I recently wrote up Safari for TCM (it can be found here on the main site) and it airs later tonight, much later, so here’s my chance to elaborate on a few things I put in the article but couldn’t flesh out. First off, I liked Safari a good deal when I saw it but it has a couple of very disturbing moments when footage of actual animal kills are shown. In one, a large bull elephant is brought down by rifle and there is no doubt from the footage that it’s real. The bullet penetration in the elephant’s head can be quite clearly seen and the elephant immediately drops to the ground in a heap. That was no staging, it was an actual death, and the kind of thing that can make me never revisit a movie again. In fact, I may never revisit Safari again for just that reason even though the rest of the movie is a solid action adventure with good performances from the leads and some damn fine photography. Second, the movie provides a good example of a young director doing a kind of test run for the movies he will later be known for. The director is Terrence Young and those later movies have something to do with a gent named Bond, James Bond.
In the movie, Victor Mature plays hunter Ken Duffield who’s hired to lead rich folks on safari. During one of those outings, his son is killed by Mau Mau rebels (for everything on the actual uprising, go here) and when he returns, his license is stripped by the British authorities in Kenya lest he use another funded expedition to go on a revenge spree. Eventually, another wealthy backer shows up, one with political power, and sees to it that Duffield gets his license back, giving Duffield the chance to kill the man responsible for the death of his son. The wealthy and politically powerful backer has a fiance, a former showgirl named Linda, played by Star of the Month Janet Leigh.
Terence Young does an exceptionally fine job of directing the action and Mature and Leigh come off as prototypes for Bond and the Bond girl, something Young would be instrumental in developing from the Ian Fleming novels (he directed Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball). Oh, and did I mention the producer of Safari was Albert “Cubby” Broccoli? Once he got the rights to do the Bond movies, it’s no surprise he brought Young on board. Safari, even though it involves no secret agents, takes place entirely in Kenya without changing exotic locales even once, and has not one clever gadget, fits well into the Bond scheme. Duffield is rugged, strong, and decisive. He bucks authority but has the respect of the men who go up against him. Linda is smart, independent, and resourceful. She stands out for Duffield because she’s the one in control of her fiance, not the other way around. Except for one truly ill-advised scene where Linda is required to play the helpless damsel in distress, she’s a prototypical Bond girl all the way.
Another thing I’d like to take this space to comment on with the movie is how good Victor Mature is. That’s right, I just typed “how good Victor Mature is” and it wasn’t a typo. I think Mature gets a bad rap and here, in Safari, he does his best work. No, it’s not a crowning achievement in acting nor would I ever claim it deserved acting honors but it’s a good performance and Mature seemed to know his range well and play within it. People didn’t take Sean Connery as seriously as an actor either until he left the Bond series but the fact is, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone here, playing a character like James Bond requires as much talent as any other role. Projecting that kind of confidence and strength isn’t something every actor can do and I think Connery, as well as all the other Bond actors, were consistently underrated for their work. Mature fits in the same category.
And Janet Leigh wasn’t used enough for tough but glamorous roles like this. There are moments throughout her long career, a Jet Pilot here, a Manchurian Candidate there, an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. here (The Concrete Overcoat Affair, a favorite episode of mine, maybe because of the cat fight on a table between Janet Leigh and Leticia Roman, but perhaps I’ve said too much), where she gets to play with the whole tough persona but not enough. In Safari, she’s the cynic, openly admitting she’s only with the old guy because of his money, the tough fighter, sticking around to take on the rebels even when Duffield tries to send her away, and the lover, romancing Duffield and ditching the old guy (I’d say “spoiler” here but you saw that coming, didn’t you?).
Still, there’s the animal thing. There are a few movies I like (Day of the Locust and Heaven’s Gate, to name two – yes, Heaven’s Gate, it’s underrated) that I can’t really watch again because they contain real scenes of cockfighting, which I can’t condone or bring myself to watch. Other movies, like Apocalypse Now, which depicts the ritualistic slaughter of a water buffalo, I have no problem with, perhaps because the water buffalo was an actual event, filmed by Coppola and used in the movie. The buffalo was slain and eaten. I also have no problem with Santa Sangre, as its dead elephant burial and subsequent plunder of its meat was, again, a real event filmed and used in the movie. But killing an animal, such as the elephant here, just for a good scene, feels as wrong as any movie making decision can be. In another scene, a lion is killed (actually, two scenes, but the second one is staged, the first one, is real) but it is, like Apocalypse Now and Santa Sangre, an actual event, a ritualistic killing and feasting by Maasai teenagers entering adulthood. For me, Safari, thus falls into both camps. It has one killing that disturbs me and one that doesn’t. Since almost the entire movie is about fighting Kenyan rebels, I found both unnecessary but it was filmed on location in Kenya, so the opportunity presented itself. I just wish they hadn’t taken it with the elephant.
Safari gets a lot right, though, and, if you can stomach the elephant scene, the action is exciting and the plot holds up, thin as it is. Mature and Leigh do some of their best work and come off as early models for James Bond and the Bond girl. Terence Young cut his teeth on this one and it’s easy to see why Cubby Broccoli wanted him back for Bond. Also, filmed in Cinerama, it’s pretty damn gorgeous to look at, when they’re not filming interiors or night scenes on a set. It’s not as famous as all the other movies by these actors, director and producer, but it’s just as good, and damned entertaining.