There was a time when jungle adventures gave the impression of being all the rage in Hollywood. Most of these were shot locally so the budget was kept low and the air of exoticism was easily achieved. As a sub-genre of the adventure/thriller such movies rarely aspired to be more than entertaining diversions. Congo Crossing (1956) saw Joseph Pevney heading for an imaginary central African state in the company of Virginia Mayo, George Nader and Michael Pate, with a weary Peter Lorre popping in and out to add a touch of wry humor.
The setting is Congotanga, a place one character refers to as essentially a criminal colony on the western border of the then Belgian Congo. It is so labelled because its lack of extradition agreements has made it a magnet for various fugitives from justice the world over. The law is nominally represented by Colonel Arragas (Peter Lorre) but the real power lies in the hands of shady types like Rittner (Tonio Selwart). The main focus though is on David Carr (George Nader), who has been hired to carry out a river survey on behalf of the Belgian mining concerns. He’s puzzled by this as he’s of the opinion nothing will have changed since the last time one was carried out. Nevertheless, a job’s a job. As he sets off down the river he’s accompanied by one new arrival and one of the old hands. The former is Louise Whitman (Virginia Mayo), a one time model running from a murder rap in France, while the latter is O’Connell (Michael Pate) and he’s simply there due to the fact he’s been hired to kill the woman as soon as possible. Beset by tsetse flies, crocodiles and the murderous attentions of Rittner’s henchmen, the party has more than its share of hazards to navigate. The main plot point here hinges on shifting river courses and the consequent effects this has on borders and thus on jurisdictions. Basically, nobody wants to see Carr come back safely with the results of his survey. There are double-crosses, ambushes, some romance and the usual jungle thrills as the story makes its way to a literally explosive climax.
Congo Crossing is fine as a lightweight adventure, but it’s a minor affair for director Pevney and all concerned. I guess the premise of a border disappearing as a result of one of nature’s whims has some points in its favor, but it’s not something the viewer can get excited about. It’s a MacGuffin really and what matters more is the reaction of the characters to all this. Then again, that requires those characters should be more than stock variations and that isn’t really the case. The hero is honorable and dedicated, the leading lady may not be all she says she is and the villains are just out and out bad guys. It makes for a passable viewing experience, but nothing more than that.
Virginia Mayo is a highly decorative presence as she sashays through the wilderness and she’s an actress I’m always happy to watch. However, this is another of those roles where she is asked to do little that is important and even the touch of conflict written into her character is not all that unexpected. George Nader had a brief window where he was cast in a variety of leading parts at Universal-International. I prefer him in the noir/crime pictures he made as there was a bit more depth to those roles whereas this is much more standard fare. Again, he’s fine in the movie, it’s just that there is little scope for him to do anything beyond the routine heroics. Michael Pate does his usual solid work as the villain and he carries the attendant air of menace comfortably. Peter Lorre only appears at the beginning and then again during the climactic scenes, sweating and sighing and never seeming to take any of it too seriously.
Congo Crossing has been released on DVD and Blu-ray in Germany and the movie looks attractive as Pevney’s films generally do, aided in this case by the cinematography of Russell Metty. I suppose I don’t sound all that enthusiastic about the movie although I have to say I did enjoy it well enough. It’s quite competently put together and passes the time satisfactorily, but the fact is just about everyone involved did better or more interesting work elsewhere. All in all, I’d say it’s a fun picture but slight and far from essential for the casual viewer.
Riding the High Country 
“Congotanga” is now officially my favourite fake place name after Kreplachistan (from Austin Powers) 🤣
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Yeah, it manages to straddle the ridiculous and the plausible on a very attractive way.
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While I’ll watch almost anything with Mayo,
I ust admit Nader is not an actor that left much of an impression on me (though he was an early screen Ellery Queen).
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I too like Mayo, I wish some of her roles offered her more though as she was a capable actress who often got handed slightly underwhelming parts.
I haven’t seen a huge number of films with Nader but I thought he was fine in both Man Afraid and Appointment With a Shadow.
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Not seen either of those actually but definitely on the to do list 😁
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They weren’t the easiest to see until recently, but the Kino releases mean they’re now accessible.
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While it looks to be nicely filmed and all, like Colin I much prefer see Nader in noir film roles; wish he had done more of those. I recall enjoying his two Hitch Presents episodes. But here, as a former political science student, recalling the immensely brutal and greed riddled history of Congo (formerly Zaire) and US involvement therein would further make for less than fun viewing.
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The film, probably wisely given its pulpy feel, doesn’t really make any effort to address political or historical matters pertaining to the area it is notionally located in. It could be set in any real or imagined place with a vaguely exotic vibe and tell the same story.
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This sounds like a remake of sorts of the 1931 pre-code classic Safe in Hell staring Dorothy Mackaill. An exotic setting with no extradition treaty so it’s a haven for criminals fleeing justice, a woman on the run taking refuge there. It’s the same basic setup.
Except that Safe in Hell is an incredibly bleak hard-hitting gut-punch of a movie which is not just a proto-noir but almost full-blown film noir. I rate Safe in Hell as one of the three or four best-ever pre-code movies.
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I’ve seen that movie as I have a lot of time for Wellman. Personally, I’m not as big a fan of precode filmmaking overall, not on thematic grounds though but rather as a result of the technical limitations which are sometimes apparent. Wellman’s film is very different in tone and indeed in ambition to Pevney’s effort so I wouldn’t want to make too much of a comparison beyond what you mentioned about setting and basic setup. This movie is a very simple tale really and works ok if approached as such, but I wouldn’t like to suggest anyone come to it with expectations beyond that.
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I notice the technical creakiness in movies made in 1929 and 1930 but it doesn’t bother me. For me the narrative experimentation and freedom that were permitted before the Code kicked in are ample compensation.
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I find it depends on the director. Wellman was a great talent and the great filmmakers generally rose above the limitations that were around them.
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Safe in Hell is of course one of the two great pre-code proto-noirs, the other being Heat Lightning.
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I do love jungle adventure movies. My favourite is still The Naked Jungle (which I’ve seen a couple of dozen times) but I love them all.
I pretty much love any movie – adventure, romance, melodrama, spy thriller – with an exotic setting, preferably in the tropics.
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I’d broadly agree, not all such movies are created equal though. Filmmakers quickly realized that exotic settings could add a gloss to some trite stories.
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I total agreement with your review Colin but as a bit of fun it’s OK and Mayo fans will not feel cheated. In the UK the film was paired with RAW EDGE a great value double bill by anyone’s standards. Nader at his zenith in Seth Holt’s NOWHERE TO RUN I thought. Regarding Jungle flicks I was somewhat taken aback by ELEPHANT WALK a film I’ve avoided all my life as I’ve disliked Liz Taylor in anything besides GIANT
I was forced to watch ELEPHANT WALK because it was in an Imprint box set I could not resist. Even Liz I must admit was pretty good in this one ‘though my dream fantasy casting would have been Jean Simmons & Robert Mitchum with Dana retained in his role.
ELEPHANT WALK impressed me far more than I was expecting with many intriguing elements-drunken antics of Colonial bores who have outlived their time-the indigenous people’s faith & rituals plus the mysterio of the room that no one is allowed to enter.
THE NAKED JUNGLE is better but ELEPHANT WALK is also worth a look.
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I haven’t seen Elephant Walk in many years, John. However, I do remember liking it and now you’ve reminded me of it I must give it another watch some time soon.
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Elephant Walk is one of those rare movies that might persuade me to upgrade to a Blu-Ray release. If there ever is a Blu-Ray release.
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The only Blu Ray release that I know of is on one of Imprint’s “Tales Of Adventure” box sets. Set also includes a stunning transfer of SAFARI in the correct 2.55 ratio plus FAIR WIND TO JAVA ;DAUGHTER OF THE JUNGLE an engaging piece of Republic pictures nonsense and the very wonderful ANGEL ON THE AMAZON; cream of the crop I might add. All transfers are stellar.
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Imprint’s Tales Of Adventure box sets sounded tempting until I checked the prices. Blu-Ray prices really have become extortionate.
And I love the way Blu-Rays go out of print in the twinkling of an eye.
There really does seem to be an assumption that the only people who buy physical media are fabulously wealthy collectors.
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I’m a huge fan of Elephant Walk. Overheated tropical melodrama with rampaging elephants as well? Count me in.
I don’t think Liz Taylor was ever more gorgeous. Wearing some stunning outfits. It’s the sort of thing she did so well.
I’ve seen Elephant Walk almost as many times as I’ve seen The Naked Jungle. They don’t make movies like that any more which is terribly sad.
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Caught a nifty little Warner Bros programmer SINGAPORE WOMAN (1941) with Brenda Marshall the whole show in the title role. If you like movies set in dingy bars & dives this one’s for you.
I wish Marshall had made more movies her career took a back seat when she married William Holden though I understand they had a 30 year “open” marriage and Brenda also became involved with Holden’s wild life projects.
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Never heard of it, but I’ll keep an eye out for it.
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Dingy bars and dives? That works for me. And if the dingy bars and dives are in the tropics I’m in.
I’d buy this one in a heartbeat but sadly it seems to be yet another movie that is unavailable.
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Later this week I hope to supply a link through the “Digital Underground” Sadly with the demise of Warner Archive MOD/DVD’s as well as Sony Classics-Fox Archives and Universal Vault obscure titles are getting harder and harder to source. The restrictions seem to have been lifted on old 30’s 40’s flicks so there is a thriving underground market. Many of these films are off TCM so apart from the occasional logo the print quality is pretty good though not for high definition freaks. The copy of SINGAPORE WOMAN I sourced I was more than happy with I might add.
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Dee name dropped HEAT LIGHTNING (1934) and to my shame I only stumbled across it the other day as I watched the vastly inferior remake HIGHWAY WEST (1941) HIGHWAY WEST is preposterous but great fast moving fun-I loved it, others will not.
HEAT LIGHTNING was also released on DVD by Warner Archive another for the must track down list and with HEAT LIGHTNING sooner rather than later.
Warners were into recycling back in the 30’s they recycled their old scripts. BENGAL TIGER (1936) was remade as KING OF THE LUMBERJACKS (1940) Whereas HIGHWAY WEST was preposterous “Tiger” and “Lumberjack” are totally insane. Both films concern an older disabled man his beautiful young wife and a handsome younger man; you can guess the rest. Both films have an unbelievable cliffhanger ending in “Tiger” the young male is left helpless locked in a cage with Satan the man eating tiger. In “Lumberjack” the young male is locked in a boxcar speeding towards his doom on a rickety bridge.
Needless to say I loved both films; disengage brain before viewing.
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Speaking of Warner Bros rehashes, I watched The Wagons Roll at Night recently. It didn’t do a lot for me and much as I like Bogart, and Sylvia Sidney and Eddie Albert for that matter, the movie isn’t a patch on Curtiz’s Kid Galahad.
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I was just watching my DVD of ‘Kid Galahad’ ironically. So enjoyable!
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Heat Lightning is very pre-code and very noir. And look at that cast! Aline MacMahon is superb. Plus you get Ann Dvorak and Glenda Farrell. And Lyle Talbot. Maybe not top-tier stars but second-tier stars who always offered good value.
It’s one of those “noir nightmares in an isolated desert truck-stop” movies. A nicely paranoid atmosphere. It’s also a “women in peril” movie.
One of my Top Five Pre-Code Movies.
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I think I’ve only seen one or two of George Nader’s Hollywood movies. I know him mostly from the highly entertaining German 1960s Jerry Cotton crime thrillers. He’s pretty good in those as a heroic G-Man.
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I’ve been pondering, perhaps somewhat concerned regarding Colin’s comments on the “technical limitations” of pre code movies. Surely content over style matters. Many of the great silent directors survived into the CinemaScope era the list is impressive;to name a scant few Wellman, Walsh, Lang, Ford, Dwan and King.
Others were less successful overall, many stuck in B Movie Hell. A point in case is Lambert Hillyer mainly famous for his William S Hart silent Westerns-the morality of those Westerns stayed with Lambert into the pre code era. Hillyer’s films of the pre code era are interesting not so for technical flare but the issues and strong moral sense in his movies. A modern cynical viewer might see Lambert’s films as morality lessons for the self righteous and certainly there is that element in many of his movies but for me that’s a plus factor.
SHOULD A GIRL MARRY? (1939) is a good example and was a Colin pick recently in his “posts I like” feature. Whereas the Hippocratic Oath is trashed, literally, in the cruel,mean spirited Monogram B DECOY (1946) in Hillyer’s World The Oath is sacrosanct human life must be preserved at all cost despite the fact the person going under the knife is a total scumbag without whom the World would be a far better place.
Basically SHOULD A GIRL MARRY is the oft told saga of retribution and redemption. Gangster’s moll or should I say floozie Mayo Methot is ragged but this gal is certainly right, she not only redeems herself but possibly the other male villain in the piece.
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You’re quite right that content really is more important than style, of course there’s no need for them to be mutually exclusive. On balance though I would certainly take a more stylistically limited movie that told a worthwhile story to one that raises the style stakes with nothing to back it up.
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If you want style in pre-code movies then Josef von Sternberg is your guy. He demonstrated convincingly that you could have style, style and more style in a pre-code movie. Those Warner Brothers pre-code musicals like 42nd Street were also not exactly lacking in style. And DeMille had no great problem adding plenty of style to his pre-code movies.
I suspect that in the early 30s the problem wasn’t so much technical limitations as the fact that a lot of directors were much too besotted with dialogue. That remained a problem throughout the 30s. The talkies were just too talky. You had a lot of directors in the 30s who just had no idea how to adapt to the sound era.
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True. Von Sternberg was and remains a great stylist and just an all round excellent director. Fair point about the talkiness of early talkies too, although not all filmmakers let that overwhelm their work. Browning’s Dracula is an extremely static affair when seen next to Whale’s Frankenstein.
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You’re quite right that not all filmmakers succumbed to the excessive talkiness. That’s what makes the pre-code era so fascinating. Some directors went crazy with dialogue and also allowed the technical problems to overwhelm them, resulting in stodgy static staging.
Other filmmakers realised right from the start that film was still and always would be a visual medium and that a balance had to be struck between visuals and dialogue. And those directors found way to make their movies visually interesting despite the technical limitations.
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Dee-here is the link to SINGAPORE WOMAN
https//www.vicpine.co.ukSingaporeWoman-1941htm
Film from TCM transmission-occasional logo Includes Amray case & graphics.
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Thanks!
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Thanks for the interesting review of this. Never really heard of it. Liked Mayo in ‘White Heat’ and ‘Colorado Territory’. Speaking of Wellman I have the neat WAC DVD set that has a bunch of his precode pictures including ‘Wild boys of the road’ and ‘Heroes for sale’ plus two neat documentaries on him. Very fascinating.
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When I think of my favourite classic movie actresses Virginia Mayo does not spring immediately to mind and I haven’t seen a huge number of her movies. I did enjoy her performance in Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. and she was good in the underrated Red Light although that role didn’t give her all that much to do.
Perhaps I need to see more of her movies.
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White Heat, Colorado Territory and The Best Years of Our Lives would be my suggestions.
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Somehow forgot ‘Best Years’! Great, great movie and everybody is wonderful in it.
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I have never seen The Best Years of Our Lives. I’ve always assumed that it’s a movie I would dislike.
I’ll have to track down a copy of Colorado Territory.
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Both are excellent movies and very worthwhile, very different of course but both are quite remarkable too for those different reasons.
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Both are rather spectacular movies in my opinion. Titans of their genres.
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Nicely put.
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Ironically, ‘White Heat’ with Mayo is one too now that I think about it.
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There’s a compelling case to be made on the evidence of The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra and White Heat that Raoul Walsh was the greatest of all gangster movie directors.
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Yes, definitely. Such a great director and I find so many of his films worthwhile. I was just recently watching the wonderful Blu of his ‘The Big Trail’ and he already had mastery of the widescreen form in 1930!
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Who wants to be known as a director of gangsters? Like being applauded for the number of degenerates on film you present.
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Well it’s not a matter of being a director of gangsters, rather a director of gangster movies. That’s not the same thing. Anyway, I don’t believe any of the great directors took issue with making movies about unsavory characters.
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I’ve probably said this before but I often think I could happily subsist on a diet of Walsh movies.
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The Big Trail is pretty amazing. It has its flaws but it’s visually breathtaking.
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‘The Big Trail’ is just swell on Blu. I really became enthralled about its visual splendor my last viewing. All of it so real, so well done and seeing Wayne so young is a treat. Would love to see it on a huge screen. Also, just recently picked up the ‘The Tall Men’ by Walsh and ‘Lion in the Streets’ with Cagney as a Huey Long figure. I like picking off Walsh films for my collection.
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