WHITE WITCH DOCTOR
US, 1953, 96 minutes, Colour.
Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Walter Slezak, Timothy Carey.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
White Witch Doctor is a pleasant and undemanding piece of adventure hokum. Africa has always been popular for melodrama and on safari - from Trader Horn to King Solomon's Mines to Mogambo. The classic was The African Queen. This modest adventure has the dynamic pairing of Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward, who had appeared just before in Nicholas Ray's The Lusty Men. Walter Slezak is his usual villainous self. Direction is by Henry Hathaway, a director noted for many adventures over decades - including another African adventure, The Last Safari in 1968 with Stewart Granger. The film has the distinction of a musical score by Bernard Herrmann, who scored so many of Hitchcock's films.
1. Entertaining action adventure?
2. The conventions of the African adventure: the portrayal of the outpost, isolation, the jungle, animals, exploitation of the Africans by Europeans, the strong American hero, the undaunted American heroine? The particular dangers from animals, the natives? Conventional material - how well done?
3. The colour photography and atmosphere of Africa? Use of locations? Special effects? Bernard Herrmann's score?
4. The basic strands of the plot - the adventurer in Africa and his collecting animals? His being used by criminals to discover jewels and gain access to forbidden territory? His seeing through his manipulation and falling for the heroine with whom he clashed? The widow trying to make up for her dead husband's desire to go to Africa and facing difficulties? The stars as putting vitality into these roles?
5. Lonnie: Robert Mitchum's style and presence? His work, fighting the gorillas, encounters with Huysman, initial clashes with Ellen and warnings for her to keep away, sailing up-river, the capture by the natives, the possibility of death? The final fight-out and happy ending? Falling in love and talking over the meaning of their lives? The Hollywood hero?
6. Susan Hayward's vigorous style as heroine? Her arrival at the outpost, the fear of the animals, her growing strength, her giving up her clothes, the voyage up-river? Her religious background and principles? Doctor Mary's death and having to step into her place? The natives' wariness of her? Proving herself with the medicine? The importance of treating the Chief's son, the vigil and the risks in his not recovering, her skill? Her talking over her life with Lonnie and her motives for being in Africa? Her being saved - and the happy ending? The Hollywood heroine?
7. Huysman as villain - smooth-talking, using people, unscrupulous, violent? The fight-out and death? His associates and their straightforward villainy!
8. The presentation of the African Chief,, his concern about his son? The contrast with the witch doctor and his sinister threats, attempts to kill Ellen and Ellen's saving the son through medicine? The points being made about old tribal ways and modern medicine? Preserving the values of the past,, introducing the values of science? The relative merits of this?
9. The special effects with the African landscapes, the river? Animals and dangers from gorillas to lions and spiders?
10. The special effects with tribal rituals - of the welcoming as well as the dangerous kind?
11. How satisfying is this kind of Hollywood adventure? Its reliance on the audience's basic responses to the clash between good and evil? The role of heroes and heroines? Villains and exploitation?
