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"I was thinking of the inconsistency of civilization." The ol' switcheroo is prepared with a quote from Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus," down goes the yacht near the mysterious South Seas island. The big game hunter (Joel McCrea) washes ashore and finds the fortress in the jungle, haven of the Cossack count (Leslie Banks) who's something of a kindred spirit, or rather a cracked mirror reflection. Scarred by African bulls, unimpressed by Amazonian jaguars, the expatriate has a cure for boredom: "I have invented a new sensation!" The King Kong dry run has the primeval arena and Fay Wray, the behemoth is not the fanged centaur on the wall mural but the eugenicist in black shirt wielding "the Tartar war bow." (The camera cranes down from the top of a staircase to locate the gleam in Banks' eye, later on a candelabra gives his goateed visage jack-o'-lantern shadows.) The locked trophy room like Bluebeard's secret chamber, the "outdoors chess" of the chase, the foliage that brushes against the lenses in a POV tracking shot. Just an hour and two minutes for Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel, setup and punchline. The arrow in the cave (Lang's Man Hunt), the pursuit across the foggy swamp (Lewis' Gun Crazy). "Kill! Then love. When you have known that, you'll have known ecstasy." (The rifle shot by the waterfall is readily followed by a cigarette.) The view of the departing boat is framed as a screen by a window, below is the pack of devouring hounds. Wilde's The Naked Prey stands out amid the many variants. With Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, Steve Clemente, and William B. Davidson. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |