Nonureva Really Surprised!

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

swojtak I have mixed feelings about this film. First off, like one reviewer, I was surprised at the topless natives. I would have thought the censors would have cut that out. Paul Robeson played a man who made himself a chief so he could run a tribe. In the movie, only the British could authorize a man to become a Chief. I guess the natives were not authorized to make their own Chief--I thought that was strange! Even stranger, a British authorized Chief had to be given a medal on a chain to wear around his neck--kind of what a rapper would wear today. This medal indicated an authorized Chief. Sandy did try to rule in a fair manner, learned native customs, and learned some native languages. I did dislike how the natives had to call the British Lord and to act like children. The British treated the natives like children. The part that Robeson played was of an extremely smart man. Everything the British told him to do after making him Chief he had already thought of and done on his own. The look on Robeson's face was of a man purposely acting like a child while all the time he was ten jumps ahead of the white man. The look on the British was he knew Robeson was smart and Robeson knew the British knew but each had to play their own part. I thought the movie was worth watching.

Theo Robertson I recently saw THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME recently and was slightly disappointed by it , a fact not helped by Leslie Banks performance . Banks was supposedly a well regarded actor but it should be remembered that GAME was a very early screen performance from him . SANDERS OF THE RIVERS is a film produced and directed by the Korda brothers , two Hungarians who moved to Britain and became major players of British cinema in the 1930s . Looking through the cast list now it's probably not the names of Banks or Korda that'll grab your attention but Paul Robeson . If you've got a film called SANDERS OF THE RIVER and it stars a black singer you don't need a Masters degree in geography to see where the film might be heading SANDERS OF THE RIVER is painfully dated in its social mores . Putting it in to context the British Empire was alive and well and if Britain hadn't conquered most of Africa then it would have been conquered by the French and who wants to be ruled by the French ? Or indeed the Spanish or the Americans ? There is a strong element of casual racism to this scenario but it's certainly no worse than those dreadful Tarzan movies and the dated elements do have an entertainment value to them that are unintentional . One thing that is genuinely shocking watching it now is the female African natives who are topless As expected the production budget couldn't involve taking the crew to deepest Africa so to hide this fact the designers have stuck some African looking huts in a field in England and editor Charles Chrichton - who went on to become a highly regarded director - splices in some stock footage of African landscapes and wildlife trying to but not quite convincing the audience the locations are real . The story itself is very basic and involves Sanders mentoring Robeson's jolly good egg Chief Bosambo that rival tribes are causing trouble and need to be taught a lesson . Cue The Killing Song which involves " When the enemy comes be ready to fight . On in to battle make a lot of rattle mow them down like cattle ... " Robeson himself supposedly disowned this film due to the racist stereotyping but looking this up on the internet there's some dispute about this and he perhaps had another reason for disliking it . Certainly it's difficult to believe before filming started that Robeson wouldn't be playing an African stereotype . That said Robeson is the best thing about the film and you'll remember The Killing Song for days afterwards . All together now " on in to battle , make a lot of rattle , mow them down like cattle ...

qatmom "Sanders of the River" is trapped in the time of its creation like an insect in amber, but it's worth seeing if only to understand the expectations of that time.The British characters are supposed to be the heroes of the tale, but they are wooden and unsympathetic, even interchangeable. It is impossible to care about them. They even chase animals from a plane Just For Fun.Africans are portrayed as simple minded, but they are also clearly loyal, brave, loving individuals with some (limited) depth to them, which is more than can be said of the cardboard cut-out white characters. In fact, the real rotters of the tale are trouble-making whites.

Arthur Hausner Although the title refers to the British commissioner of the N'Gombi district of Nigeria during the Colonial days of the British Empire, Paul Robeson's magnificent rich baritone voice is easily the highlight of this well-made but dated film. Looking at it from the 90's perspective, I was appalled to see the native blacks treated as savages and children at the same time. Paul Robeson expected a different kind of film and unsuccessfully fought its release after it was completed. Leslie Banks plays Commissioner Sanders, called "Lord Sandy" by the natives, and oversees the various competing and sometimes hostile tribes. In the last five years, there has been peace among the tribes due mostly to the respect and fear of him. Robeson is a prison escapee who has been chief of the Ochuri tribe for the last five months, an illegal act without permission from Banks. He goes to Banks to claim that chiefdom, and Banks, knowing who he really is, and sensing he is a good man, proclaims him chief on the basis of those last five months. It pays off when word comes that Chief Mofolaba (Tony Wane) has been raiding other tribes to gather slaves, and Banks has Robeson and his warriors capture him and free those captives. It's a humiliation that Mofolaba swears he will revenge. Among the captives is lovely Nina Mae McKinney, who Robeson takes for his wife, and who bears him two children during the next five peaceful years. When Banks decides to take a year's leave of absence to return to London to get married, two villains spread the word that Banks is dead and there is now no law. They expect to profit by selling guns and gin to the natives. Mofolaba kills Banks' replacement and has his men kidnap McKinney to use as bait to lure Robeson to his land so he can have his revenge. Meanwhile, word gets to Banks, who hasn't yet left for London, about his replacement's death and the general lawlessness that now prevails, and he starts to return to Mofolaba's land. And Robeson takes Mofolaba's bait, but is captured and tied to a post next to the post that McKinney is tied to. Mofolaba promises him a slow death after he witnesses McKinney's death.