time, and well-respected. Ironically, therefore, though his performance is good, the actors who play his pursuers are the more interesting, particularly their leader (Ken Gampu, near the beginning of a long and successful cinematic career). His obsession with catching his prey becomes as dangerous to his fellows as does their quarry.

The dialogue is kept to a minimum, restricted mainly to the opening scenes featuring conversations between the guide and his client (Gert van den Berg), to show what they are like. There is also some talk between the guide and a little girl (Bella Randles); the two save each other’s lives but can’t communicate through words because each doesn’t comprehend the other’s language.

Also shown are the differences in native culture between the primitive interior tribe and the more advanced villagers closer to the coast. That disparity brings its own drama, inadvertently involving the fugitive in added danger. (It’s clear too that Wilde performs his own stunts; just running shows that he was in excellent condition for a man in his early fifties.)

A simple story, along the lines of The Most Dangerous Game, The Naked Prey is a straightforward, exciting movie, with surprising character development.

(Though the opening narration suggests the story takes place in the 1860s, the clothes, rifles and headgear of the Europeans indicate a later decade, and the British fort, Arab slavers, and the mention of Swahili place it in eastern Africa, though it was filmed in southern Africa.)

Hunt the Man Down (1950)

Directed by George Archainbaud; produced by Lewis J Rachmil

A heroic defence of his work-place during an armed robbery puts a diner’s dish-washer (James Anderson) on the front page. Unfortunately, his picture is recognised as that of Richard Kincaid, a man put on trial for murder twelve years previously. He had escaped custody before the trial’s completion. Now re-captured, he insists that he is innocent, and it’s up to the public defender, Paul Bennett (Gig Young) to make the jury see that.

An enjoyable aspect of choosing to watch a movie based on nothing more than a one-sentence synopsis, or on who acts in it, is the chance of finding an unexpectedly good film. Hunt the Man Down is one of them. Despite the title that makes it seem like an entry in the ‘fugitive’ category of film noir, the subject of the story is already in jail. What needs hunting is the real killer, one of seven suspects from a dozen years before. Thanks to a good script and direction, Hunt the Man Down delivers a lot of entertainment in its 69 minutes.

The running time is one of the few complaints the audience may have with the movie. Usually, a short and lean length is an asset to a b-movie. In this case, another twenty minutes or so would have been an advantage. The seven suspects, first seen in flashback, are a diverse lot and might confuse the viewer since little time is devoted to the characters. We get to know them better in the present, but, not having the luxury of being able to match in every case name to face - and some having changed subtly in the meantime - the audience has to catch up with recognition as the movie goes.

This is really the only difficulty with Hunt the Man Down. A minor problem is that during the flashback scene, taking place in 1938, the characters’ clothes are no different than those of the present.

Gig Young, future Oscar-winner, is very good as the public defender, though one doubts that such an official would, in real life, have the time to play detective, even if his department’s investigators are already fully occupied. To help, Bennett brings in his father (Harry Shannon), a one-armed former cop. Their interaction is natural and, at times, humorous, and they would have made a good pairing in a tv series.

James Anderson’s most noted rôle would be that of the nasty Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird, by which time Anderson’s face had become fuller and he resembled a later generation’s Robert Loggia. Also in the cast of Hunt the Man Down is his actress sister, Mary Anderson. Contrastingly, James died at 48, an end described variously as being due to a heart attack or to barbiturate poisoning. Mary lived to be 96. Both give creditable performances here. In fact, given the relatively short extent of their time on screen, most of the cast provides fine vignettes of their characters, a poignant one given by Willard Parker.

The French-born director keeps the pace going, his conversations - and in a mystery like this, most scenes largely comprise talking - concise and to the point, though he manages to throw in a short car-chase that is relevant. Archainbaud, who was responsible for some very good work, later turned to westerns and television, being associated with Gene Autry.

Hunt the Man Down is a low-budget winner, another example of how talented people can make the most out of the least.

The Black Tent (1956)

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst; produced by William Macquitty

Charles Holland (Donald Sinden), a retired British Army colonel, receives a letter at his country estate, telling him of information received by the Foreign Office suggesting that his brother, David (Anthony Steel), believed killed in the World War, might be alive. Charles travels to Libya, and meets with a Bedouin sheikh (Andre Morell), who is polite but suspiciously unhelpful. When he leaves, Charles is given a roll of papers that holds the key to his sibling’s whereabouts.

A handsomely mounted motion picture, The Black Tent falls in between the categories of war movie and romantic drama, never really succeeding in either due to trying to be both. Certainly, the look of the film is impressive, for which those responsible for cinematography and location-casting are to be commended.

Filmed largely on location, the golden sand and the blue sky, the colourful Bedouin attire and, very interestingly, the Roman ruins of Sabratha - not famous these days - stand out, and give the picture a beauty that is probably more Hollywood - or, rather, Pinewood - than Libyan.

The look of The Black Tent is the best thing in the movie. The story, as stated, divides itself poorly, with too little action for a good war movie, and too much predictability for a good romance. There is nothing that persuades the viewer that David and Mabrouka (Anna Maria Sandri), the sheikh’s daughter, are really in love. He is handsome and she is pretty, and that is all the audience is really shown of their reasons for wanting to be together.

The characters are not involving. The Holland brothers are rather bland, the sheikh suitably dour, and Mabrouka as ordinary as the men. It is the minor character of Ali (Donald Pleasence), the town-bred Arab, who is the most entertaining.

The acting, too, is nothing outstanding. Certainly, Sinden has given better performances,  though he usually had more to work with; here, he plays more a sounding board for exposition than a major character. Steel is competent, while Sandri, in her only English-language film and her final film (she appears to have retired at the age of twenty), had her voice dubbed by an uncredited Nanette Newman, due to the Italian-born Sandri’s difficulty with English. (Newman was then married to Bryan Forbes, who co-wrote the screenplay and played a dying soldier, though his scene was cut.)

A mediocre movie that is rather beautifully shot, The Black Tent doesn’t really have enough of anything to be a winner.

Edge of Eternity (1959)

Directed by Donald Siegel; produced by Kendrick Sweet

A man, previously found nearly incoherent near the Grand Canyon, is murdered. Deputy Sheriff Les Martin (Cornel Wilde) a former detective in Denver, is assigned to find the killer. Martin figures that it can’t be a coincidence that this murder, and then another, has occurred near abandoned gold mines which might still be worth a fortune to an enterprising individual. Whether that individual is willing to kill for that potential fortune is something Martin must investigate  - even at the risk of his life.

What might be seen as a contemporary western is in fact a murder mystery, though, due to the writing, it is not an entirely satisfying one. It starts off strong, with a puzzle that leaves the viewer wondering not only about the victim’s identity, but about the killer’s motive. The uncovering of both of these mysteries is well-handled, but the solution is determined just by chance, rather than deduction, which makes for a weaker ending to the story.

While the story has a weak ending, the movie does not, which highlights the disparity between the writing and the direction. The latter is in the hands of Don Siegel (here, credited as ‘Donald’) and both the opening and closing scenes are exciting and interesting; the climax, featuring a fist-fight over the Grand Canyon itself - with stuntmen, not computer graphics, of course - is thrilling.

Siegel makes excellent use of the scenery - and yes, a bad or mediocre director can waste even the Grand Canyon. The opening images are typical of that use: a wide-angle view of a car driving up to a cliff, and a lone figure running to hide from the car’s occupant. It invites curiosity and participation in what will happen next.

The acting is good, with Wilde a likeable and believable protagonist, Edgar Buchanan as his boss, the county sheriff, and Victoria Shaw as the love-interest. Mickey Shaughnessy provides a well-performed diversion as a bar-owner. Jack Elam plays a foreman at a guano-mine, though whether or not he is taking a break from playing the villains he often portrayed at this time is a question for the viewer.

Aside from the ending, the script is commendable. It credibly creates characters that fit as much in 1950’s Arizona as they would have sixty or seventy years before, contributing to the feel of the contemporary western. It benefits from being set in a real place - Mohave County - and shot on location. The smouldering feud between the county’s attorney and sheriff gives some additional tension to the plot. As well, the developing relationship between Martin and his new girlfriend seems realistic, rather than the contrived circumstances that propel many movie romances.

Edge of Eternity is a good, if not outstanding, adventure/crime movie, with enjoyable work from all concerned.

The Thief (1952)

Directed by Russell Rouse; produced by Clarence Greene

Allan Fields (Ray Milland) is a nuclear physicist working for the U.S. Government. He is also a spy, supplying pictures of secret documents for individuals who likely work for a foreign power. Experienced but jaded, his life enters a new and decisive phase when one of his controllers is killed in a traffic accident, and film provided by Fields is found and passed to the FBI.

This is a unique movie - at least within the film noir/thriller genre - in that it has no dialogue. There is sound, and there is certainly communication, whether by look or action or writing (two telegrams are shown), but no words are spoken through the whole film. This characteristic will of course define its quality and, though parts of it work very well, the whole is not satisfying.

Co-written by the director and producer, The Thief - I’m not sure why it would not have been titled The Traitor, unless it was thought that having a protagonist so titled would put off audiences - seems like the result of a dare or perhaps of a hypothesis remembered from film-school days. Milland is in most scenes, and it is upon him that the movie largely depends. He does not let his end down; depending entirely on action and expression, Milland conveys a full character in merely what the viewer sees, and is the best element in the movie.

The lack of dialogue limits what we can know of the Milland’s character. The viewer does not learn his motivation for spying - is it extortional, ideological, mercenary? - and in one way, this is an advantage. We are dropped into Fields’s life at his moment of crisis, long after the beginnings of his career in espionage, when he might have been excited by it, thrilled by his actions. Now, we see him reluctant and evasive. He has a conscience, and it bothers him.

Another aspect of the silence of the characters is that it makes Fields an isolated man. He seems to have no friends, no loved one, no associates even at work. He appears alone in everything he does and in every way he lives; this may have been both a cause and effect of his treason and, while we have no way of knowing for sure, it makes for greater suspense.

But there are limits to what the lack of spoken word can do, which may be one of the reasons ‘talkies’ superseded the silent films so completely. Some sequences, especially in the first half of the film, are drawn out, repetitious. These could have been enlivened by conversation, even if the conversation were meaningless to the story - which in itself may have conveyed tension.

There is also little chance of complexity in the plot; indeed, there are scenes - more diversions than sub-plots - involving an attractive girl (Rita Gam) in the hotel Fields hides in, which seem like padding, unless one wishes to make a case for them suggesting temptation and how it relates to his spying.

Over all, despite Milland’s excellent performance and the good direction - the use of sounds is effective, in particular a repetitiously jangling telephone bell - The Thief is more interesting than entertaining. It can’t shake the impression that it was an experiment its participants found more involving than the audience.