Watusi 1959 Based on King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard, screenplay by James Clavell, directed by Kurt Neumann. Kurt had a decent career that ended early when he died in 1958 at age 50. I've seen a number of his films, all 4 of the Tarzan pictures he directed, Island Of Lost Men, Rocketship X-M, Kronos, She Devil and The Fly.
In this sequel to the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines the son of Alan Quatermain comes to Tanganyika to seek the diamonds his father talked about. George Montgomery plays the son Harry, David Farrar plays Rick, an old friend of Alan's. They put together a safari and head out of town. Along the way they experience some of the same thrills that Alan experienced in KSM. This film uses quite a bit of footage from KSM, the whole stampede is used, the leopard attacking a tent, as well as many of the long shots. Sadly the new footage and the old footage show don't match up to well. The first film had a good bit of footage that was shot in Africa and this film doesn't have any.
The rescue a red-headed woman, played by Taina Elg, from a tribe of naughty natives who have a reputation for torturing women before they kill them. The natives had killed her father and the other men living in the church mission compound. The film dresses everyone in the cast with similar clothes so they can use more footage from the first film. We laughed at the clumsy attempts to make it fit.
The story isn't too bad and I sort of enjoyed it. I gave it a generous 5 at the IMDb. I might watch it again, I already wasted the money I spent on the DVD from the Warner Archive Collection so it would be a bit of a waste not to watch it when I get around to watching the first movie again.
Blue Panther 1965 Screenplay by Claude Chabrol and Christian-Yve with additional dialogue by Daniel Boulanger, directed by Claude Chabrol. The Marie-Chantal character appeared in a number of novels by Jacques Chazot.
A French, Spanish, Italian and Moroccan comedy spy film. The original French title is Marie-Chantal Contre Dr Kha, the world wide English title is Marie-Chantal Vs Doctor Kha. One of the fellows picked up the Blu-ray from the Kino-Lorber sale that going on through the 19th of this month. Many of their Blu-rays are a tenner.
On a train a spy convinces Marie-Chantal to hide a blue panther broach. Some men are looking for it and he doesn't want to have it on his person. She's rather naive and agrees. She's quickly involved with a pack of spies and in some danger. She gets some help from her goofy brother and that spy that put her into the soup. There's plenty of running about and yelling, some slapstick and some action.
I got a few laughs out of it and grew to like Marie-Chantal. Her brother is still a goof. There's plenty of interesting buildings and nice Moroccan scenery. I liked it enough to order one at the K-L sale.
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