Beyond Mombasa

Plot synopsis:
Matt Campbell (Cornel Wilde) arrives in Kenya, where his brother George is reported missing. A man named Ralph Hoyt (Leo Genn) tells him that George has been killed by members of the "Leopard Men" cult.
Matt is introduced to Hoyt's niece, Ann Wilson (Donna Reed), an anthropologist, who is puzzled by Matt's reluctance to go to Mombasa for his brother's funeral. Matt also meets big-game hunter Gil Rossi (Christopher Lee), who was helping George search for a valuable uranium mine. Hoyt claims the mine doesn't exist.
Another business partner, Elliott Hastings (Ron Randell), claims that George's body has been cremated but he did find a map. An expedition beyond Mombasa is formed, guided by Ketimi (Dan Jackson) and other local tribesmen. A shared experience with a charge of hippos brings Matt and Ann closer together, while Gil is nearly killed by an alligator before it is shot by Hastings.
Tribesmen wearing leopard disguises attack Hastings that night. Ketimi is then killed by a poison dart, causing the other tribesmen to leave. Locating a shaft to the mine, Elliot, Matt and Ann descend into it. She discovers to her horror that Hoyt, her uncle, has murdered Gil with a blow gun. Hoyt confesses to killing Ketimi and paying other natives to disguise themselves as the mythical Leopard Men.
Matt and Ann are about to become the next victims, but Ketimi's fellow tribesmen reappear and take their revenge.

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
BEYOND MOMBASA (George Marshall, 1956) **1/2.
African adventures were constant entertainment fodder throughout the 1950s and beyond, where many a popular star took on the jungle with its wild animals and (often) equally hostile natives; in this case, it was strapping Cornel Wilde – rather ill-at-ease, however, playing a hard-drinking womanizer (especially given the various attempts made on his life by "Leopard Men" already responsible for his brother's death after having stumbled upon a deposit of uranium)!
This British-made production (albeit helmed by an American) features yet another stalwart cast – which also includes leading lady Donna Reed (who, as a bookish anthropologist, naturally starts by resenting Wilde's boorishness but eventually cannot resist his directness and obvious virility), Leo Genn (the outwardly benign missionary eventually revealed to be the mastermind behind the Mau Mau-inspired 'reign of terror', driven by a misguided sense of religious and civic duty), Ron Randell (who, as Wilde's brother's business partner, logically has the finger of suspicion pointing at him from the outset) and, in one of his more prominent pre-stardom roles, Christopher Lee (a big-game hunter of Italian descent who, even more unlikely, is played up to be the hero's romantic rival!).
The exotic locale supplies characteristic thrills (such as the inevitable cobra attack) and excessive (i.e. mostly irrelevant) local color but, shot by the redoubtable Freddie Young, it invariably pleases the eye (despite the panning-and-scanning involved in the TV-sourced copy I acquired).
The obligatory peril-fraught-trek-through-the-jungle (with tension among the protagonists palpable as they seek the lost mine) takes up the latter half of the narrative, culminating in Genn's going berserk and unleashing the "Leopard Men" on his trapped 'companions'until the other natives rise up against these clandestine forces, since they find their activities giving them a bad name!.
Truly beyond belief.
As Hollywood produced films about Africa now had to be shot in Africa for realism's sake since King Solomon's Mines and The African Queen I suppose that Cornel Wilde and Donna Reed were grateful for the safari adventure they got courtesy of Columbia Pictures for filming Beyond Mombasa.
The location shooting in Mombasa and in the rest of what was then Kenya colony is this film's biggest asset.Wilde is in Africa having been sent for by his brother who even made hotel reservations in Mombasa for him.
Upon arrival he finds kindly missionary Leo Genn and his anthropologist niece Reed breaking the bad news about his brother's death at the hands of a revived cult of the Leopard.
Wilde thinks it might have been the very real Mau Maus, but Genn says it's the leopard crowd.Determined to get to the bottom of things, Wilde goes with Genn and Reed into the interior of Kenya, Beyond Mombasa to find where his brother might have found uranium.
Their guide is another partner of the brother Christopher Lee and they're to join yet a third partner Ron Randell near the mine.
I can't say any more lest I spoil a most ridiculous plot turn.
All I can say is that one of the cast has truly gone native.I suppose a good safari is a good enough reason to be in one stinker of a movie..
Anthropology getting mixed up with sedition and murder.
It could have been worse.
As it is, at least some of the actors are excellent, especially Christopher Lee as the only elegant mermber of the party, a dashing French hunter in Africa leading the others into the depths of the jungle to solve the mystery of Cornel Wilde's brother's mysterious death.
Cornel Wilde himself appears to be a somewhat rowdy Canadian, and it takes some time for Donna Reed to find any charm in that drunken buccaneer.
Leo Genn appears to be a somewhat sanctimonious missionary, but he is too good and placid to be true, and he never made the seminary.
There is one more interested party in the treasure hunt, but most interesting are the natives and their behaviour, especially their music - the trumpeteer Eddie Calvert has a guest performance in this colourful safari film, where you also see all kinds of other animals, the hippopotami and the crocodiles being the most impressive seconded by giraffes, and of course there is a tame chimpanzee.
It's not a bad film, there is some excitement and charm to it, the jungle environments are terrific with their hidden dangers, and it's not too long.
It's an entertainment with a fresh and nice dialogue, that at least should leave you happy and content afterwards when the curtain has fallen on the exotic drama of how an African sect could be manipulated out of the jungle..
Adventure and a dangerous mystery in Kenya..
George Marshall directs this Columbia Pictures East African travelogue.
Matt Campbell(Cornell Wilde) makes the trip to Mombasa, Kenya too late for his brother's funeral.
He discovers his brother did not die of natural causes, but murdered.
Matt would like to know who murdered him; but unsympathetically would like to know more about the location of a mine that his sibling wrote him about.
Early on arrival, Mr. Campbell meets with a missionary, Ralph Hoyt(Leo Genn)and Hoyt's niece Ann Wilson(Donna Reed)and joins them on safari and search for the valuable mine.
This is not a gold mine, nor diamond mine; but a uranium mine.
Several attempts are made on Matt's life and he knows someone seriously does not want him to locate the mine.
As the safari travels beyond Mombasa, natives speak of a white man being killed by a legendary tribe of "leopard men".
This action adventure seems a bit longer than the quoted running time of an hour and thirty minutes.
Sure some scenes may have been drawn out a bit; and any violence is not very shocking.
Banter between Wilde and Reed at times is playfully humorous.
Horror film veteran Christopher Lee plays a shady Frenchman.
Also supporting are Ron Randall and Dan Jackson.
This film was indeed filmed in Mombasa, Kenya..
Beyond Belief.
It is not clear exactly who this film was aimed at.Filmed in technicolour in Africa,with interiors in the UK with a largely British cast.The two main leads are American.So maybe this was made for the American as well as the British market.The story is rather strange.It seems to be utilising elements of the then current Mau mau uprising in Kenya and renaming them the Leopard people.Instead of seeking independence they are being led by a dotty English missionary,played by Leo Genn in a very unsatisfactory wig,to protect a uranium mine.In the meantime Wilde and Reed are having a truly tiresome romance.Some good location scenes but that is about all of interest..
Murder in Monbasa.
The characters are cardboard : the rough rider ,who has been through it all ,the beautiful heroine who cannot stand this rude guy,her wise uncle, and two sinister-looking guys ,plus the leopard men in the background.At first sight, the principal is a cynical guy who does not even want to attend his own brother's funeral ,but is only in it for the money;of course,as expected , further acquaintance shows actually a brave guy the reluctant heroine will become little by little mad about (and the other way about).Although it's labelled "adventures movie" ,it is actually a whodunit : who killed
the unfortunate brother who discovered uranium in his mine?Every member of the expedition is a suspect .The stupefied expression on the last victim's face is pure thriller.Spoiler:
The most interesting side of this story is religious fanatism :how a man who thinks he serves as the instrument of the wrathful petulant Jehovah of Victorian Sunday schools can awaken the old superstitions of the natives and use their own creed .
However,as there are absolutely no clues, no forerunner, whilst the identity of the culprit is unexpected,it is a rather implausible.Cornell Wilde's African adventures are best appreciated in his own " Naked prey"(1966) ,his extraordinary "most dangerous game" .