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.

The colorful opening graphics and credits punctuated with African music and drums set up an effective introduction. We know that there will be more to the movie than just a safari. At the time of the film, Kenya was one of Britain's many African colonies. Victor Mature is he-man Ken Duffield (though he looks more like a Vic Russo) hired by wealthy Sir Vincent Brampton (Roland Culver) to lead him on a jungle hunt for a large maverick lion known as Atari ("Danger"). Sir Vincent's fiancée, the voluptuous Janet Leigh (Linda Latham), early on tells Ken that he is a "BWH" (big white hunter). More than hunting, though, Ken is more interested in finding bloodthirsty Jeroge (Earl Cameron), a Mau Mau "general" who – early in the movie – betrayed Ken's household during a frightening attack and murdered his young son in cold blood. In the movie's course, we see a native dance and a Masai ritual lion hunt. Then Linda takes an ill-advised rubber-raft trip in a crocodile-infested river that ends in dangerous rapids. We will also observe the killing of several animals, including those of a hot-tempered bull-elephant, a rhino, and some lions. These animal killings of the 1950s will not please those who are against big game hunting in principle. Conscience of their environment, they demand preservation of our animals.Among the cast are Juma who acts as Odongo, and Orlando Martins, who, as Jerusalem, likes to play the trumpet when the expedition is at camp. Both Odongo and Jerusalem hate the Mau Mau and are loyal to Ken. Odongo, Ken's boy-assistant (13 years-old) certainly has a captivating laugh. When 200 Mau Mau later attack the hunting expedition, Ken's automatic weapon helps keep the evil horde at bay. More help will be needed though, and it will come in the form of competent native (colonial) police coming to the rescue. They are as welcome as the US cavalry. In the meantime romance has developed between hunter Ken and beauteous Linda. At movie's end it is assumed that they will marry and that they will adopt Odongo, whose conclusive laugh is fitting indeed. The film is wonderfully filmed in Technicolor, while those beautiful animals are always so magnificent to see. They remain Africa's treasure indeed!

I LOVE this film and it is SHAMEFUL that there is not a DVD out. Great director, great actors deserve it. One of the greatest stage and film actors ever to come out of England, John Justin, the talented and beauteous Janet Leigh, the most masculine actor I've ever seen, Victor Mature, and a superb supporting cast make this film endearing, and above all else white-knuckled action. There is romance, and sexual tension, danger, pathos, heroism, and all of the frailties of the human condition are on display here.It is very, very sad that more film goers are not exposed to this little gem. Filmed on location in Africa and every scene is powerful. If you are tired of films that are really nothing more than special effects and NOISE then watch this film, you will NOT be disappointed.GIVE US A DVD version with a pristine print. PLEASE oh gods of the arts.

"In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." That was a rock 'n' roll hit in the late 1950s. Where did an American recording group get the idea to do such a single? From this movie, in which the African characters, while marching on safari, sing it - an authentic African folk song that easily translated to a rhythm 'n' blues beat. Here is a fine example of what they used to call a 'program picture' - not a B movie in the early-indie junk-movie sense, or an A studio production either. Just before TV ruled, the major studios used to make minor films (though not B movies, mind you - something beyond that but below a B feature) and called them programmers. That way, they could make use of the actors, writers, directors, etc. who were on a regular payroll, a concept that would die early during the next decade. After all, if you were going to pay all of those people a weekly salary, might as well knock out modest movies that, when you think about it, cost them little but the price of raw film stock. They could be marketed on double bills, then sent over to the Drive-Ins, and finally put into a package that went to local TV channels in those days before the networks got hooked on full-length films (fall of 61). So here were Victor Mature and Janet Leigh as an older man and younger woman who find themselves together on a safari that her father arranges. Mature has ulterior motives - his family was destroyed in a mau-mau attacks some years earlier and he wants revenge, thinking this may be the way to get it. The mau-mau attacks are very well staged by Terence Young, who would go on to do several Bond films. Crisp color and a strong soundtrack qualify this as precisely what it was meant to be - far from a memorable movie, but a time killer that doesn't leave you feeling that you've wasted you're time when it's over.