Big Baboons

Some weird movies have been coming off my "Wait" list. For example: Sands of the Kalahari (1965). I think I read about it in one film blog or another, and was mainly intrigued by the poster of a gang of ravening baboons. It's been on long or short "Wait" status for a while, and it just showed up.

It starts with Susannah York, Stuart Whitman, Theodor Bikel, and a few others stuck overnight in some African town, when their flight to Johannesburg can't take off. A few of the passengers decide to charter a small plane to make it a little faster. The plane runs into a huge cloud of locusts, and crashes in the Kalahari desert. Stanely Baker cuts his leg badly in the crash, but everyone gets out. Whitman even goes back for his hunting rifle. 

Their only chance of survival is to head for the mountains about 20 miles away. after a grueling trek, they find not only shade and water, but a cave for shelter. The only drawback, other than isolation, is the troop of baboons living nearby - they don't seem friendly. but keep their distance. 

One of the group volunteers to try to hike out to find help. Meanwhile, everyone else putters around under the leadership of Whitman - he is a survival expert and also has the only gun. When he gets York alone, he demands sex from her. When she resists, he threatens to hit her, and she tells him to do anything, just don't hurt her. She may have a thing for strong, violent men.

When Whitman and another survivor are out alone, he "volunteers" them to walk out to find help, or be shot. He does this to everyone but Baker, who can't really walk, so that he will be left alone with York. But Baker knows what's up, and if he ca convince York, Whitman may be foiled.

Director Cy Endfield seemed to make a lot of classic adventure movies, and this is sure one of them. It was filmed mostly in the actual Kalahari, so there is a lot of authentic desert (I think the mountain oasis is largely studio based). As you might expect, there are almost no black Africans on screen, except for a funny encounter with some San bushmen. They find one of the expelled survivors, give him some water and prepare to leave him. He begs them to take him with them, and they just shrug and let him follow. Crazy white man.

In fact, it looks like most of the guys Whitman kicked out make live. One gets arrested for trespassing on a diamond mining operation. Still, beats dying of thirst.

But aside from being a great adventure, this movie is just too unpleasant to be enjoyable. Whitman with his strongman murdering, York with her sexual kinks, and so on. In the end, the baboons were the most likable characters.