Mogambo: A Review (Review #1850)

MOGAMBO

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Grace Kelly.

There was a Frank Sinatra television movie or miniseries that I remember. In it, there was a scene where Sinatra, in a career downturn, looks to his second wife Ava Gardner for help. She had been cast in Mogambo, the remake of the 1932 film Red Dust. He asks her to help him play her costar. "Who is playing the Clark Gable part?", he asks. A visibly irritated Gardner snaps back at him, "CLARK GABLE!". Mogambo tells our tale of lust among the white savages in darkest Africa with surprising restraint, but with lush African footage on the whole the film flows well. 

Big game white hunter Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) has a successful safari and animal capture business with his business partner John Brown-Pryce or "Brownie" (Philip Stainton). Into this world comes Eloise "Honey Bear" Kelly (Ava Gardner), a chorus girl who was supposed to join a safari with her maharajah lover. "Bunny" however, cancelled at the last minute, and Kelly is enraged at being trapped in this dark continent for a week.

That week does not go to waste, however, as Honey Bear bonds with animals of all kinds, including eventually Vic. She is expected to leave on the next boat, which also brings anthropologist Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) and his patrician wife, Lisa (Grace Kelly). Donald takes sick in Africa, temporarily holding his planned safari back. It isn't long before sparks begin to fly between Lisa and Vic. Eloise's sudden reappearance due to a boating mishap now add fuel to the fire, the passions igniting all over the place. Will Lisa succumb to the manly arms of Victor? Will Eloise hold her man or see him fall to more dangerous prey? As the expedition to find gorillas begins, the passions collide to their almost-murderous conclusion. 

Both Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly received Oscar nominations for Mogambo as Lead and Supporting Actress respectively. On the whole, I think both acquitted themselves well, if at times their acting was a bit more on the stiff and dramatic side also respectively. Gardner was initially stiff, hesitant and breathy when first meeting Vic. As the film went on, however, I started liking this brassy broad who had a heart. Gardner has a wonderful moment of physical comedy with a baby elephant and rhino. 

There is also a well-filmed sequence by director John Ford when they arrive at a missionary station. In essentially silent film acting, Eloise Kelly, woman of the world, places a scarf over her head and makes the sign of the cross at the makeshift Catholic church. She later, again silently, goes to make confession with the Catholic priest. This actually reveals more about Honey Bear than much of John Lee Mahin's adaptation of Wilson Collins' play.

Kelly for her part did well as the very patrician and elegant Lisa, caught between the love for her husband and the desires of the flesh with Victor. I did wonder whether it was right to make her character British when being American would have been just as acceptable. Kelly, for example, used the British pronunciation of "schedule" versus the American "ske-dule". However, sometimes she seems to speak like an American, albeit a posher one. There was also a scene where she faces a rampaging gorilla that leaned into a more theatrical and exaggerated manner.

As a side note, while Kelly is beautiful, I think Lisa should have been eaten by panthers when she decided to walk alone in the jungle. Also, if it is a contest between them, my choice is Honey Bear.

Gable was all rugged and business as the white hunter. It is not often that we see an actor recreate a role for a remake of an earlier success. Mogambo gives us a rare chance to see the same actor play the same role in two different films. The comparisons between Red Dust and Mogambo are for another day. However, this version shows that Gable, older but no less commanding, had lost none of his power and appeal. His Vic is sensible and professional on all matters save one: women. There are great moments of subtlety that reveal Vic's nature. When Lisa faces that rampaging gorilla, Vic almost casually pushes her away. His actions, while correct in saving her life, also show that he really does not think much of her. He is better with the earthly, lusty Honey Bear, whom he has a love-hate relationship.

The film has some wonderful location footage, though the rear-screen projections are amusingly bad. It also has a natural music score built around indigenous African music, giving us a greater feel for the environment Mogambo is in.

I think the ending is a bit rushed and not as impactful as it could have been. On the whole, however, Mogambo is an entertaining if perhaps a tad longer than it should be. 

DECISION: B-