History has shown that the first to do something is rarely the best. Often, in fact, they are far from it, even if they are rarely the worst.
The 1952 African adventure Bwana Devil was the first feature-length 3D picture shot in color and, as such, deserves credit in cinematic history for that. Unfortunately, if not for that novelty, this movie would likely be little remembered.
The plot doesn’t concern a safari, per se, but is the kind of work I consider to be a “safari picture”. Robert Stack is the foreman for a railroad construction in Africa, where a pair of lions are methodically picking off his workers.
First off, these workers are all Indians. I might have missed an explanation for why the company wasn’t employing Africans. Then again, if the Asian subcontinent was providing labor on another continent in the 19th century, when this film takes place, then maybe this foresees their dominance in Information Technology outsourcing later.
Really, I suspect they are of that race because the railroad company is a British institution, and I think most of us know how that colonial empire regarded their subjects from India. It is shocking Stack is supposed to be our hero when some of his “supervision” of the workers is indistinguishable from a chain gang picture.
Then again, I doubt they would treat native Africans any better. It’s hard to say because there aren’t many Black actors on the screen here. I believe the only ones we see are an orphan boy and the members of a tribe who are roped in to hunt the lions.
You might have noticed I mentioned Robert Stack earlier, and he is clearly not British. He does not attempt such an accent, nor does Barbara Britton, playing his wife. What I found amusing is she so thoroughly sounds like a Yank, despite having that surname. She arrives in the second act along with some arrogant upper-class-twit-of-the-year types who apparently think they can kill the lions through the power of their unearned feelings of superiority. They will be proven wrong and will become lion chow.
Of the cast, I also want to mention Nigel Bruce, who played possibly the dimmest incarnation of Dr. Watson when he appeared in many Sherlock Holmes films alongside Basil Rathbone. He is portrayed as not that much more competent here, but I could never figure out what his character was even supposed to be doing. He doesn’t seem to know, either, as he complains he has seen as little adventure on the continent as he would have in a night of playing darts at the Spread Eagle, which I assume is a pub. All I know is I associate “spread eagle” only with a particular activity that is likely not happening in a pub that would be frequented by Bruce. That is, unless I have been under a serious misunderstanding of what typically transpires in a public house.
The 3D is fairly good here, even with the anaglyphic (red/blue) glasses we wore to watch this. A big sacrifice when compared to true 3D is colors come out strangely in this format. I’ve heard of three-strip Technicolor, and even the early two-strip version, but this look like some bizarro-world 1.5-strip Technicolor. Yellow dominates the image in almost every frame.
Perhaps the weirdest aspect of this film is everything after the opening credits pales in comparison to that sequence. There’s also a fascinating prologue starring Lloyd Nolan, where he suddenly snaps from two to three dimensions. He also helps famous TV puppet duo Beany and Cecil learn how to properly wear the necessary glasses. This tutorial is funny, genuinely informative and worth the price of admission alone. Then there are those opening titles, with a slow pan across transparencies with text on them, as we pass various objects arranged in the foreground and background. The parallax scrolling is jaw-dropping.
The film proper has some interesting shot compositions, but which rarely do much to exploit the gimmick at hand. Some of the least impressive moments are obviously 2D footage projected on a screen, with various elements in front of them to add verisimilitude. That background footage was actually captured in Africa by this movie’s director, Arch Oboler. I take it that is how the movie lays claim to have been filmed in Africa and California. Care to hazard a guess as to what percentage of it was filmed in the US? I am not surprised Ron Ormond employed similar African vacation footage in his 2D Untamed Mistress four years later.
But the worst and weirdest bit which exploits the gimmick is a kiss between Stack and Britton. First, one of them thrusts their mug right into the camera and then we cut to the other doing the same. It is laughable and unsettling at the same time. That I haven’t seen this attempted in any other stereo optic film is a testament to the failure of this bit. Then again, the movie poster did promise a lion in your lap and a lover in your arms. I know I would have been far happier with a lover in my lap.
Bwana Devil is largely a lousy film. At best, it might be in the company of such poorly regarded peers of the time of as Curucu, Beast of the Amazon. The more movies I see of this kind only reinforces what a minor miracle 1950’s King Solomon’s Mines was. If it wasn’t for its place in movie history, we wouldn’t be talking about Bwana Devil today. Oh, who am I trying to deceive? I watch garbage like this all the time, and would have seen it, regardless.
Dir: Arch Oboler
Starring Robert Stack, Barbara Britton, Nigel Bruce
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray