On the wall of my foyer hangs a framed issue of "Life" magazine dated November 10, 1941. Its front cover features a B&W photo of an impossibly beautiful, 21-year-old Gene Tierney from her new motion picture, "Sundown." Well, needless to say, I have wanted to see this film for years, but every time it pops up on one of the local PBS stations here in NYC late at night, it always seems to be in a lousy-looking 16mm print. Thank goodness I waited for this supremely crisp-looking DVD to be released! "Sundown" turns out to be a pretty well done WW2 action movie, dealing with an English outpost in Kenya, those nasty Nazis supplying guns to the natives, and a young caravan trader (Tierney) who helps the Brits out. And what a cast we have here: Bruce Cabot, George Sanders, Harry Carey and Cedric Hardwicke are their usual fine selves, and (sneeze and you'll miss 'em) Woody Strode and Dorothy Dandridge add interesting support. But it is top-billed Tierney, here in her 5th film, who steals the show. Decked out in harem girl attire for most of the picture, she really is something to behold. In her 1979 autobiography "Self-Portrait," Tierney reveals that "Sundown"''s authentic-looking locales were actually filmed at Ship Rock Hill, New Mexico, and that she couldn't stand the hot weather and the reek of camels during the shoot. She also tells us that one of the camels tried to nip her on the derriere. Finally...a camel after my own heart!
