The Southern Star

The Southern Star is a very big diamond. Someone steals it. George Segal and Ursula Andress, pursued by Ian Hendry, all hampered by the dipsomaniac homosexual ex-Major Orson Welles, attempt to retrieve it, and have encounters with wildlife, humour and danger along the way.

Typically for a 60s Africa movie, the best things about it are the wildlife shots.

Ostriches cause amusing chaos, cobras are scary, hippos are much less frightening than they look, antelopes leap, lions are fierce - you know the sort of thing.

Orson Welles, as usual, steals every scene he's in, and Harry Andrews's obvious enthusiasm for tribal music is a fairly eye-popping sight. Naturally, we have a lengthy scene in which Ursula Andress swims around naked in the lake for the cheesecake shots.

The main action consists of Hendry and some henchmen tracking Segal and Andress through the jungle and is wholly unabsorbing.

There's nothing objectionable or offensive about this movie, but there's nothing much to recommend it either.

Yes, The Southern Star features a pretty forgettable title tune sung by that heavy set crooner Matt Monro. It pretty much establishes the tone for this bloated and rather dull feature, stunningly miscast with George Segal and Ursula Andress as an adventurous couple in search of a large diamond. Add in Harry Andrews (with a strange accent, no less) chasing an ostrich, tons of stock footage of wildlife, and poorly composed and dull photography by Raoul Coutard, and you end up with a thoroughly unexciting romp through the jungles of Senegal.

The only reason I watched this dross was because I saw the magic name "Orson Welles" in the list of actors appearing (of which more below). To start on a (the only really!) bright note, the footage of wildlife is very good indeed (although it feels as if this was taken from elsewhere and when the actors are anywhere near real wildlife (apart from the tame ostrich), it consists of dummies/props (Segal and the plastic "crocodile" in the river and Andress swimming quietly past a wallowing herd of hippos at a distance of a few feet in a river (fat chance, she would have been dead in about two minutes, killed by what are actually THE most dangerous animals in the whole of Africa - forget lions and cheetahs!) Apart from the quality of the photography, the NUMBER of animals in each shot is also very impressive; massive herds of hippos, elephants, prides of lions, herd of ostriches etc. I fear this shows how much wildlife has been lost between when the film was made (1969) and now (2020), as nature programmes never seem to show most animals in those numbers these days! To move on to the human actors; these are largely as are to be expected. I always expect VERY little indeed from George Segal (who must have been one of THE luckiest actors of his time, with everything resting on his photogenic looks), Ursula Andress (eye candy embodied) and Ian Hendry (ALWAYS playing every role in precisely the same way). A disappointment was Harry Andrews. I usually find him a magnetic actor to watch and one who, no matter who the lead star is, seems capable of stealing every scene he appears in. In this case, however, he goes WAY OVER THE TOP and his booming, laughing, lecherous, somewhat sadistic interpretation just did not work for me. Which brings us to the figure of Welles; absolutely huge/grossly obese at this time (as in "A Ferry to Hong Kong", made shortly before) and obviously just "winging it" in terms of putting any life at all into his part (even though this is admittedly very slim and he does not even appear until about half way through the movie). I felt really sad at seeing him having to take parts in such dross as this, particularly remembering that this was only a few years after two of the (in my view) finest films he ever made: "Chimes at Midnight" (which virtually everyone must agree is a masterpiece) and "The Trial" (which some people (e.g. Charles Higham) certainly do not regard as a masterpiece but which I do in terms of style and cinematic finesse). As Charlton Heston (who starred in another of Welles' undoubted masterpieces, "Touch of Evil") once said in an interview, instead of wasting his enormous talents on dross like this, Welles should have focused on finding a patron or sponsor who admired his work (although being Welles, of course, he would probably never have accepted his position in such a relationship for long in any case!) A very final thing I found abysmal: the MUSIC/soundtrack is beyond horrendous -cheap muzzak, recorded at ear-splitting levels for much of the film and thrown in at what mostly seemed totally inappropriate moments! Overall. a REAL turkey and one I am guaranteed never to waste two hours watching again in my life (even with Welles in it)!

The picture is set in West Africa where we find a roguish geologist adventurer ( George Segal ) and his helper ( Johnny Sekka ), there both of whom encounter a hot rock . But the gem is nevertheless ownership a magnate ( Harry Andrews ) whose gorgeous daughter ( Ursula Andress )is enamored the rogue adventurer . The chief ( Ian Hendry ) of his private troops schemes to get the girl and the diamond . Besides , an ex-security chief ( Orson Welles ) equally tries to steal the precious gem .

This amusing film displays action , adventures , humor , rip-roaring and lots of fun . The movie is narrated by means of a continuous pursuit in the jungle and we are seeing several African animals although the most by an excessive use of stock-shots , thus stampeding buffalo , elephants , gnus, lions , snake... and a peculiar thief ostrich . This unknown motion picture obtained limited success in spite of a first-rate cast and result to be immensely agreeable . The tale based on Jules Verne novel is regularly directed by Sidney Hayers . Rating : Average but entertaining . It's a good stuff for young people who enjoy enormously with the extraordinary adventures in the lush jungle.

The Southern Star in question is the world's biggest diamond found in 1912 in French West Africa in a mine owned by Kramer (Andrews), whose daughter Erica (Andress) is engaged to Dan (Segal). The diamond is stolen and the chief suspect Matakit (played engagingly by Johnny Sekka), Dan's klepotomanic African friend, takes off. Dan and Erika take off after Matakit and the diamond. Karl, Kramer's security chief (Hendry), takes off after Dan, Erika Matakit and the diamond, hoping to win Erica in the process. To get to his home Matakit must cross territory controlled by Plankett (Welles), Karl's renegade predecessor. We get to see lots and lots of sixties stock footage of African animals, we get to Andress topless, we get to see Welles ham it up. What we don't get is a good film. If you've nothing better to do for two hours on a wet afternoon you could do worse but you really should have something better to do.