The Naked Prey | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cornel Wilde |
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 96 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Languages |
|
Budget | $647,649 [2] |
The Naked Prey is a 1965 American adventure film [3] directed and co-produced by Cornel Wilde, who also stars in the lead role. Set in the South African veldt, the film's plot centers around a safari guide trying to survive in the veldt's harsh environment, while trying to avoid death at the hands of vengeful African warriors. The story is loosely based on the experiences of American explorer John Colter. The acclaimed screenplay earned writers Clint Johnson and Don Peters an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
The film premiered at the 1965 San Sebastián International Film Festival, then was released in the United States on March 23, 1966. Made on a scant budget of less than $700,000, the film was shot entirely on location in southern Africa.
In colonial era South Africa, a professional safari guide leads a haughty investor and his troop on an elephant hunt through the African veldt. When the group comes to a local tribe's territory, the Africans require a toll to be paid for walking through their territory. The guide demands that they be paid, but the expedition's investor ignores this advice, brushes the Africans aside, and knocks down the tribal leader, who is barring his way. No violent retribution immediately occurs, and the Europeans are allowed to walk past the warriors guarding their border.
Later on, the guide and investor are arguing about their elephant kills. The investor brags about killing many more elephants than anyone else. The guide reminds him, "Everyone else only shot ivory-bearing elephants", to which the investor only laughs. During this conversation, a group of warriors from a local village discovers the poachers' camp, and armed only with spears, captures or kills the entire group.
After a victory march of the Europeans to the African's home village, most are executed using various torture methods. The guide is spared until the last. He is stripped naked and then an arrow is fired into the air. The guide is ordered at the point of a spear to run. Once he passes the fallen arrow, he is chased by another warrior in waiting. His pursuer throws a spear at him and misses, which the guide uses to kill his pursuer. Afterwards, he takes the warrior's supplies and evades his captors. The warriors, grief-stricken about their dead friend, argue about continuing the hunt. The guide flees, and some of them continue the pursuit.
Over the course of the pursuit, several of the warriors fall, either killed by the guide or the ravenous wildlife. The guide comes across an African village and camps nearby. He succeeds in stealing some barbecue and sneaking away, only to be awoken later by the rifle fire of Middle-Eastern slavers. The guide cuts captured slaves from their rope bindings, has a minor melee with the slave guards, and prepares to meet the slaver captain in combat, just as the captain falls into a ditch filled with large thorns that enter his eyes.
Amid the chaos of the melee, the guide meets a young African girl who is hiding from the slavers. The guide escapes the slavers by jumping into a river, but is incapacitated after going over a large waterfall. Luckily, the girl finds him on the river bank and is able to revive him. They become friends after that, and as he travels with her for the next few days, he sings a 19th-century drinking song "Little Brown Jug". The child in return sings a song in her own language. They later part ways near an area that she indicates as her homeland, which she is unwilling to leave.
His surviving pursuers continue tracking him. The guide finally reaches the colonial fort from which the safari had originally set out. The lead pursuer, now running closely behind him, is shot dead by rifle fire from the fort's soldiers, just a second before the warrior can land a fatal blow. When the guide finally reaches the safety of the fort, amidst the movements of the colonial troops, he turns and gives a saluting nod to the leader of his pursuers, who returns it, acknowledging the guide's final victory.
The Naked Prey was filmed on location in Southern Africa. [lower-alpha 1] [4] [5] [6] The film's screenplay was only nine pages long. [7] [8] The film's opening titles were accompanied by paintings illustrated by local artist Andrew Motjuoadi. [8]
The minimal dialog, richly realized African settings, and emphasis on making "the chase (and violent combat along the way) a subject unto itself, rather than the climax to a conventional story" [9] distinguish Naked Prey as an innovative and influential adventure film. [10] However, although it is considered a small classic today, [11] it received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Robert Alden of The New York Times, reacting to the brutality of some of the early scenes, dismissed the film as "poor and tasteless motion-picture entertainment", but did acknowledge its "authentic African setting" and "effective use of tribal drums and native music." [12] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times, taking a different tack, called The Naked Prey "pure fantasy" of the "great white hunter" variety, adding: "Sure, it's nice to think you could outrun half a dozen hand-picked African warriors simply because you'd been to college and read Thoreau, but the truth is they'd nail you before you got across the river and into the trees." [13]
Other reviewers, however, were more enthusiastic. In Time, the film was described as "a classic, single-minded epic of survival with no time out for fainthearted blondes or false heroics" where "natives are not the usual faceless blacks but human beings whose capacity for violence the hero quickly matches." [14] Variety reviewer praised the documentary-style use of nature photography to show "the pattern of repose, pursuit, sudden death and then repose" that characterizes the entire chase. [15]
Retrospectively, the film's reception has grown better. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86%, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.93/10. [16] Metacritic gave the film a 64 out of 100 rating, indicating "generally favorable reviews, based on 12 reviews. [17] In July 2016, Matthew Thrift of the British Film Institute named the film among the 10 greatest "chase films" and praised its "lush widescreen lensing" that "captures all the natural beauty and brutality of the African savannah". [7]
Award | Subject | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Clint Johnson and Don Peters | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | [18] |
The Naked Prey was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in January 2008. [19]
The soundtrack consists of African tribal chants, natural sounds, and occasional dialogue, in English and otherwise. There are no subtitles, and incidental music is mostly absent. It features Nguni tribal songs specifically recorded for the film. A vinyl LP The Naked Prey was released in 1966 on Folkways Records. [20] It was re-released as Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey in CD form on Latitude/Locust Music in 2004. [21] [22]
As teenagers, Joel and Ethan Coen shot their own version of The Naked Prey on a Super 8 film camera. They called it Zeimers in Zambia and cast neighbor Mark Zimering in the lead role. [24]
The progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria was originally named Shabütie after the African chant from the film. Shabütie translates to "Naked Prey".
In the first scene of the Mad Men season 5 episode "Far Away Places," Abe coaxes a distracted and reluctant Peggy to go see the film with him. His pitch: "You're resisting a chance to see Cornel Wilde naked? I heard he wrestles a boa constrictor. Sounds pretty dirty."
The 266th episode of Cheers is titled "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey".
In the movie Where's Poppa? , the main character's brother (played by Ron Leibman) is regularly mugged while taking a shortcut through Central Park. In one mugging, the group of muggers refer to The Naked Prey as they strip him and then chase him. Garrett Morris plays one of the muggers.
The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 American drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in Technicolor and released by Paramount Pictures. Set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring and Charlton Heston as the circus manager. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his makeup, and Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame also play supporting roles.
Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker.
A safari is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in Southeast Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an important part of the safari market, both for wildlife viewing and big-game hunting.
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is a 1995 American detective comedy film and the sequel to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), and the second installment of the Ace Ventura franchise. Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame and captive animals, and has been summoned to Africa to locate a missing bat. Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, and Sophie Okonedo co-star. Tommy Davidson, who co-starred with Carrey on the show In Living Color, makes a cameo appearance in the film. The film was written and directed by Carrey's close friend Steve Oedekerk, who had also collaborated in the production and as a character consultant for the first film.
White Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American adventure drama film produced, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. It is based on the 1953 book of the same name written by Peter Viertel, who cowrote the screenplay with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The screenplay was the last that Bridges wrote before his death in 1993.
Beach Red is a 1967 World War II film starring Cornel Wilde and Rip Torn. The film depicts a landing by the United States Marine Corps on an unnamed Japanese-held Pacific island. The film is based on Peter Bowman's 1945 novella of the same name, which was based on his experiences with the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific War.
Jungle Cruise, formally named Jungle River Cruise, is a riverboat amusement ride located in the Adventureland themed section at various Disney theme parks worldwide. The attraction is a simulated riverboat cruise that travels along a waterway using a concealed guidance system through areas with Asian, African, and South American themes. Park guests board replica steam launches from a 1930s British explorers' lodge, and Audio-Animatronic exotic animals are displayed throughout the ride. A live Disney cast member acts as a tour guide and boat skipper that loosely follows a rehearsed script, providing passengers with a comedic narrative.
Tarzan's New York Adventure is a 1942 American adventure film from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, produced by Frederick Stephani, directed by Richard Thorpe, that stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. This was the sixth and final film in MGM's Tarzan series and was the studio's last Tarzan feature until 1957's Tarzan and the Lost Safari. Although Tarzan's New York Adventure includes scenes set in New York, as well as the customary jungle sequences, it is yet another Tarzan production primarily shot on MGM's back lots.
Elephant Boy is a 1937 British adventure film starring Indian-born actor Sabu in his film debut. Documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty, who produced some of the Indian footage, and supervising director Zoltan Korda, who completed the film, won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival. The film was made at the London Films studios at Denham, and in Mysore, India, and is based on the story "Toomai of the Elephants" from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).
Tarzan and His Mate is a 1934 American pre-Code action adventure film based on the Tarzan character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Directed by Cedric Gibbons, it was the second in the Tarzan film series and starred Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan.
Shockproof is a 1949 American crime film noir directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Patricia Knight and Cornel Wilde. Wilde and Knight were husband and wife during filming. They divorced in 1951.
Ultime grida dalla savana, also known as by its English title Savage Man Savage Beast, is a 1975 Italian mondo documentary film co-produced, co-written, co-edited and co-directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. Filmed all around the world, its central theme focuses on hunting and the interaction between man and animal. Like many mondo films, the filmmakers claim to document real, bizarre and violent behavior and customs, although some scenes were actually staged. It is narrated by the Italian actor and popular dubber Giuseppe Rinaldi and the text was written by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia.
Patrick Beattie Mynhardt was a well-known South African film and theatre actor. He appeared in over 150 stage plays in South Africa and England, 100 local and international films, TV plays and serials as well as an opera. He died in London, where he was performing in his one-man show Boy from Bethulie at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End.
East of Sudan is a 1964 British adventure film directed by Nathan Juran and featuring Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms and Derek Fowlds.
Safari 3000 is a 1982 American action-adventure comedy film directed by Harry Hurwitz and starring David Carradine, Stockard Channing, and Christopher Lee. The film was shot on location in Africa.
Beyond Mombasa is a 1956 British-American Technicolor adventure film directed by George Marshall and starring Cornel Wilde, Donna Reed and Leo Genn. It was set in Kenya and shot on location there and at the Elstree Studios near London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Elliot Scott.
Simba: The King of the Beasts is a 1928 American black-and-white sound documentary film, directed by Martin and Osa Johnson, which features the couple's four-year expedition to track the lion across Kenyan veld to his lair. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film, which went on nationwide general release on January 25, 1928, was premiered at the Earl Carroll Theatre in New York on January 23, 1928.
African Manhunt is a 1955 American adventure film directed by Seymour Friedman and written by Arthur Hoerl. The film stars Myron Healey, Karin Booth, John Kellogg, Lawrence Dobkin, Ross Elliott and James Edwards. The film was released on January 5, 1955, by Republic Pictures. African sequences from the French documentary Congolaise were edited into the film.
"The Most Dangerous Game" is an influential 1924 short story by Richard Connell. It tells the story of big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford becoming the hunted when trapped on a jungle island owned by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat who has turned to hunting man after growing bored of hunting animals.