Ford tries to duplicate Huston...and fails

Just a couple years after Huston struck gold with The African Queen, Ford delivered his sordid tale of adventure, love and sex on the dark continent.

There's some fantastic location shooting, with the fauna and wildlife coming thrillingly to life (with stock video of an aggressive, charging gorilla particularly impressive.) An aging Gable is the centerpiece here, who's besieged on both sides by two dynamically different women (the insouciant, liberated Gardner and the tawdry, repressed Kelly.) Refusing to go further, however, the film contents itself with being an illicit love triangle as the two women compete for Gable's virile affection.

And that's all the movie amount to, the "manly beast" Gable satisfying his ravenous lust as he effortlessly juggles them both between his safaris. The sultry Gardner and emotionally-imbalanced Kelly earned oscar noms for their portrayals, but the film falls flat on its face. It's an empty, misogynistic bore that can't manage to say anything meaningful about human relationships and has no narrative fluidity to speak of.

Its leads come nowhere close to evoking the spark and effervescent charm of the chemistry between the two in Huston's film, and its sense of adventure is a dying ember next to the fireworks extravaganza that the latter provides.

Set aside time for The African Queen, and watch Mogambo if the deplorable hash that is t.v. programming has nothing else to offer.

"...if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street." ~ an irate Tarantino