SAFARI is a stock Hollywood adventure film set and made in Africa. The backdrop of the story is an interesting one that takes in the Mau Mau Uprising and includes a surprisingly vicious and adult opening sequence which works in the film's favour and is in actuality the best part of the movie: vivid, shocking, and a real hammer blow to the stomach.
After this point the film goes down a gear and provides fitfully exciting viewing, although not without the problems associated with the big bucks productions of this era. One of these is Victor Mature as the heroic lead; his performance is entirely old-fashioned here and he looks like he's come straight from the 1940s. Janet Leigh is better as the love interest and disrobes for a couple of bathing scenes which would have been racy for the time.
SAFARI also boasts the underrated Bermudan character actor Earl Cameron (SAPPHIRE) as the chief antagonist and very good he is too. The action bits are handled well and inevitably the scenery is a star in itself. A shame, then, that the overall experience is marred by footage of African creatures being shot which looks surprisingly realistic and makes me wonder if it was indeed done for real.
After this point the film goes down a gear and provides fitfully exciting viewing, although not without the problems associated with the big bucks productions of this era. One of these is Victor Mature as the heroic lead; his performance is entirely old-fashioned here and he looks like he's come straight from the 1940s. Janet Leigh is better as the love interest and disrobes for a couple of bathing scenes which would have been racy for the time.
SAFARI also boasts the underrated Bermudan character actor Earl Cameron (SAPPHIRE) as the chief antagonist and very good he is too. The action bits are handled well and inevitably the scenery is a star in itself. A shame, then, that the overall experience is marred by footage of African creatures being shot which looks surprisingly realistic and makes me wonder if it was indeed done for real.