Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: James Whale
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Bennett, John Howard, George Sanders, Alan Hale
From: Universal
I don't like EVERY movie from Old Time Hollywood. I try to check out the ones where the general consensus is that they are at least “fine”. My viewing of the 1950 King Solomon's Mines and someone I follow on Letterboxd recently reviewed this obscurity sparked the desire to see a picture most don't even know of now. Despite that reviewer's words of caution and my having to visit “the bowels of the Internet” to view a copy, this is rather bad despite all the talent involved. Even at release, critics & audiences rejected the film.
Get this: it was directed by James Whale, lensed by Karl Freund, written by a two-time Oscar winner (Frances Marion) and starred various famous faces: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Alan Hale, George Bancroft, and even one of the first roles for Vincent Price... yet despite this and queer subtext, the movie is still rather poor. Everyone who reviews the movie repeats this quote from Price yet it's apropos: “About five of the worst pictures ever made were in that one picture.”
It starts off as an adventure where a bunch of random white dudes in a small South American town go on a trek to an Inca temple to “steal its gold”, as many would deem it. No comment on that aspect of the story; in contrast, I WILL remark that the portrayal of the natives is about as stereotypical as expected. The temple was found 15 minutes into the tale, which was... unexpected. The story then turns and the crux of it is actually Bennett appearing in camp and all those dumb men swooning over her, fighting w/ each other. You can see where the queer subtext comes in. Of course, Joan Bennett's a lovely and charming lady but this just made the movie lame and honestly tanks the whole fiasco. Before anyone asks, there are NO giant hornets; that's the unrelated and apparently deathly dull Monster from Green Hell.
There's no real need to try and track this down. It's not funny/bad enough watch for the laughs and for legitimate reasons it's best to avoid. There's no shortage of films featuring the cast & crew that are more worthy of your time (not to mention, jungle pictures) and even if one day some company released this in HD, the one true highlight-the giant, impressive sets that Universal built on their lot-was later repurposed in The Mummy's Hand and the Claude Rains Phantom of the Opera, so I understand.
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