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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Kongo (1932)

Starring Walter Huston, Lupe Velez, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Bruce, C. Henry Gordon
Directed by William Cowen
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A white man in the African jungle, consumed with hate after being crippled by another man, plots an elaborate revenge on him through his innocent daughter.

A sound remake of the classic silent Lon Chaney film, West of Zanzibar, this is a good jungle picture with good performances, notably from Huston in the lead, who excels in displaying his character's cruelty but also his grief and compassion in the film's final act.  The filmmakers should also be credited with some strong visual trickery as Huston wins over the jungle natives with some impressive magic routines.  As with most jungle pictures, there is some racist dialogue but not as much as I expected.

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