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Bwana Devil in 3-D

by Glenn Erickson Jul 23, 2024

Some titles get remembered as Firsts:  The Great Train Robbery,  The Jazz Singer,  Becky Sharp,  This Is Cinerama,  The Robe and this little game-changer from the scrappy independent Arch Oboler. The very first feature-length 3-Dimensional drama in color ignited a super-fad that blew through Hollywood and burned out in less than two years. Forget Hungry Hungry Hippos, because this is Lethal Lethal Lions: big cats rule in Kenya, and the tone is unusually harsh and bloodthirsty. The 3-D Film Archive’s restoration work is terrific — United Artists retained stereoscopic elements for this ‘first.’ 3-D Blu-ray is still a favorite of collectors… manufacturers need to bring back the format hardware.  Ungawa already!

 

Bwana Devil
3-D Blu-ray
KL Studio Classics
1952 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Lions of Gulu / Street Date July 30, 2024 / Available at Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Robert Stack, Barbara Britton, Nigel Bruce, Ramsay Hill, Paul McVey, Hope Miller, John Dodsworth, Patrick O’Moore, Patrick Aherne, Edward C. Short, Bhogwan Singh.
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Costumes: Henry West
Properties: Robert Eaton
Film Editor: John Hoffman
Original Music: Gordon Jenkins
Natural Vision Supervisor: Milton Gunzburg
Associate Producer: Sidney W. Pink
Produced, Written and Directed by
Arch Oboler

Radio legend Arch Oboler is a fascinating case study in American entertainment, especially his weird, sometimes baffling cinematic efforts. He wrote and produced a handful of quirky movies with ‘twists’ similar to those in his famous radio show Lights Out!   They include the paranoid industrial film  Strange Holiday, the thoroughly botched psycho-mystery  Bewitched, and  The Twonky, a science fiction comedy so ill-conceived and unfunny that United Artists barely released it. In 1951 Oboler’s one claim to cinematic success was  Five, a marvelously expressive Sci-fi fantasy about survivors of an atomic war.

Part of Oboler’s genius was a knack for attracting talented collaborators, creative types with off-center specialties — experts in sound, montage, and camera magic. Always thinking BIG, he wanted to shake up the industry, as had the brand-new Cinerama format. A chance encounter with an ambitious would-be producer led Oboler to gamble on what became his biggest hit, a movie legend: 1952’s  Bwana Devil. Entrepreneur Milton Gunzburg had partnered with a Hollywood cameraman to develop a practical 35mm 3-D system called Natural Vision. When the big studios balked at the risks involved, Oboler got the first crack at making a color feature film in 3-D.

 

Arch Oboler not only shot his film in 3-D, but in color, too. This time he was able to attract a name star, Robert Stack. He took a small crew to rural Agoura, at the extreme West of Los Angeles County. His 3-D inventor-experts also devised a clever way for Oboler to integrate 16mm movie footage he had filmed ‘on Safari’ in Africa five years earlier.  *

Oboler also had some savvy with finance. He didn’t fall into the trap laid for Hollywood independents, who typically finished their films owing so much money that they had to take the first distribution deal that came along. The impresario had the financial backing and the publicity clout to premiere Bwana Devil on his own. He organized publicity that made 3-D sound like an interactive cinematic miracle:

The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!

With the media stoking public enthusiasm, Oboler made a favorable deal with United Artists. As explained by expert Mike Ballew, the money raked in by Bwana paid for twenty years of Arch Oboler’s less successful forays into moviemaking. Along the way, he commissioned the construction of an improved, proprietary 3-D system he called Space Vision.

In Hollywood terms Bwana Devil was a cheapie filmed practically ‘off the cuff,’ with a minimal set and a small cast. Oboler wangled some flimsy thatched huts, and put together a facsimile of a narrow-gauge train to represent a railway being built in the wilds of Kenya-Uganda in 1898. The story is very loosely based on a true episode. Marauding lions were blamed for the slow progress of railway construction, reportedly killing 130 people.  **

 

Killer lions?  Forget Robert Stack, this is a job for Tippi Hedren.

Work on a Kenyan railroad construction project stalls when the Indian workforce protests, claiming that a marauding lion is responsible for laborers gone missing. English Major Parkhurst (Ramsay Hill), the project manager, bullies the workers and scoffs at the notion of a killer lion. He becomes one of the first identified victims, along with a woman brought in to cook for the colonials (Hope Miller). Parkhurst’s death puts young Bob Hayward (Robert Stack) in charge. Married to the daughter of a railroad stockholder, the alcoholic Hayward considers himself a failure. But he’s even better at bullying the Indians, and he takes the lion threat seriously. He and his colleague Doctor Angus McLean (Nigel Bruce) determine that there are two lions. Every plan to kill them fails, including a baited trap and the hiring of expert Massai warrior tribesman. A Hayward assistant, the leader of the Indian contingent and another Brit military man are slaughtered. It’s a feline sweep on the scoreboard: Lions 20, People Zero.

A train brings a trio of hunters with experience against tigers in India, along with Hayward’s wife Alice (Barbara Britton of the 3-D  Dragonfly Squadron). Alice wants to support Bob and save her marriage. Before the hunt can begin, disaster strikes, leaving the married couple practically on their own and defenseless.

 

Bwana Devil  has immediate importance as the feature that ignited the big 3-D craze of the 1950s. Given original film materials to work with, the  3-D Film Archive’s restoration begins with an original five-minute B&W prologue introducing viewers to the process. Then the feature itself pops on in excellent 3-D and brilliant Ansco Color. It doesn’t matter that Arch Oboler’s movie is not Oscar material, as his well-publicized show was ‘The Firstest with The Mostest’ and enticed thousands of curious moviegoers into theaters. Oboler and his colleagues fashioned a big-deal box-office sensation out of what before had been a novelty item for short subjects.

Oboler’s script is respectful of the native African characters, but shows less sensitivity for the Indian laborers. The Brits mostly scream at them. They trick the Indians into staying on the job, knowing that some may become lion bait. [Note: Employees in ‘Right To Work’ states will recognize this as Standard Operating Procedure.]  Oboler must have deferred to his DP Joseph Biroc to get get good coverage of his scenes. The blocking may not be inspired but it is always competent. The 3-D format has its own logic, anyway: as with still photo slides in a  ‘View-Master,’ we appreciate shots that linger on interesting tableaux in depth.  The movie’s poor reputation likely comes from 2-D viewings — to make Bwana Devil interesting, the 3-D novelty needs to be part of the experience.

In 3-D, Oboler’s film is arresting. A clever title sequence is soon followed by a handsome tracking shot, that makes us forget that much of the rest of the picture relies on locked-down angles. Looking at photos of the bulky Natural Vision rig, we can imagine weary grips straining and grunting to heft it into each new setup.

 

‘Ansco Color’ was a rival of Eastmancolor, that MGM was using around the same time:  Escape from Fort Bravo,  BrigadoonSeven Brides for Seven Brothers. The softer pastel colors look very good here, maybe better than did original theatrical prints. Robert Stack and Nigel Bruce’s faces do often look dark and ruddy. The much-publicized ‘First 3-D Kiss’ simply has Stack and Barbara Britton’s enormous faces come at us through the convergence point, creating an almost alarmingly unpleasant sensation. A few spears are waved near the camera, but Three Stooges- like poking and pelting is kept to a minimum. It was Warner Bros. near-immediate 3-D hit  House of Wax that went wild with things thrust into our eyeballs, like a street entertainer’s paddle-ball act.

The art direction garbs the Indian extras in colored shirts and turbans, making them look like a box of crayons. Researcher Matt Rovner confirmed that Arch Oboler did indeed make a deal with a private zoo. Besides the photogenic pair of ‘star’ lions, various animals were trucked to Agoura, including what looks like a Gnu. The rented narrow-gauge train is some sort of cobbled-together facsimile; the little passenger car looks like it was thrown together over a weekend. But it’s all that is needed for this small-scale bit of drama.

The acting is only so-so — Arch Oboler’s cast on Five had practically directed themselves. Hard-working Robert Stack would do his best for most any director, but without guidance he had a tendency to go ‘too big,’ even in his big supporting role in John Wayne’s  The High and Mighty. Stack’s attempt at an English accent disappears after the first scene, and we don’t miss it one bit.  ***

Pleasant Barbara Britton doesn’t even try for an English accent, leaving the film’s ‘Brit’ pantomime to a quintet of stuffy hunters and military men, all performed with dull competence. Exception Nigel Bruce is pleasantly likeable as a Scots doctor; he knows how to naturally maintain an even pitch. Oboler’s third act puts a strain on the actors, as they try to convey the panicked idea that the unstoppable lions ARE demons or devils.

The movie lions look good, just not super-ferocious or supernaturally Evil. Some of the attack scenes look like playtime on the set of  Born Free. The script compensates by being unusually morbid. A woman’s mutilated corpse is used as bait in an attempt to trap a Lion. Almost the entire cast becomes kitty chow — first a stuffy major, then a trusted Indian helper, some Massai natives. A third-act massacre wipes out almost everyone with a speaking part. The victims are presumably ripped to shreds and partially devoured. If the movie showed any of this implied gore, it would be as grim and bloody as a ’70s movie about cannibals or zombies. The finale is particularly heartless, as Bob and Alice Hayward react to an offscreen sight, the shredded remains of an adorable character we’d never expect to join the body count.

A clever special-effect ‘cheat’  allows Arch Oboler to use quite a bit of his 16mm African Safari footage. Selected shots of sunsets and  wildlife were enlarged to 35mm for use on a rear-projection stage. An ersatz 3-D effect is obtained by positioning actors, tree branches, and other bric-a-brac in front of the screen, to serve as foreground objects. Shrubs and flowers manipulated in the foreground turn the 2-D images into sort-of 3-D… with very grainy backgrounds. At least one Warners 3-D western paid attention to this Bwana Devil 3-D trick, and re-used flat action scenes from the film library. For the 3-D The Stranger Wore a Gun, miniature foreground bolders in 3-D augment a 2-D stagecoach chase.

Just as when we hear  Al Jolson sing and see  Richard Burton spread out across a CinemaScope screen, we are impressed by the Arch Oboler thriller that broke new cinematic ground. We hope that his film crew had a tractor or a crane to lift that big camera up atop rocky outcroppings, etc. — in 1952 the Agoura location was really out there, way before the freeway arrived. Bwana Devil is fun in Blu-ray 3-D … it’s fascinating to see Arch Oboler and company sussing out what must have been prodigious technical and logistical problems on a tiny budget.

 


 

KL Studio Classics’ 3-D Blu-ray of Bwana Devil is something we’ve been hearing about for a long time. The 3-D Film Archive experts have turned out superb Blu-ray 3-D shows even when working with flawed film materials. The impressive 3-D  GOG required special effort to rescue the faded color on the film record for one ‘eye.’ Kino tells us that for Bwana 4K scans were taken of the film’s original left and right 35mm camera negatives. The Ansco Color hues are attractive throughout.

In Blu-ray 3-D, the depth effects are excellent. Many shots array visual elements in depth, showing how good 3-D can get. Every so often a picture-perfect ‘diorama’ crops up, like one shot of Robert Stack kneeling next to a stream, with a monkey in a tree behind him.

A 3-D experience can also be had by viewers without 3-D Blu-ray monitors and players: a menu choice offers an anaglyphic (Red/Cyan) 3-D encoding, and one pair of tinted glasses is included. The movie and the extras can also be watched flat.

 

From Martin Turnbull’s  thoughtful website.
 

The feature presentation replicates the initial 1953 theatrical experience, with a B&W introductory short starring Lloyd Nolan. The 3-D archive debuted it separately 9 years ago in their first  3-D Rarities disc. As Nolan speaks, the image pops from flat to ‘depth,’ a dramatic move that mirrors the way the screen ‘opened up’ for  This Is Cinerama. Nolan is then joined by a ‘Miss 3-D’ who poses on screen. Bob Clampett’s ‘Beany and Cecil’ puppets put in an appearance, too.

The disc presentation also integrates Bwana Devil’s B&W Intermission card, placed where original theatrical performances required a break to load the second half of the film.

 

The main 3-D video extra is a featurette lecture by Mike Ballew on the technical / production history of Bwana Devil. He’s a very good communicator, aided by shots of the Natural Vision camera and an enormous volume of Bob Furmanek’s advertising paper for the movie. One poster misspells Arch Oboler’s name.

2D trailers for the movie are included, one announcing Oboler’s independent premiere, and a second used for distributor United Artists’ nationwide rollout. Of course the trailers are in 2-D … no 3-D setups existed until installed for Bwana Devil. As much as we love 3-D, we pity the poor exhibitors that jumped on the 3-D bandwagon — after buying extra equipment and extra-reflective screens, CinemaScope came along and forced them to reformat again, for widescreen and (maybe) multi-track sound. But 3-D was a national RAGE for a solid year.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson


Bwana Devil
3-D Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Good – Minus (3-D makes it Good + Plus
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Featurette The Story of Bwana Devil with Mike Ballew
Prologue M.L. Gunzburg presents Natural Vision 3; Dimension
1953 2D Color Trailer for the 3D Release
1954 2D B&W Trailer for the Flat Release.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed:
July 20, 2024
(7166bwan)

*  Writer-director Samuel Fuller would later try something similar with 16mm anamorphic footage he filmed in the Amazon jungle. His effort is commemorated in a movie called  Tigrero, A Film that was Never Made.
**  1997’s The Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas takes as its subject the same historical story of the ‘Tsavo Man-Eaters.’ Also dramatizing the killer lions was Men Against the Sun (also 1952) and Killers of Kilamanjaro (1959). Taxidermy jobs done on the actual lions are on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
***  This is not a knock at Robert Stack — he was nothing short of incredible on the set of  ‘1941’: a terrific movie star presence with professional discipline, a great sense of humor and a friendly attitude sorely absent in some of the younger, ‘hot’ performers cast in that movie.

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Text © Copyright 2024 Glenn Erickson

About Glenn Erickson

Screen Shot 2015-08-24 at 6.51.08 PM

Glenn Erickson left a small town for UCLA film school, where his spooky student movie about a haunted window landed him a job on the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS effects crew. He’s a writer and a film editor experienced in features, TV commercials, Cannon movie trailers, special montages and disc docus. But he’s most proud of finding the lost ending for a famous film noir, that few people knew was missing. Glenn is grateful for Trailers From Hell’s generous offer of a guest reviewing haven for CineSavant.

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[…] several years previous had helped Arch Oboler put together the movie that ignited the 3-D craze, Bwana Devil. We know about Pink’s erratic career mainly through a collector’s book by Kip Doto […]

Mitchell Craig

I’ve never seen Bwana Devil, but the basic plot was also used in The Ghost and the Darkness…which I also have not seen.

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[…] the first post-nuclear apocalypse feature. He predicted a major trend with that show, but his  Bwana Devil was even more prophetic. The self-produced blockbuster singlehandedly ignited the 1950s 3-D craze. […]

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