While the idea of a witch doctor manipulating African natives through fear and superstition sounds dangerous, so does the idea of people unfamiliar with the culture stepping in to manipulate them to the other side. They aren't missionaries, but doctors, mainly the noble Phyllis Calvert who means well but has methods that could lead to other problems.
On the other side is Magole (Orlando Martins) who can cause death simply from resorting to calculating words, indicating that the white man's medicine is the culprit for the angry spirits sicking the dangerous Tse Tse fly on the tribe. In between the two are the local British commissioner Eric Portman and African native Robert Adams who has spent 15 years in London as a musician and must get back to his roots to save his tribe.
This film was very controversial in its time and didn't have a U. S. release until six years after. Filmed in gorgeous Technicolor, it is up there with such British masterpieces of color such as "Henry V", "Blithe Spirit" and "Black Narcissus" which this reminded me of in a few ways. Veteran British stage and screen legend Cathleen Nesbitt has a nice scene where she questions Calvert on the goal of changing the natives when it appears that they're truly happy aa they are. But are they happy or just being manipulated?, Calvert wonders, and that works for what she's trying to accomplish as well. That question is never answered and perhaps that's the point of the movie that neither way works.
On the other side is Magole (Orlando Martins) who can cause death simply from resorting to calculating words, indicating that the white man's medicine is the culprit for the angry spirits sicking the dangerous Tse Tse fly on the tribe. In between the two are the local British commissioner Eric Portman and African native Robert Adams who has spent 15 years in London as a musician and must get back to his roots to save his tribe.
This film was very controversial in its time and didn't have a U. S. release until six years after. Filmed in gorgeous Technicolor, it is up there with such British masterpieces of color such as "Henry V", "Blithe Spirit" and "Black Narcissus" which this reminded me of in a few ways. Veteran British stage and screen legend Cathleen Nesbitt has a nice scene where she questions Calvert on the goal of changing the natives when it appears that they're truly happy aa they are. But are they happy or just being manipulated?, Calvert wonders, and that works for what she's trying to accomplish as well. That question is never answered and perhaps that's the point of the movie that neither way works.
