Shout at the Devil (1976)
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 119m (147m)
Director: Peter Hunt
Cast: Lee Marvin, Roger Moore, Barbara Parkins
Synopsis:
A dipsomaniac American ivory poacher in Portuguese East Africa in 1913 takes on a well-born English ex-pat as partner (having first robbed him of his cash) and proceeds to use him as fall guy in practically all his subsequent operations, though he grudgingly permits him to marry his daughter. The three become embroiled in the long-running feud between O'Flynn and the German governor of part of neighbouring Tanganyika.
Review:
Quite what this farrago was like before the distributor lost his nerve and shaved half an hour off its running time lies in the knowledge of those fortunate enough to have seen it on its very initial release. For sure, gone would be all the gaping holes in continuity and unintroduced characters; most likely, key plot information would be conveyed, such as locations (the wedding, exactly in which part of Africa the Germans are active), time passed (the tax-collecting expedition) and the grisly fate of the baby and the odd extra, clearly cut for different reasons. What remains jumps about like one of those hacked about intermational productions of the previous decade, with long stretches of dialogue in German going unsubtitled, rendering information even scarcer to come by, and most of Marvin's dialogue unintelligible. The production only once achieves anything like the sense of scale and momentousness it clearly strives for, in the sequence involving the transportation of large wheels over land, for a purpose never made clear. The music is banal in the extreme, the model work and back projections pretty poor and the scenery unimpressive for an African picture. What's more the characters never rise above the two-dimensional, with Marvin's career drunkard entirely off the peg and Moore's naïve honest chap scarcely convincing. As for the delectable Miss Parkins, her part is underwritten, except for her bloodlust after the death of her child, which seems out of proportion with her relative continence on witnessing said event (obviously to make the film palatable as entertainment, but still). None of which takes account of the extremely dubious morality (theft and elephant slaughter go apparently condoned) or the widespread racist attitudes (German brutish pig, bestial or cunning blacks and an Arab character portrayed by Ian Holm in makeup). In short, not quite a despoiled classic.
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 119m (147m)
Director: Peter Hunt
Cast: Lee Marvin, Roger Moore, Barbara Parkins
Synopsis:
A dipsomaniac American ivory poacher in Portuguese East Africa in 1913 takes on a well-born English ex-pat as partner (having first robbed him of his cash) and proceeds to use him as fall guy in practically all his subsequent operations, though he grudgingly permits him to marry his daughter. The three become embroiled in the long-running feud between O'Flynn and the German governor of part of neighbouring Tanganyika.
Review:
Quite what this farrago was like before the distributor lost his nerve and shaved half an hour off its running time lies in the knowledge of those fortunate enough to have seen it on its very initial release. For sure, gone would be all the gaping holes in continuity and unintroduced characters; most likely, key plot information would be conveyed, such as locations (the wedding, exactly in which part of Africa the Germans are active), time passed (the tax-collecting expedition) and the grisly fate of the baby and the odd extra, clearly cut for different reasons. What remains jumps about like one of those hacked about intermational productions of the previous decade, with long stretches of dialogue in German going unsubtitled, rendering information even scarcer to come by, and most of Marvin's dialogue unintelligible. The production only once achieves anything like the sense of scale and momentousness it clearly strives for, in the sequence involving the transportation of large wheels over land, for a purpose never made clear. The music is banal in the extreme, the model work and back projections pretty poor and the scenery unimpressive for an African picture. What's more the characters never rise above the two-dimensional, with Marvin's career drunkard entirely off the peg and Moore's naïve honest chap scarcely convincing. As for the delectable Miss Parkins, her part is underwritten, except for her bloodlust after the death of her child, which seems out of proportion with her relative continence on witnessing said event (obviously to make the film palatable as entertainment, but still). None of which takes account of the extremely dubious morality (theft and elephant slaughter go apparently condoned) or the widespread racist attitudes (German brutish pig, bestial or cunning blacks and an Arab character portrayed by Ian Holm in makeup). In short, not quite a despoiled classic.
Country: GB
Technical: col/scope 119m (147m)
Director: Peter Hunt
Cast: Lee Marvin, Roger Moore, Barbara Parkins
Synopsis:
A dipsomaniac American ivory poacher in Portuguese East Africa in 1913 takes on a well-born English ex-pat as partner (having first robbed him of his cash) and proceeds to use him as fall guy in practically all his subsequent operations, though he grudgingly permits him to marry his daughter. The three become embroiled in the long-running feud between O'Flynn and the German governor of part of neighbouring Tanganyika.
Review:
Quite what this farrago was like before the distributor lost his nerve and shaved half an hour off its running time lies in the knowledge of those fortunate enough to have seen it on its very initial release. For sure, gone would be all the gaping holes in continuity and unintroduced characters; most likely, key plot information would be conveyed, such as locations (the wedding, exactly in which part of Africa the Germans are active), time passed (the tax-collecting expedition) and the grisly fate of the baby and the odd extra, clearly cut for different reasons. What remains jumps about like one of those hacked about intermational productions of the previous decade, with long stretches of dialogue in German going unsubtitled, rendering information even scarcer to come by, and most of Marvin's dialogue unintelligible. The production only once achieves anything like the sense of scale and momentousness it clearly strives for, in the sequence involving the transportation of large wheels over land, for a purpose never made clear. The music is banal in the extreme, the model work and back projections pretty poor and the scenery unimpressive for an African picture. What's more the characters never rise above the two-dimensional, with Marvin's career drunkard entirely off the peg and Moore's naïve honest chap scarcely convincing. As for the delectable Miss Parkins, her part is underwritten, except for her bloodlust after the death of her child, which seems out of proportion with her relative continence on witnessing said event (obviously to make the film palatable as entertainment, but still). None of which takes account of the extremely dubious morality (theft and elephant slaughter go apparently condoned) or the widespread racist attitudes (German brutish pig, bestial or cunning blacks and an Arab character portrayed by Ian Holm in makeup). In short, not quite a despoiled classic.