Trader Horn boasts that it is the first scripted movie to ever film in Africa. Nature documentaries had been done prior but not a fictional story with real actors filmed in the actual jungles of the dark continent. It was based on the book by the same name written by Alfred Aloysius Horn, a trader and adventurer, about his excursions on safari in Africa. The film, and the book, hold some very dated views on natives as well as on big game hunting and trading of furs and ivory. It also infamously ended the career of actress Edwina Booth for reasons I will get into later.
The basic plot of the film is pretty sparse. Alfred Aloysius “Trader” Horn (Harry Carey) and Peru (Duncan Renaldo) are on safari in Africa, trading in various animal products such as ivory. They travel with Rencharo (Mutia Omoolu), Horn’s native translator and majordomo. During one of their stops they discover the lost daughter of a missionary, a white blonde jungle queen (Edwina Booth), and rescue her from the tribe only to be pursued across the jungle by them. Eventually they will reach the safety of the shores where Peru and the girl will set sail away from the continent while Horn stays behind, intent of remaining in Africa. Much of the rest of the film is either a travelogue of the native species or depictions of animal slaughters that would never be allowed to be filmed in current times. The cruelty on display would definitely not play anymore. This makes Trader Horn of more value as a look at the past than it is as a narrative film.
MGM was intent on making this picture with the idea that they would attract a larger audience if they depicted things as they really were. Thus they invested in filming in Africa rather than trying to fake it in southern California. People would know the difference. Still, many scenes were actually filmed in Mexico for convenience and to skate around animal cruelty laws to get certain shots. This included starving certain predators to get a more aggressive response out of them. This also led to an on-set fatality when one cast member was killed by a rhino. Morbidly this accident was left in the film.
The studio failed in nearly every way to prepare properly for their cast and crew to be in the harsh environment of the jungles of Africa. This resulted in numerous outbreaks of malaria, schistosomiasis and other conditions plaguing everyone from the director on down. Several requests were made for medical supplies and even doctors to be sent to treat the crew. MGM ignored those requests in an attempt to save money resulting in actress Edwina Booth becoming so sick that she spent the next six years recovering from it, costing her her career as an actress. She went on to sue the studio over this, settling for a moderate sum of money. She would make a few small appearances afterwards but her career never really bounced back from this and she retired from acting shortly afterwards.
This is a pre-code film and much on display would be banned from the cinemas a decade later. There are copious amounts of native women shown topless like they would be in real life as well as brutal levels of violence and gore. Lions, rhinos and other native animals are shown being hunted and killed on screen, filmed in an almost voyeuristic way, reveling in the violence. The actors and actresses are often filmed on set with lions, rhinos, hippos and crocodiles in such a way as to be reckless. Occasionally some awful rear projection is used and those moments really stand out against the more dangerous shots.
This movie is dated badly. So much of it feels like filler as Horn spends minutes at a time giving Peru lessons on the behaviors of the various animals like he’s hosting an episode of National Geographic. Other times the camera is left to roll on just the animals in their habitat with no sound to accompany it. This is a remanent of the early shoots before MGM decided to make this a sound picture instead of a silent one. All of this just serves to pad out the runtime to a glacial two hours making it stretch my patience almost to the breaking point. Wildlife fanatics might enjoy these scenes but I could not.
With such a rough production history and a serious lack of consideration for the safety of the cast and crew it is really hard to find a reason to justify the continued existence of this film. It does show us a world that I would hope no longer exists but sadly probably still does. The only thing that really shines through all of this is Harry Carey’s performance as Horn, especially with the reverence he has for majordomo, Rencharo. When Rencharo is fatally wounded protecting Horn it becomes clear just how much Horn respected and loved this man. Rencharo had the opportunity to flee with Peru and the girl but elected to stay behind and that act of selflessness saved Horn’s life. This shows th3 real relationship between these two men despite how callous it seemed to be from earlier scenes. Much of this film is hard to watch but the escape scenes after the jungle goddess are found are still worth watching.
It feels like MGM spent so much time and money filming on location that they needed to utilize as much footage as they could get in making their movie, hence all the drawn out documentary style scenes. This makes for an uneven movie that has an interesting opening and an exciting last half hour but gets bogged down in the middle. Most of the excitement comes in the form of the actors being snapped at or charged at by the various wildlife. One such moment has Horn, Peru and Rencharo chasing off lions while Edwina hides in a tree. She climbs back down and is immediately identified as easy prey by a lioness who turns and comes back for her. Edwina, in fear, lies prone and still on the ground while the lioness gets right upon her before the men are able to chase her off again. It’s intense and exciting because it is real. If only the rest of the film could have had this level of excitement. Some judicious trimming of the fat could have helped that immensely. As is it is an overstuffed and frustrating film with some occasional brilliance thrown in. There is very little here worth repeat viewings which is sad because what is good here is very good.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Irving Thalberg
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Release Date: February 3, 1931
Running Time: 122 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Harry Carey, Edwina Booth, Duncan Renaldo and Mutia Omoolu
Directed By: W.S. Van Dyke
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