Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 1-January-12
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Timbuktu (1959)

Launching this month's "Desert Dreams" Spotlight series,* I knew I might encounter some cheesy flicks. As the sands of Africa and Arabia fuel my travel fantasies, so do they inspire cheap adventure matinees featuring pasty Hollywood actors wearing robes and waving scimitars. But even B-movies can be a fair way to kill 90 minutes. Timbuktu is a decent example of desert diversion.

The movie does have its problems. Scenes of men riding horses in the great outdoors (Utah representing French Sudan [present-day Mali]) are interrupted by obvious studio shots of their faces looking around in mock wonder. These shots are somewhat notorious, having been inserted by the producer against the director's wishes in order to lengthen the film.** The actors and extras are, predictably, all white, despite the fact that many play Tuareg warriors, natives of northern Africa. The story follows American gun-runner Mike Conway (Victor Mature) as he negotiates a dangerous course between the Tuaregs and the occupying French army who opposes them. A true mercenary, Mike tries to appease both the French colonel (George Dolenz) and the Tuareg emir (John Dehner) while keeping alive and pocketing a profit. It takes a beautiful woman, the colonel's wife Natalie (Yvonne DeCarlo), to make up his mind about whose side he's really on.

The plot twists in such a way that Mike and Natalie can get hot and bothered over each other without compromising her virtue as a married woman. This is a nifty trick, but for thrills it can't compare to a scene in which several tarantulas are let loose upon a poor French soldier. The scene works so well that it's reenacted a second time, allowing Mature to remove his shirt (displaying one of his noted assets) and prompting the silliest line in the picture. In acknowledgment of the emir's ruthlessness, Mike asks, "Which one of those spiders is your mother?" By the time the final shootout ends a viewer will likely be ready for the last man standing to ride off into the sunset with the lady (which quite literally happens). If you like uninspired adventure-romance, it's a conclusion well enough achieved.

*See the Index by date for a list of other films in this month's series.
**http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/235856|235859/Timbuktu.html

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