Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

202 CELLULOID appetite for adventure similar to that which distinguished the many African romances which Rider Haggard wrote round the delightful character of Allan Quatermain. It is not my intention to depreciate Aloysius Horn, but the narrative value of the film is singularly poor and sadly lacking in imagination, inasmuch that I fail to comprehend why, when they decided to exploit the Dark Continent as a box-office sensation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not select one of the admirable Quatermain romances. As I watched the film through on several occasions, a hundred Quatermain incidents came into my mind; over and over again I regretted that Van Dyke had spent so many months in Africa with every facility at his disposal and had achieved so little of real, powerful, dramatic quality. If, in the concern of the box-office, a film must have a romantic interest, why in heaven's name did not Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer choose one of the many splendid stories available to them in preference to that of Aloysius Horn? Tracing the narrative of Trader Horn as it stands, Horn, an experienced ivory trader, and Peru, a young, presumably rich friend of doubtful intelligence, set out together up a river to barter with the natives for ivory in return for copper-wire and salt. Almost at once a thrill is introduced as they hear the drum-taps through the forest, summoning the natives to perform their juju rites. Scared away from their first landing-place, the two men continue up the river, which is infested by all the crocodiles in Africa, until they find safe camping ground. In the middle of the night they are awakened by the safari of Edith Trend, a widowed