SKULLDUGGERY
US, 1969, 105 minutes, Colour.
Burt Reynolds, Susan Clark, Roger C. Carmel, Paul Hubschmid, Chips Rafferty, Alexander Knox, Edward Fox, Wilfrid Hyde White, Rhys Williams.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
Skullduggery is an odd film that received very little commercial release. An early Burt Reynolds vehicle made partly in Papua- New Guinea and part in Hollywood. There is a rather large supporting cast including such names as Edward Fox, Alexander Knox. Susan Clark is quite an attractive heroine. Chips Rafferty has a substantial role as a missionary priest anthropologist. There is ambiguity in the title - anthropologists finding a tribe of semi-humans, semi-apes who they think comprise the missing link and the searching for phosphorous for commercial use in television sets. The film opens with action adventure, shifts to a variation on the Planet of the Apes and finally becomes very sententious in the presentation of a court case to determine whether the creatures are human or not. The various parts of the film do not jell particularly well. However, the Papuan scenery is well presented, the issues are quite interesting even if the treatment is uneven. Gordon Douglas has directed very many films in a variety of genres over several decades.
1. The significance of the title, its tone, the ambiguities and the pun? In good taste or not?
2. The Papua- New Guinea background and its use, its beauty, the Panavision photography, the location for a primitive world, the location for serious discussion about what it is to be a human being? The musical score?
3. The cast and its international flavour? The film as a Burt Reynolds vehicle? The atmosphere of the antipodes and the credits with the globe and the focusing and isolating of New Guinea?
4. The build-up of the expedition, Sybil and her skills? As a type, career woman, her feminine characteristics? Pop and his being a missionary priest, anthropologist? Their crew. the set-up of the expedition? The contrast with Douglas and Kreps and the work, the attack on the English assistant, their taking his place? Their desire to get the phosphorous and exploit it? The skullduggery with the bones? The irony of their finding true skulls? How well did these two themes blend? Van Cruysen as focal point and point for crisis?
5. The adventure ingredients - the place trip, the helicopters, the mountainous terrain and its beauty and isolation, the trek, the discovery of the crashed plane in the jungle and the observations about cargo cult, the taking of the gifts and the deaths. radio connection, isolation, the discovery of the skulls and the staying for investigation? The popular action ingredients?
6. Sybil and Douglas - their initial clash, their attraction towards one another, sexual liaison and their comments afterwards, the growth of affection and love? Conventional romance material within this setting?
7. Pop and his role as a missionary, his anthropological knowledge, the explanation of the cargo cults, his explanation of the feasts and the customs, his work with the Tropis? His later testimony in the court? Chips Rafferty in this role?
8. The irony of the discovery of the discovery of the Tropis? Their appearance -the blend of ape and human? Their behaviour, their being filmed, their being tested as human beings or animals? The overtones of the Planet of the Apes? The discussions about the 'missing link'? The possibility of anthropological discoveries, of their being exploited as sub-human slaves? Kreps and his attraction to Topazia? The lyrical interludes, comedy, the helicopter with Topazia? The build-up for some kind of test case?
9. Doug and his reaction, the need to escape, Kreps and Topazia and trying to establish that she was human, her giving birth, Doug's confession that he killed the child - and the audiences suspecting the reality of a stillbirth? The purpose of raising the legal issues - to attack Van Cruysen, to establish what it is to be human?
10. Kreps and his knowledge of phosphorous, sharing adventures with Doug, their friendship bonds, the attraction to Topazia, his claiming the paternity, his place in the court case?
11. Topazia and her illustrating the humanity of the animal, her joy, love, the helicopter ride, the giving birth, her being brought in a cage to the court clutching the doll, her climbing the courtroom and the tragedy of her death? Would the audience consider her human?
12. The build-up of the court case - the judge and his listening to the evidence, his final judgment? The arguments for and against? The analyses of the witnesses' speeches? The human rights issues that were brought in - the black prosecutor and civil rights for black races, the Black Panthers and their intervention, the attack on South Africa, Wilfrid Hyde White and his racist statements in the chair? The members of the expedition and their testimony? Van Cruysen and his ruthlessness, his lawyer and the defence? Doug and Sybil and their decisions? Sybil acting out of love for Doug? The impact of the death of Topazia? The length of the court sequences, the emotional response? How persuasive the arguments? The uncertainty of the ending?
13. A likable film, enjoyable, a successful blend of the human, the adventurous, the serious?
