Congo

Walter Huston plays Flint, a paraplegic living in a self-made ivory empire in deepest, darkest Africa. Flint is cruel, brutal, and autocratic. Using simple stage magic and sleight of hand to make the superstitious natives believe he is semi-divine, he also employs a handful of Europeans to help him run his trade. He is a vengeful man and his vengeance when it comes to an old rival and his daughter is horrifying. Some of the implications are far darker and more grim than would be permitted to be openly portrayed in a film of the 1930s.

Until it aired recently on a cable television movie channel, I was totally unaware of this film. It is impressive. It is set in the tropics and just watching it makes you want to sweat. Walter Huston's chilling performance as Flint is excellent. The supporting cast is solid and the romance that blossoms between two characters seems far more genuine than many such relationships that are portrayed in other films of the early 1930s. This is a film that is not to be missed by anyone who enjoys classic suspense or adventure.

Flint (Walter Huston) is a grizzled, twisted paraplegic holed up in the African jungle where he lords it over a tribe that mistakes his cheap vaudeville magic tricks for supernatural powers and provide him a living by running trade missions from which he profits handsomely. He also controls the whole area for miles around due to some sort of ill-explained mumbo-jumbo involving a magical circle called "ju-ju" which dooms anyone who dares to trespass. But his main focus in life is to lure, trap and wreak vengeance on Gregg, a rival who once upon a time fought him, kicked him in the spine and paralyzed him below the waist. Through plot machinations too complicated to detail, Flint manages to entrap Gregg's innocent daughter (Virginia Bruce), subject her to physical and psychological torture, then lure the father to the scene of the crime, where he hopes to revel in the man's despair before doing away with both father and daughter. To keep his mind focused during the long years of planning of this feat he marks off the passing months on a crude homemade calendar emblazoned with the words "he sneered," which keep fresh the memory of the facial expression of his nemesis after the paralyzing kick.

All the while he hangs out with two cronies and a vivacious Portuguese girl (Lupe Velez at her most engaging) who seems to be in a constant state of heat. They are surrounded by strapping black natives who obey orders in return for occasional cubes of sugar which has the same effect on them as a biscuit to a dog. Everyone glistens with perspiration.

The outrages he perpetrates against the captured Virginia Bruce are evidently so horrid that the film doesn't even show them. One moment we see her as a prim young lady preparing to venture out of the convent and the next time we see her she is a fever-crazed basket case who apparently lives on brandy. The contrast is so stark and sudden that for a while it's not clear that we are still watching the same actress. Into this bizarre setup staggers Conrad Nagel as a doctor who has become addicted to a local intoxicating root. Huston breaks the doctor's addiction by piercing his torso with a knife and then tying him to a log in a swamp so that leeches can suck the poison from his system, then having sobered him, enlists his services to perform surgery to stop the pain from his spinal injury. And on and on it goes, as overstuffed a scenario as one is likely to see.

Huston also played this role in the original Broadway stage version of this piece in 1926 and clearly has an actor's field day, dragging his limp limbs across the stage, hoisting himself into a wheelchair, scowling with his scarred face and permanently squinting eyes and breaking into demented peals of laughter as he abuses poor Virginia Bruce. It would be hard to find any other early 30s film in which a young, attractive female is allowed to look so messed up for so long. There is something startlingly modern in the way her long, gnarled blonde hair falls loosely over her shoulders. The only signs of makeup on her face are the sometimes obviously drawn-in naso-labial creases and under-eye bags that are supposed to indicate exhaustion and dissipation. She tries hard to give a good performance and often succeeds. There are some lovely moments between her and Conrad Nagel as they realize they are falling in love. Nagel also gives his best and manages to squeeze charm and gallantry out of a role that might have been written for Dwight Frye at his weirdest.

In sum, the persuasiveness of the plot is only medium. The impact comes from the exotic setting, the outlandishness of the goings-on and the insane intensity of the central character. It has more the feel of a talky thriller than an engrossing dramatic narrative. This is one of two stylish 1932 films in which Huston plays a fanatic in the tropics, the other being Rain. Despite the problems, it really should be seen to be believed.

A beautiful, young woman is mentally and physically tortured by a rival of her father. Bizarre, to say the least. VERY very brutal even by today's standards. The film opens with a decapitation! There's also rape, whippings, drug abuse, torture, incest...basically the works. It's very surprising that MGM let this film be made let alone released! It's a really good movie but very tough. For strong stomaches only.

It won't be shown during "family" hours, so stay up or set your VCR. This pre-Code tale of revenge, sex, brutality, and, ultimately, redemption was one of Walter Huston's best performances (not that he was capable of a bad one). It's like a train wreck--you don't want to watch, but you can't turn away. Virginia Bruce is excellent as the innocent convent-educated girl who becomes a pawn in Huston's diabolical revenge scheme. Drug addiction and abuse of women run rampant, along with racism and superstition. Sweaty, dirty, and disheveled characters, sex, violence, drugs, and great performances. It doesn't get any better than this. Even though you'll guess the ending early on, you'll still want to watch it, and you'll want to see more of Walter Huston's films.

The acting was so avant-garde for a 1932 version, I had to go back to the schedule twice to make sure it was filmed in the early days. I've seen Emmy-winning 1999 TV soaps that didn't have the shine the soapy scenes here have. Lupe Velez was, to me, a very untalented stock actress until I watched her in this tropical human-condition story. She almost outshines Walter in her portrayal of a love-starved wench stuck in an outland of men. But both women did better, in my opinion, than some of the Actors' Guild graduates today. Thanks.