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The Naked Prey (1966); Criterion marathon #11
Topic Started: Nov 25 2007, 07:26 PM (310 Views)
copperhead
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members, this is one of my favorite flicks. a chase movie with very little dialoge. interesting in that wilde uses his physical power in this movie much than in any other. he has a spear fight and and machete fight[shows off his olympic prowess fencing]-----anyone dig this cult classic---? ralph g
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Sgt King
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I really like this movie jungle chase movie. That is until he reaches the village . . . that's when the film, for me, drops to "routine."
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Laughing Gravy
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Continuing my marathon of Criterion titles, one of each of the film categories here in the balcony, and all of which I have in my collection but have never watched before. Today, #11: Cornel Wilde’s The Naked Prey, released in 1966 (Criterion Spine #415).

Africa, 1840s, and a group of colonialist assholes insult a local tribe and kill a bunch of elephants for sport. Bad move. The tribe attacks, and captures the hunting party and their African scouts. The scouts are killed quickly and with mercy (more or less mercifully; they’re clubbed to death) but the whites are tortured and humiliated (graphically) before being killed. Cornel Wilde (who also directed, and whose character’s name is not given to us) had shown respect to the tribe and disgust at the hunting, so he’s granted the death of a lion – stripped naked, and given a head start before being hunted down by the Zulu-like warriors. The chase is on, as Wilde runs for his life against his pursuers.

This is a REALLY good movie, very exciting and suspenseful. It’s also thought-provoking and just downright interesting: the tribesmen aren’t really the bad guys here, and while there is some inherent Hollywood-type treatment of “native” Africans, they’re also the only ones in the film that show any real emotion. The scenes where they tend to their dead and wounded (who got that way courtesy of the just-trying-to-stay-alive Mr. Wilde) are the most moving in the film. There are some comic bits, with Wilde trying to catch a prairie bird and teaching a little girl to sing “Little Brown Jug”, but for the most part, the film is an hour and a half chase sequence that is really beautifully filmed, only rarely falling back on the stock footage of wild animals that’s so ubiquitous in other jungle pictures. In fact, the stock footage is as violent and brutal as the film sometimes is itself; the elephant hunt is hands-over-the-eyes ugly. Wilde, in his 50s, looks terrific, despite the fact that apparently he was very sick during the filming, which adds, needless to say, authenticity.

The film seems to have gotten mixed reviews upon release (and one Oscar nomination, for its screenplay) but I thought it was marvelous (the musical score, a mixture of native African chanting and percusssion, is particularly memorable) and one that earns rewatching.
Edited by Laughing Gravy, Jul 15 2011, 09:38 PM.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Don Diego
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I remember taping this a while back and I fully agree - a great movie. Cornel Wilde's work here was probably his best.
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Laughing Gravy
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I hope you got to tape it in widescreen - it is beautifully photographed.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Don Diego
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Fortunately it was off TCM and they don't usually pan and scan.
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Brick Bradford
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Good movie..keeps you interested throughout..ending is sort of a letdown with no dramatic confrontation between the principal adversaries.
Bwana Brick Bradford (Handsomsest Hero in Serials) :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink:
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andarius
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Yep, saw that on TV in the early 70s, but remember it as being a terrific movie.

Cornel Wilde also did a really neat film where he was a deputy sheriff (or something similar) in Grand Canyon land.

AND he was a pretty nifty Bandit of Sherwood Forest! :D
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copperhead
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members, i feel this is one of the all-time great "b" movies ever. there are only several cast members in it and very little speaking. cornel wilde on the run from an african tribe . the leader of wilde's safari insulted the tribe and all of the safari team are killed with the exception of wilde. the tribe gives a short lead to run for his life and then the action starts!
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The Batman
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I agree, Coppy, this is a great action/adventure film, the pace never lets up.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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