Mamba

Plot synopsis:
The film takes place in Neu Posen, German East Africa sometime before the First World War. "Mamba" is the name given to a South African snake. The reptile of this adventure is Auguste Bolte (played by Jean Hersholt), who is constantly reminding those with whom he has a chance to converse that he can buy anything. He neglects his appearance and does not even bother to shave or brush his hair. The German officers hold themselves aloof from him and the only individual he has an opportunity to talk to at length is his valet-secretary, a Cockney, who feeds his master with flattery. One afternoon Bolte recalls that he has received a letter asking for 200,000 marks from Count von Linden. The Count is in Germany and in a footnote it is written that Bolte might marry von Linden's daughter, Helen. The white people of the post have as little to do with Bolte as possible and the British officers across the frontier also spurn him. It occurs to Bolte that a beautiful wife would perhaps help to make life more agreeable for him. He thinks also that the officers would then overlook some of his failings and be quite impressed. He therefore allies himself to Germany.
Helen (played by Eleanor Boardman), like most daughters who marry wealthy villains in melodramas, does so to save her father from ruin. There is a flash of the wedding and soon Helen and her ignoble husband are seen aboard the steamship bound for East Africa. On the same vessel is Karl von Reiden, the officer who is to take charge of the Neu Posen post. He is not averse to a little flirtation with a beautiful woman and therefore when Helen goes out on deck to avoid Bolte, Karl succeeds in meeting her. These scenes are fairly well filmed and the color effects are capital. Karl, played by Ralph Forbes, is a handsome fellow. So soon as he knows that Bolte is Helen's husband he realizes that the marriage is not to her liking. Later these passengers are on the river boat, and when that craft reaches Neu Posen. Bolte stands on the aft deck hoping to make all the German officers envious of his attractive bride. He later gives a feast and takes good care to make a show of his wealth, even to having a procession of natives carrying the viands.
A visit from a native woman interrupts the proceedings, and in a subsequent passage Bolte, enraged with his wife, is about to flog her with a whip when Karl comes to the rescue. All this happens just prior to the World War, and in the closing chapters word is received by both the Germans and the British that hostilities have been declared. Bolte, the snake, believes that money can buy his freedom from military service, but soon he learns otherwise. He is compelled to don a uniform and then decides to run away. His end is sudden, for he fires at one group of natives without knowing that others are behind him. They know something about Bolte and his pleas for his life fall on deaf ears. There follow episodes in which Karl goes to the rescue of Helen and others, who are in danger of an attack by the natives. These are pictured with due attention for red blood on the hero's shirt. It seems that the Britishers might have been more solicitous about Karl's wounds, but all the British commandant says when he comes up to Karl is to ask him whether he will have another Piccadilly cigarette.

Tags: revenge

Review:
(This has all the makings of a cheap exploitive thriller.)"Mamba" ("Fair Game" in the United States) is a decent, albeit somewhat exploitive thriller about Gene (Gregg Henry), a deranged computer game designer who locks his ex-fiancé Eva (Trudie Styler) inside their apartment with a deadly Black Mamba snake.Directed by Mario Orfini, he keeps a tight pace and strong sense of dread as Eva runs around her apartment trying to avoid certain death at the fangs of a lethal snake, all the while Gene watches the madness from a car parked down on the street.
Styler really carries this film on her delicate shoulders, even remaining strong in some of the sillier haunted house/slasher-style moments.
It does seem kind of strange that her apartment is devoid of windows (thus setting up the fun-house element for Gene's later entertainment).One thing that does seem to bother me is how the camera does seem fixated on Styler during a few instances when she has to strip off her clothes.
While the camera misses a few of the more explicit shots of her feminine features, you kind of get the idea that Orfini (and the audience) are still getting tantalized."Fair Game" gets a fair rating for at least keeping you watching.4/10.
"Fair Game" or "Mamba", which is the less imaginative but apparently official title for this film, actually is the simplified and much more straightforward version of the British early 80's thriller "Venom" starring Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski.
That movie revolves on petty criminals facing the threat of a venomous black mamba snake whilst trying to take hostage the sickly son of a rich family.
It's a fun but incredibly far-fetched (the mamba ended up in the house through an "accidental" wrong delivery) film and the script is over-ambitious for its own good, with police forces surrounding the house and virulent intrigues between the kidnappers mutually, whereas basically it should have just been a claustrophobic lethal-snake-on-the-loose suspense movie.
Mario Orfini, writer/director of "Fair Game" and of course an Italian, obviously saw "Venom" as well and immediately realized that only the escaped snake formula is more than enough to attract horror audiences.
The rudimentary plot of "Fair Game" is reasonably effective just because of its simplicity, and it's merely the details and character drawings that cause major disbelief.
Gregg Henry ("Body Double", "Slither") is almost too good as the frustrated and seriously deranged ex-husband who can't process the separation from the joyous artist/play-dough sculptor Eva. What do you expect?
He buys a mamba, kills the seller, injects the animal with hormones to make her even deadlier and finally lets it loose in Eva's hermetically sealed flat without windows.
She faces a virulent battle with the slithering dose of venom whilst the psychopath watches everything in his car via a computer-designed game.
"Fair Game" naturally is a highly improbable thriller, of course, but the approaching snake sequences are undeniably suspenseful.
The score and sound-effects, although inspired by the legendary "Psycho" shower sequence noises, are terrific and the film contains approximately 30 ingenious POV shots, even though admittedly they serve more to provide glorious shots of Trudie Styler's bottom.
Speaking of which, Mrs. Sting proves herself to be a very untalented actress but, in all fairness, performing all alone with just a not-so-talkative animal in the room isn't exactly the most grateful role you can get.
Interesting little detail for horror fanatics surely is that Bill Moseley forms the entire supportive cast all by himself in his second 'important' role after starring in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II"..
All's fair in love and murder, apparently, as a man attempts to kill his ex-wife through use of a modified exotic, poisonous snake.
To ensure that his wife not escape, he jams her door (apparently she only has one?) and taps into her phone which allows him to periodically call in to make sure she's still alive.Fair Game probably has one of the most interesting premises I've seen in a while but, due to only having one real potential victim, it gets bogged down by a ton of false scares.
You keep seeing the snake seemingly draw near or think it's going to pop out only for the woman to miss it entirely.
After that, the woman's paranoia causes her to act out in increasingly bizarre ways as he panics.Long before Kill Bill popularized the black mamba, it was being used as the exotic snake of choice in this movie.
Trudie Styler, the intended victim, gives a very witty, neurotic performance that will endear her to some while likely annoying others.
This level of weirdness, however, may make the viewer question why she'd be the one to leave the relationship >_> Gregg Henry, her would-be killer, plays the role rather stoically and has few bits of dialog to speak of.
More interesting than either the male or female leads is the brief cameo by Bill Moseley, who ironically is the only cast member to really do much with the rest of his career (one that's spanned numerous horror films, might I add).The title refers to the notion that the man is giving his ex-wife a chance of survival.
If the movie has one real fault it would be that very little happens at first but once things start happening it quickly loses the shock value and gets fairly campy..
Trudie Styler holds the film together?.
I don't know what movie the one reviewer saw, but it is clear from this that Ms. Styler is NO actress.
Maybe the work she has done in other films is decent, but I have yet to see it or find the other films.This one, on the other hand is awful: weak plot, weak characters, bad cinematography, and horrible dialogue.
Not worth the price of the rental no matter HOW tempting the 99 cent rack may be....."Return of the Killer Tomatoes" was money better spent than this.The gist of the story: Video game inventor takes revenge out on girlfriend who left him by trapping her in her loft/building/house with a deadly mamba.Parts of this are so ridiculous that I find it difficult to type them: this guy (Greg Henry) injects the snake with it's own hormones to make it produce more venom.
I guess the moron writing the script couldn't be bothered to pick up the "Idiot's guide to basic knowledge of herpetology" or even turn on the t.v. to catch a couple of Steve Irwin's misadventures into the snake world to know that this cannot happen.....but I digress.
When Trudie's character does realize she has a cold blooded guest in the house, her methods of protecting herself look like slap-stick - and one need not look too deep to see that the homely Mrs. Sting seems a little TOO enthused about her self (i.e.
Another factoid that is laughable in this disaster and poor excuse of a movie is the way she affords her rather spacious and expensive looking digs: she makes Play-Dough sculptures - that's right, boys and girls: PLAY-DOUGH SCULPTURES - for kids.
And her work is anything but inspiring, let me tell ya'.Her running around the loft/house/warehouse home of hers, running from the snake as if it were a machete wielding Jason has it's hilarious moments, all unintentional by the way, but the ending is a real screamer....check this out only when you hate yourself, but not enough to commit Hari-Kari..
It's a concise, yet mildly exciting close quarters psychological/deadly animal-on-the-loose thriller that puts to good use its short running time.
After the humid, nihilistic set-up involving Bill Moseley (snake handler) and a domineering Gregg Henry in seamy, heartless mode collecting/and testing out his newly acquired mamba.
There it moves onto young headstrong sculptress Eva (performed with ticker by Trudie Styler) soon to be ex-wife to Gene (Gregg Henry).
His plan is to seal off her windowless loft and unknowingly to her release a steroid-injected mamba, as he sits outside in his car getting his rocks off watching the mamba hunt its prey on a tracking device from his lap-top monitor.
The lengths this vindictive man would go to can be seen as a power trip showing that his strike is just as lethal, if not deadlier than the snake.A very elaborate, although not foolproof get-up...
Styler's character escapes a trapped relationship thinking that it's all behind her, but finds herself literally caught in another enclosed battle.
In a way it's a waiting game as she spends a good amount of time unaware of the threat, poking and prodding about, leading to set-piece after set-piece of close shave encounters.
Many thanks to my friend and student at the time, Sergio Canto, who got the passes to the screening.P.S. I could take a line or two to outline what I remember about the plot of the "film," but that's as much as the writer did, so I guess I won't bother..
You know how some movies are so bad, they're good?
DVR this...watching it double speed is fine - just slow down for the ridiculous rare dialog.The film appears to be entirely an Italian production.
I kept guessing that the only way this was made was that it was written, directed, and starring Trudy Styler, and produced by Sting...to keep her busy.
But nope, unless Sting paid off a bunch of Italian people, it looks like someone actually read this and thought "hey, this worth making".
Gene Campbell (Henry) buys a deadly black mamba snake and traps his former wife Eva (Styler) in her apartment with the snake.
He sits outside in his car, monitoring both the snake and Eva on a computer tracking device.
Speaking of dialogue, Henry is great in his role as the deranged electronics whiz who, feeling jilted by his former wife, decides shooting and stabbing her are so old-fashioned and having her get bitten by a poisonous snake is the wave of the future.
She must make a lot of money making play-doh sculptures of octopi to afford her gigantic, vast, windowless apartment.
She doesn't wear pants throughout most of the movie, even when putting on all her clothes to protect herself against the snake, the pants don't last very long.
You'll wonder why Sting wanted to marry her.It is established that Eva is an animal lover, so maybe it was out of pure diabolical evil that Gene wanted to use that against her and kill her with a snake.
There is an animal theme throughout the movie, from Eva's shirt with a fish on it, to their names (Eva = Eve, i.e., Adam and Eve and the snake, and Gene = the genetic map of life), and her sculptures.Also, music legend Giorgio Moroder not only did the music, but also co-produced the film.
There are only three characters in the entire film, and one, Bill Moseley's character, only in the beginning as the snake salesman.
Technically, there is also an uncredited actor as a delivery boy, but this primarily two-person (in two separate places, mostly) film almost could have been a play.
Bizarrely directed by Mario Orfini, "Fair Game" is an oddity.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
A clever and intriguing concept is poorly handled in this 'killer snake' thriller starring Trudy Styler (wife of pop icon, 'Sting').
This starts off brilliantly as twisted boyfriend and video game engineer, Greg Henry purchases a deadly black mamba off of nomad snake-handler (played well as usual by Bill Moseley in an all-to-brief appearance).
This opening scene does a tremendous job of displaying the icy remorselessness of Henry's character as he disposes of Moseley just before unleashing the snake into the giant loft apartment of his artistic ex-girlfriend, Styler in order to play a sick revenge game.
She sinks an all time low in her eccentric display of stupidity when she dumps powder all over the floor and gets on top of the refrigerator, pointlessly attacking the snake with eggs and shouting "filthy, filthy!", meanwhile, Henry watches on his computer in a near-by, high-tech stakeout.
Styler eventually redeems herself in a clever and final confrontation with Henry, but by then, it loses interest, and the camera prowling about the floors of the apartment imitating the snake looks unrealistic.
Its worth seeing for the good opening and Greg Henry as the cold and abhorrent villain, but Styler's character's attempted self-redeeming woman is just so laughable..
A narcissistic intellectual video game designer doesn't appreciate the fact that his "weakling" ex-girlfriend has moved on with her life, trying to earn a living from her putty sculptures(?!)enjoying the fruits of her labor in a posh vast loft, blessed with limited windows, highly secure.
Gene(Gregg Henry)decides to put an end to this by "inheriting" a deadly venomous black mamba, required by a snake handler(Bill Moseley, in one his many grubby roles..the actor has a whole trunk load of these parasites he can pluck for use)he dupes and murders.
Gene's plan at eliminating an "ungrateful" inferior girlfriend is to seal Eva's(Trudie Styler, and hour or so of running time spent with her is enough for any wary viewer to endure)home, locking her inside with the Mamba snake, with a special tracking device on both of them, watching their "progress" from his car.
Gene injects more hormones in the snake supposedly giving it a limited life expectancy providing the Mamba with "extra motivation" for attacking anyone in it's proximity..Gene even has a timer set on his computer as to when the snake would die if it couldn't release it's venom in time.
So the main meat of the film is Eva by herself practicing meditation and yoga, talking and joking to herself, making funny expressions to herself in the mirror, and generally goofing off until she realizes the snake is in there with her..and the fact that her loft is locked tight with no exit it seems.
The film often cuts to Gene in his vehicle, "sweating" it out as the counter clicks away and Eva often evades the deadly fangs of the Mamba.I would recommend seeing this film for those interested in Gregg Henry.
The DVD release of "Just Before Dawn", and films like "Slither", "Payback" and "Body Double" feature his talents.
It probably is if you find Trudie Styler interesting or entertaining, because, in just my opinion, the film hangs on her likability..she is in the film the most and it's her plight we must be concerned with.
I say if you like Styler's performance and character, the film will work..if not, then you'll feel the same way I did.
Really, the interesting premise on paper never quite materializes on screen although, as I've mentioned already, Henry's villain is quite memorable.
To be honest, in a real movie, a character such as Styler's would've been mincemeat.
Trudie styler(aka mrs sting) plays the ultimate game of keep away from one angry venomous reptile placed there by a spurned computer game playing geek.(it's always the quiet ones you know?)most of the plot is incredulous to be generous,but i did think the one scene where she dumps flour on the floor to track the mamba's movements was pretty smart.
well if nothing else if you have ever wondered what sting's wife bare bottom looks like, then you will see it in all its pale moon glory!
i laughed, i cried,(not really i cheered for the snake!)and for the first time , i honestly believe that i could have mane a better movie than Italian director mario orsini.
for one thing there would have been more shots of her fine hiney, and less of the geek in the car watching the game unfold with a voyeur's delight..
"Fair Game" is a really weak and barely worthwhile horror film.**SPOILERS**Conducting a business deal, Gene Campbell, (Gregg Henry) purchases a deadly mamba snake from Frank, (Bill Moseley) a renown dealer of exotic and deadly snakes.
Still upset over his divorce from Eva, (Trudie Styler) he pays her a visit to her apartment and uses it as an excuse to leave the snake behind.
Forced to defend herself, she tries to stay alive as the snake stalks her within the spacious building.The Good News: There wasn't much of anything to this one.
The fact that there's a real snake to this one is a big plus, as those that are used to giant killer snakes will have been used to terrible CGI or barely realistic-looking prosthetics, and one where the creature is actual and real does draw some benefits to it.
The house where it takes place is actually really nice, giving off a nice Gothic feel with it's spacious rooms, off-beat designs and intricate furniture all give it a unique look that serves well to make it really enjoyable and the perfect opportunity for something fun and enjoyable.
The last big plus is that the final confrontation, which is the focal point of the whole film, deals with the snake stalking her through the house, and these are all full-on, tense and exciting scenes.
From the bathroom confrontation to the scenes of the snake attacking in the living room, there's a lot to like about them.
The fire scenes are just as good, and lend a little more believability to the film that, along with the real snake, make for a really fun scene.
It's not entirely exciting watching her walk around doing yoga or trying wacky means of fitting food into refrigerators, or even stuff like the constant phone calls or flipping around the TV aren't that interesting at all, and the stuff that goes on while the snake's stalking her isn't any better.
There's three people who have screen-time over ten seconds, and with a snake in the film, the deaths are guaranteed not to be too graphic at all, which is pretty common anyways.
These here are the film's weak points.The Final Verdict: With a few good points about it and not a whole lot really wrong with it, this one ends up being incredibly underwhelming.