FROM HELL IT CAME 1957
Tod Andrews (Dr. William Arnold), Tina Carver (Dr. Terry Mason), John McNamara (Professor Clark), Linda Watkins (Mae Kilgore), Gregg Palmer (Kimo), Grace Mathews (Orchid)
Directed by Dan Milner
"Come quick! Please help us, we cannot kill the Tabunga! We burn Tabunga, with a mighty fire, but it didn't help. It came out alive! Please come before it kills us all!"
The Short Version: This incredibly awful, yet endearingly popular example of Bad Cinema bears some laughably wooden performances that rival the stiffness of the films walking radioactive tree trunk. The plot is inconsequential, even if the inherent racism is not. It's Anglo ingenuity versus native superstitions in what has to be one of the worst pictures of all time. The Tabunga (Tabanga? Hell, even the trailer doesn't know, it calls it the Baranga!) takes its time showing up while in the meantime, Dr. Arnold walks around with a Tabunga in his pants in his pursuit of Dr. Terry Mason. Personally, I'd of rather watched the entrancing Grace Mathews strut around the screen for 71 minutes instead of the tardy Tabunga, the endlessly apathetic line deliveries and the accompanying dumb dialog.
Kimo, a native of some unnamed South Pacific island, is framed for the death of his father after collaborating with those oppressive, ever hated white folks; a handful of doctors sent by the UN to cure a mysterious plague possibly caused by the fallout from an atomic bomb test. Tano, the new chief (who is in league with the devilish Norgu, a with doctor wearing a fashionable set of bones on his head), usurps the tribal throne away from Kimo and orders his execution. Kimo, noticeably upset over this, swears revenge from beyond the mud. Later on, Kimo keeps his word and returns as the terrifying Tabunga, a nearly immobile and rejected tree costume from the WIZARD OF OZ forest sequence. The Tabunga/Tabanga/Chimichanga menaces the third rate scientists and the cut rate Hawaiian Luau performers for about fifteen minutes till guns and a late blooming, nonsensical script addition win out in the end.
Remember the giant cucumber creature from Corman's cult classic IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956)? How about the shuffling, man-eating carpet critter of THE CREEPING TERROR (1964)? Or the Volkswagen with legs masquerading as an outer space spider threatening a GIANT SPIDER INVASION (1975)? Those interplanetary ragamuffins have nothing on the walking schlock that is the Paul Blaisdell designed Tabunga, a wobbly, SLOOOOOW moving, bark encrusted monstrosity from radioactive hell that is definitely not one of famed painter, Bob Ross's 'Happy Trees'.
You know you're in trouble when the best special effect is the films title in the opening credits sequence. It's more animated than the shambling dead tree branch with the sleepy eyes. Richard Harrison, is that you under that costume?
And calling the Tabunga SLOOOOOW moving is an understatement. Not only does it move slower than a slasher villain, it takes its time showing up, too. For about 45 minutes of screen time, we're stuck with an endless array of dialog scenes that sound like the actors have the script in hand during a rehearsal.
The only person who shows signs of life is Linda Watkins as Mae Kilgore, the horny Aussie lush who has her eyes on both men; Dr. Arnold who comes off like a low rent Bogart and the effeminate Professor Clark, who comes off as just gay.
"Hey! I'm the He-Man, he's the gay man!"
Of the other actors, Tod Andrews derives the most entertainment, matched only by the slothful tree monster doing a damn fine Richard Harrison impersonation. Andrews spends the entire movie strutting around with his shirt unbuttoned playing Rico Suave while a Tabunga grows in his pants spawned from his relentless and constant moves to get Tina Carver's clothes off.
He doesn't make it, folks. She bails just as the turbulence hits.
After several swooning moments including a prescription for a cold shower upon their first meeting, an attempt to catch a gander at her goods after exiting their makeshift shower and a failed B-line for Carver's lips in the jungle, the headstrong female lets him know she likes her job more.
While we're talking about Tina Carver, she's got a hellish, Banshee-like scream that sounds like a rabid parrot with Laryngitis. It's really hard to do it justice without hearing it for yourself. Hopefully they didn't do too many takes of that.
Going back to Andrews, he definitely fared better in one of his ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW appearances; particularly a 1961 episode where he played a tightwad inspector out to throw the book at Andy and Barney for their "slack" police procedures.
The lovely Grace Mathews certainly could have used some more scenes walking around in her two piece Hawaiian-ized get-up. Her slinky figure, perky eyes and sparkling smile should have been the main attraction, at least till the Tabungan tree devil makes his uneventful arrival.
Regarding the performances, I suppose one could go out on a limb (haha) and say the acting is pretty damn good considering the hilariously stupid dialog they're given to say. Also the actors show an uncanny ability to hold back gut-busting laughter during the Tabunga's "attack" sequences which is worthy of some sort of award all on its own.
"We know now American magic is better. Maybe we need new medicine maker to replace Tano. Will you be our witch doctor?"
Possibly more intriguing than the horrific acting, the torturously knee slapper of a creature, Tod Andrews's constant attempts to assault Tina Carver with his own wooden monster, or the lovely frame of Grace Andrews, is the omnipresent racial overtones.
All of the natives are played by Caucasians and there's an air of white man's science being superior when placed against the primitive, superstitious natives. This also extends to the finale when the beast is brought down. The natives constantly look to the scientists for help, even towards bringing an end to the Tabunga's SLOOOOOW moving reign of sleep inducing terror.
Aside from that, the script is a mess, too. It's never explained why shooting the dagger into the monsters heart will kill it. The damn dagger was already plunged into Kimo's heart the first time around so why should this matter now? I mean, the damn thing constantly oozes green blood from the wound!
Also, Norgu the witch doctor was responsible for the Tabunga coming back to life, claiming to control it as with previous Tabunga's. Yet, once the creature is loose, he suddenly forgets this and sets out to kill it, instead!
I was honestly expecting Tod Andrews' character to make like George Washington and whack away with an axe, but no doubt his doctor Arnold would be worried the Tabunga (you say Tabanga, I say Tabunga) would mess up his hair.
This hilariously awful movie is of the highest possible recommendation. It definitely grows on you (haha) with each subsequent viewing. If you're hungry for a good bad movie burger with a low running time, but high in fat calories, you got your Royal Crapola with Cheese right here.
This review is representative of the Warner Archives DVD.
DARK OF THE SUN 1968
Rod Taylor (Captain Curry), Jim Brown (Sergeant Ruffo), Yvette Mimieux (Claire), Peter Carsten (Henlein), Kenneth More (Dr. Wreid), Calvin Lockhart (Ubi), Olivier Despax (Lieutenant Surrier), Andre Morell (Bussier), General Moses (Danny Daniels)
Directed by Jack Cardiff
"...You killed...kill like that?! Tragedy...blackness...we come from blackness...not go back. No, Captain...I not walk with you...walk a different way."
The Short Version: DARK OF THE SUN is a vastly underrated 'Men On A Mission' movie. Not only is it a near perfect example of a high octane action picture, but it contains a shockingly high degree of violence and an increasingly downbeat atmosphere. If Hell Is For Heroes, then the mercenaries of DARK OF SUN have a seat reserved for them. The brilliant script perfectly melds fact and fiction, action and exposition, and also some great one liners and dialog exchanges. Truly a spectacular piece of action entertainment exploding with testosterone, barrels of sweat and smoking gun barrels.
Captain Bruce Curry, a mercenary for hire, is entrusted with the job of rescuing the residents of a township right in the middle of an anti-colonial civil war being waged by the ruthless Simba hordes living some 300 miles within the African Congo. The real purpose of the mission, though, is to retrieve 50 million in diamonds the Congolesian President needs to finance his war against the Simba cultists. With only three days allotted them, Curry and his crew, which include a duplicitous ex-Nazi and an alcoholic doctor, encounter numerous obstacles and treachery along the way.
Award winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff helmed this stark and ultra-violent adventure movie that's packed with Tough Guy action, unsavory characters, cool dialog and an overabundance of brawn and sweat. Based on Wilbur Smith's novel of the same name, it's a fictitious action adventure built around the crisis in the Congo and anti-colonial conflicts of the 1960s.
The film explores the incursions of those events, but goes deeper by focusing even more attention on the heart of man, his potential for honor and integrity, believing in something bigger than himself and also less dignified characteristics such as jealousy, fear, avarice and revenge. It's a testament to the scriptwriters that they expertly balance the action with the drama to create this compellingly spectacular, shockingly violent late 60s production.
For the time, and even seeing it now, the scenes of brutality were terribly over the top. You just didn't see people being impaled in the face with flaming torches, implied man-on-man rape, the sight of corpses with their limbs chopped off, or gunning down of children, at least not in American movies, and especially major Hollywood ones. The picture was reportedly chastised at the time for its violence which would be overshadowed the following year by the judicious bloodshed of Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969); a film whose massive amount of blood squibs and exaggerated violence are almost cartoonish by comparison.
There are no blood squibs here, but the brutality on display in DARK OF THE SUN is far uglier and surpasses scores of bandits being cut down in slow motion by a ragtag band of aging outlaws. The violence in Cardiff's movie is on a personable level. That uch of what the villains do in the film was taken from fact makes the proceedings all the more cruel.
If you scour the internet you'll find reviews and remembrances from folks who saw the film theatrically and make claims of missing scenes such as a nun being thrown to the crocodiles, a heart being cut out and even more graphic rape sequences. While a nun is brutalized and tossed off a balcony, there's nothing but a hard floor awaiting her at the bottom. The overly vicious final fist fight between Curry and Henlein appears to have been trimmed. Without revealing what happens, at one point, Curry is on top of him. Then moments later he's sitting in the river.
Just prior to hunting him down, Curry proclaims he's going to "cut Henlein's head off." If he does this, we don't see it. There are, however, a couple of spots elsewhere in the film that's obvious something has been removed, particularly during a scene where one of the major characters is killed.
One reviewer claimed the male-on-male rape scene was more explicit. In the film, we see the Simbas hold Surrier down, with one guy placing his boot at the back of his neck while the others prepare to gang rape him. The camera then cuts away to the mercenaries in the jungle.
The massacre towards the end of the movie is said to be missing some footage, too. Still, the picture is excessively barbaric as is, even without these alleged missing bits and pieces. If some of these scenes were actually in the theatrical version, somebody at the MPAA fell asleep at the wheel for a film that states "Suggested for Mature Audiences" in the trailer; the equivalent of what eventually became the PG rating.
Still from the film depicting a scene not in the finished product.
Stills for the film as well as the poster, suggest that a sex scene between Taylor and his TIME MACHINE (1960) co-star Yvette Mimieux (who plays Claire) was shot, but seemingly cut prior to release. Publicity photos often times feature shots that were never intended for the final cut, or were initially part of the end product, but removed for whatever reason. Likely this scene did exist at one time. Towards the end, we see Curry leaning over to kiss Claire in a long shot, so obviously some romantic entanglement has taken place; otherwise there'd be no need for him to kiss her.
Also, reports of lingering shots of Claire being roughed up by Henlein in a river exposing cleavage are said to be missing. In viewing this scene, her shirt is torn away and you see enough. It's difficult to ascertain just what would be missing here, if anything at all. If the presumably rough sex scene with Curry dominating Claire had been left in, accusations of misogyny no doubt would be levied at the picture, what with her later being slapped around and threatened with possible rape and murder by Henlein.
The violence in this film is enhanced by the ignobleness of many of the characters. This is evident in the first meeting of Curry with the Congolese President Ubi. After explaining the mission, Curry is then told what the true goal is; it's not the people that the President desires to be retrieved, but the some 50 million in diamonds he needs for political purposes. The infusion of politics and how the President of a civil war saturated country cares more for his re-election than those that put him in office is an apt parallel to our current political climate in America. The civilians are expendable when compared to the "priceless" diamonds. It also casts an even darker cloud over a film that will become increasingly downbeat as the 100 minutes soldier on to their conclusion.
Rod Taylor is magnetic and simply amazing as the mercenary leader, Captain Curry. Even though he's more or less out for himself, caring only for the money paid him to pull off this seemingly impossible three day caper, he's ultimately quite likable. By the end of the film, his character will have amassed a great deal of sympathy.
His longtime friend, Ruffo (played by Jim Brown) is Curry's moral center. For this job, Ruffo cares only for Africa, while Curry's interests lie in monetary gains. By the end of the movie, the enterprising mercenary finds his humanity, but not before embracing the "Dark Side" of the human soul during the finale.
Jim Brown is Ruffo, Curry's longtime mercenary partner. Both men have apparently been together for some time and both understand and respect one another despite their polar opposite personalities. Ruffo's reasoning and sane center ultimately proves bittersweet late in the film. During a chainsaw fight (yes, a chainsaw fight) between Curry and Henlein (played by Peter Carsten; some of his lines are curiously dubbed by Paul Frees!), Curry nearly severs the German's head after ordering the train to move. Ruffo saves the day, stopping his friend and re-affirming him that the cunning Henlein is needed for this 'Do Or Die' mission. Actually, things turn out badly for pretty much everybody in the movie because of decisions that seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
It's interesting to note that immediately after getting the details of the mission, very little, if anything goes as planned for the mercs. The group is supposedly granted free passage through UN controlled Congo territory, but apparently the message didn't go through. This results in human losses and nearly the loss of the heavily armed train they are traveling on. Upon arrival at their pick-up destination, it's more bad news; Curry discovers that Bussier (played by Andre Morell), the man in charge of the diamonds, miscalculated the teams arrival by three hours and the time locked vault cannot be opened before then. This of course puts everyone's lives in danger of being massacred by the approaching Simbas. But as Curry was told at the beginning, the diamonds first, people second.
The eventual outcome of the rescue mission pushes the film further into a depressing pit of despair and results in one of the pictures strongest sequences of depravity.
Thankfully, even if it's too late, morality finally sinks in during the closing scenes. This intriguing moral exchange comes courtesy of a loyal African soldier who is disgusted by Curry's sadistic, vengeance fueled murder of Henlein; a continuation of their earlier bare fist vs. chainsaw brawl.
Alternate shot of a scene during the finale
The soothingly melancholic score by Jacques Loussier fits the narrative perfectly, despite being bereft of any cues reveling in typical action movie machismo. DARK OF THE SUN is an unsung classic of the testosterone addled 'Guy Movie', yet its soundtrack takes a different route entirely. Certain cues soar, bringing many scenes to a tragic, possibly hopeful crescendo, but it never wallows in high pitched heroism. This only adds to the near perfect package that is Cardiff's little discussed action spectacle. Fans of kung fu movies will recognize at least one cue here from numerous HK lensed martial arts pictures.
The cinematography credited to Edward Scaife is also sprawling in its depiction of the sweltering expanse of the African jungles. The camera frequently captures the scope of the surroundings dwarfing the people at the center of them. This makes for some awe-inspiring moments that lends the gloomily oppressive atmosphere some moments of welcome grandeur.
About the only major negative on display here are a handful of badly rendered rear-projection shots. These involve close ups of some of the principal cast, or minor dialog exchanges on the train, or inside jeeps. Also, there's some rear-projection during the brutal brawl between Curry and Henlein as the two dangle from some jungle veins aligning a waterfall.
While the Oscar winning Cardiff is acknowledged for his exemplary DP resume including such films as BLACK NARCISSUS (his Oscar win;[1947]), THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951), WAR AND PEACE (1956) and THE DOGS OF WAR (1980), his directorial credits are equally impressive. These include THE LION (1962), THE LONG SHIPS (1964) and probably most famously, the low budget cult film, THE MUTATIONS aka THE FREAKMAKER (1974).
His DARK OF THE SUN (1968) is a sadly underrated movie that deserves better than an On Demand DVD-R from the Warner Archive Collection. I suppose having it in full widescreen is thanks enough, but it's such a well mounted production with a cracking good script; it deserved and deserves a wider audience. It's easily one of the best of the 'Men On A Mission' movies and one of the most violent. The films poster artwork is gorgeous, comic book perfection, but hides the brutality found within the film itself. Enveloped in "darkness" for far too long, it's high time this unsung classic was allowed to shine and have its day in the SUN after all these years.
This DVD is representative of the Warner Archives Collection DVD.
***B/W stills: google images***
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Kimo, a native of some unnamed South Pacific island, is framed for the death of his father after collaborating with those oppressive, ever hated white folks; a handful of doctors sent by the UN to cure a mysterious plague possibly caused by the fallout from an atomic bomb test. Tano, the new chief (who is in league with the devilish Norgu, a with doctor wearing a fashionable set of bones on his head), usurps the tribal throne away from Kimo and orders his execution. Kimo, noticeably upset over this, swears revenge from beyond the mud. Later on, Kimo keeps his word and returns as the terrifying Tabunga, a nearly immobile and rejected tree costume from the WIZARD OF OZ forest sequence. The Tabunga/Tabanga/Chimichanga menaces the third rate scientists and the cut rate Hawaiian Luau performers for about fifteen minutes till guns and a late blooming, nonsensical script addition win out in the end.
Remember the giant cucumber creature from Corman's cult classic IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956)? How about the shuffling, man-eating carpet critter of THE CREEPING TERROR (1964)? Or the Volkswagen with legs masquerading as an outer space spider threatening a GIANT SPIDER INVASION (1975)? Those interplanetary ragamuffins have nothing on the walking schlock that is the Paul Blaisdell designed Tabunga, a wobbly, SLOOOOOW moving, bark encrusted monstrosity from radioactive hell that is definitely not one of famed painter, Bob Ross's 'Happy Trees'.
And calling the Tabunga SLOOOOOW moving is an understatement. Not only does it move slower than a slasher villain, it takes its time showing up, too. For about 45 minutes of screen time, we're stuck with an endless array of dialog scenes that sound like the actors have the script in hand during a rehearsal.
Of the other actors, Tod Andrews derives the most entertainment, matched only by the slothful tree monster doing a damn fine Richard Harrison impersonation. Andrews spends the entire movie strutting around with his shirt unbuttoned playing Rico Suave while a Tabunga grows in his pants spawned from his relentless and constant moves to get Tina Carver's clothes off.
He doesn't make it, folks. She bails just as the turbulence hits.
After several swooning moments including a prescription for a cold shower upon their first meeting, an attempt to catch a gander at her goods after exiting their makeshift shower and a failed B-line for Carver's lips in the jungle, the headstrong female lets him know she likes her job more.
Going back to Andrews, he definitely fared better in one of his ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW appearances; particularly a 1961 episode where he played a tightwad inspector out to throw the book at Andy and Barney for their "slack" police procedures.
Possibly more intriguing than the horrific acting, the torturously knee slapper of a creature, Tod Andrews's constant attempts to assault Tina Carver with his own wooden monster, or the lovely frame of Grace Andrews, is the omnipresent racial overtones.
Aside from that, the script is a mess, too. It's never explained why shooting the dagger into the monsters heart will kill it. The damn dagger was already plunged into Kimo's heart the first time around so why should this matter now? I mean, the damn thing constantly oozes green blood from the wound!
I was honestly expecting Tod Andrews' character to make like George Washington and whack away with an axe, but no doubt his doctor Arnold would be worried the Tabunga (you say Tabanga, I say Tabunga) would mess up his hair.
