Timbuktu

I have no idea why, but there were many American films made mostly between 1930-1960 which featured the French or British colonials as heroes. Films such as "Lives of a Bengal Lancer", "Gunga Din" and "Another Dawn" all glorify the fight between the colonizers and the locals....and invariably the Colonials are the good guys. But today when you think about it, you were supposed to root for people who had enslaved the locals and the locals were just fighting for freedom! Wow, have times changed in the way we look at these movies. "Timbuktu" is another film glorifying French colonialism, though it's not nearly as good as the average movie in the genre.

The story is set during WWII with a new commander heading to the desert. Colonel Dufort and his wife (Yvonne De Carlo) have just learned that the Tuareg have been rebelling thanks to a holy man, Mohamet Adjani. They also learn that Mike Conway (Victor Mature) is in town, supposedly to do some innocent trading with the locals. Howefver, the Colonel believes that this American is a mercenary...and he's actually running guns to the locals. To confuse things, the wife is VERY attracted to Mike AND it turns out someone else is behind the rebellion...but who??

While "Timbuktu" is not a terrible film, it's also pretty weak. Much of it is because there isn't a lot of action and the movie can be quite talky. Additionally, there just have been quite a few good films in the genre...films better and more interesting than this one.

By the way, despite what the film says, tarantulas are NOT the least bit deadly to humans. It doesn't feel good to be bitten but you cannot die from a bite...let alone die almost instantly...and I cannot recall a single poisonous creature that kills as quickly as the one in this film!