Cinema
" Sanders of the River." At the Leicester Square Theatre THE name of Sanders carries magic in Nigeria. Under his astutely paternal rule the tribes are peaceful and prosperous, but once he is away on leave trouble starts. Two renegade white men, trading illegally in guns and gin, spread a. rumour that he is dead, and King Mofobula sends his warriors to steal the wife of Chief Bosambo, Sanders' faithful ally. Bosambo goes after his wife, and Sanders, returning by air from the coast; hastens up river in his old paddle-steamer and opens fire on Mofobula's village just in time to save Bosambo from a lingering death.
That is the basis of Sanders of the River, a London Films production inspired by the Edgar Wallace stories and -directed by Zoltan Korda, with Leslie Banks as Sanders and Paul Robeson as Bosambo. The open-air sequences were taken mainly in Africa, and there are vivid patches of local colour, but African atmosphere is nevertheless not the film's strongest point. It is disconcerting to hear the Africans speaking English even among themselves, and Paul Robeson's songs are a weird blend of adapted Congo melodies with English lyrics by Mr. Arthur Wimperis. Mr. Robeson himself is an impressive figure, and carries off his fairly easy part with muscular grace, but Miss Nina Mae McKinney, as his wife, Lilongo, is so very elegant, so very cool and assured, that one feels she must have driven straight to Nigeria from Fifth Avenue, probably in a Pierce-Arrow limousine. The producers, too, have been com- pelled to hold up the action rather too often in order to make room for glimpses of native life—war dances, village councils, a parade of war canoes and so on—and the film takes a long time to become really exciting. However, many of the local scenes are well done, and there are some particularly attractive panoramas of herds of game galloping over the grass-lands under the shadow of Sanders' aeroplane. The film gives a good impression—slightly idealised, perhaps—of British adminis- tration in East Africa, and a great deal of trouble has evidently been taken over all the technical details. As a dramatic story it is not entirely successful, but it is a creditable and picturesque attempt to bring an original atmosphere of tropical life and adventure on to the screen.
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